Subediting your ass

December 5, 2004, 4.46pm • 13 comments » • 1,178 Views

Now that Wikinews has launched - aiming to be a neutral, collaborative news site written by citizen journalists and editors - I thought I’d take a look.

I decided to do a quick analysis of its second story, “Twin bombings hit Baghdad’s Green Zone“. I was disappointed.

The spelling, grammar and writing used in the story are inconsistent and not 100% up to scratch, leaving me confused about many elements of the story. Most interestingly, the Wikinews authors cite already-published stories from CNN.com and the AP as their sources for the their piece. That doesn’t leave the impression the site is mobilising a citizen journalist army to challenge the supposed bias and power of the mainstream news media. Indeed, the Wikinews story contains far fewer details than are contained in either of the other two; it’s short.

I compared Wikinews’ story to the AP story and, whilst I’m critical of the use of language in the former, I’ve made notes pointing out similar points in the AP story. Is this because the stories were contributed to by reporters for whom English is not the first language? Or am I being arrogant/pedantic/subjective/highlighter-happy in pointing out what I think are issues but what others may be happier to disregard?

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This article was written by Robert Andrews, a tech culture journalist, publisher and human being who explores the world for Wired News, E-consultancy and others. Subscribe by RSS feed or e-mail...