The Word of the Day: 'Newspaper'
There's no getting around it.
Elementary as this seems, at some point those of us who can use a dictionary will have to begin confronting the semantic blather that's being propagated to obfuscate the newspaper crisis.
The word is "newspaper." It's a noun and it's pronounced ˈn(y)oōzˌpāpər.
A "newspaper" can be the printed paper product, as in the following sentence: The newspaper is on the porch.
In such a context, "newspaper" can also be a synonym for "newsprint."
However, a "newspaper" can also be a news-gathering organization, as in: The newspaper pressured state officials to make the records available to the public.
Crazy as it sounds, some people seem likely to interpret that sentence to mean state officials were buried beneath many heavy bundles of newsprint until the physical pressure became so great that they agreed to make the records public, if only to escape further discomfort.
The dictionary — don't touch a keyboard without it.
Snarky? Perhaps, but you might be amazed to learn how many seemingly intelligent people argue this very point online, Merriam-Webster be damned.
The blog 10,000 Words provided a good case in point on Friday.
In a brave but somewhat bewildering attempt to debate the issue, 10,000 Words sought to respond to criticism for a Twitter post that related how rarely the blog's author reads newspapers:
Context, people. Context.
* journalism-is-dead.com is the work of 10,000 Words, a feature that was created as "a nod to the doomsday predictions about the eventual collapse of journalism."
(Twitter This)
-- TJ Sullivan
*** Sign The Petition ***
Elementary as this seems, at some point those of us who can use a dictionary will have to begin confronting the semantic blather that's being propagated to obfuscate the newspaper crisis.
The word is "newspaper." It's a noun and it's pronounced ˈn(y)oōzˌpāpər.
A "newspaper" can be the printed paper product, as in the following sentence: The newspaper is on the porch.
In such a context, "newspaper" can also be a synonym for "newsprint."
However, a "newspaper" can also be a news-gathering organization, as in: The newspaper pressured state officials to make the records available to the public.
Crazy as it sounds, some people seem likely to interpret that sentence to mean state officials were buried beneath many heavy bundles of newsprint until the physical pressure became so great that they agreed to make the records public, if only to escape further discomfort.
The dictionary — don't touch a keyboard without it.
Snarky? Perhaps, but you might be amazed to learn how many seemingly intelligent people argue this very point online, Merriam-Webster be damned.
The blog 10,000 Words provided a good case in point on Friday.
In a brave but somewhat bewildering attempt to debate the issue, 10,000 Words sought to respond to criticism for a Twitter post that related how rarely the blog's author reads newspapers:
"This morning I tweeted that I rarely read newspapers and instead use the internet as my source for news. This spawned outcries from journalists who lamented that the newspaper is where quality journalism resides and to deny that is ignorance. What many of the commenters failed to realize is the internet is itself made up of online newspapers and broadcast organizations — many of whose award-winning work is available online — in addition to other news sources such as blogs and online-only sites like the Huffington Post."
Context, people. Context.
* journalism-is-dead.com is the work of 10,000 Words, a feature that was created as "a nod to the doomsday predictions about the eventual collapse of journalism."
(Twitter This)
-- TJ Sullivan
*** Sign The Petition ***
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