Sunday, December 19, 2010

Writing the "news"

Yet another aspect of "Citizen journalism".


Um, ok, have just signed up, logged in to WikiNews: had a basic (free) lesson in the basics of "journalism". (click the title).
 (Wikinews axiom: Facts don't cease to be facts, but news ceases to be news.)


And yes, WikiNews is - or seems - essentially "non-profit" and from the same stable as Wikipedia - the same advertisement calling for funding appears at the head.  Well, not the same plea as a few days ago - is now  thanking the State Library of Queensland.


MMm, have just been looking through "the rules" - doubt whether the fact that Abbey the dog slept most of the blustery, rainy, chilly day under my home-built computer desk in the alcove next to the repainted slow combustion wood fire would qualify as "news" ... heh.







5 comments:

Vincent said...

I was not impressed with the Wikinews article, since the suggested news article is grammatically incorrect:

“Initially taken as one of the colourful president's wild remarks he followed through by lobbing a stun grenade into the crowd and making off with the ship.”

A grammatical sentence can’t begin with “Initially taken as [blah]” unless the clause is followed by a main subject which tells us what was initially taken as [blah]. It jars badly.

But so Wikinews is telling the reader that to be a credible journalist in today’s fast-moving world, you should ensure that your fair-copy isn’t too grammatical.

I notice that Wikinews differs from its parent Wikipedia in not allowing the reader to edit the text. So it’s not a real wiki.

Vincent (guest pedant)

Davoh said...

' ..colourful president's wild remarks he followed through by lobbing .. " doesn't scan all that well either.

Thankyou Guest Pedant, missed all that while trying to skim, scan, read and comprehend the rest of "the rules" .. heh.

Davoh said...

and Oh, by the way, Vincent - the last sentence in this post is in no way meant to be in competition for the "longest sentence".

These are the contenders .. heh heh.

Three Score and Ten or more said...

Abbey's nap under the house may not qualify as news but it probably fits the "facts" category.

Davoh said...

Um, 70+, while we're quibbling - probably one of the reasons "news" journalists avoid long sentences - at no point did i mention that Abbey the dog slept "under the house" .. heh.