Creative journalism

So I've been struggling with the quality of some of the articles on our leading English newspaper - The Star. I've seen some bad grammar, hilarious spelling errors and misleading headlines. But I still follow the news on The Star as there is no proper alternative. I'm not really into politics so the other online newspapers don't really interest me.

So here I was, sipping coffee on a nice Wednesday morning and sitting on my couch browsing through Facebook when a status update from a friend caught my eye. 

"I knew there was a reason why I kept sending manual tax forms to IRB over the years even after they kept telling everyone to go digital..... I wonder whats their excuse now -->"

The reason?

 Here's a snapshot of the headline that caused this:

So checkout the red box which implies that e-filing is dead on Jan 30. What else could you infer from the headline? I'm wondering what kind of perception the general public will have on the IRB's system after reading this headline. But then when you navigate your eyes to the 1st paragraph in the article, you begin to realize that its only for year 2010. Or is it not? Have the seeds of doubt been planted in your mind?

In stark contrast, let's look at another snapshot from a different source:

Notice that the headline here does not have any ambiguity. Straight to the point and very easy to follow. Which one would you prefer? I certainly would go for the headline at Financial Prudence.

But that's just the tip of the iceberg. Let's look at the final part of the story carried by The Star:

Say what?

Ok so how do I get in touch with IRB again? Looks like the article was "written" in haste.

Again, let's compare how the news is carried in Financial Prudence.

Perfect!

I think we're all smart enough to draw logical conclusions here. There is a reason a newspaper has editors. I don't think newspaper readers are as forgiving as blog readers. Blogs are written by the so-called amateurs with no journalism background (most of us at least). But certainly newspapers such as The Star would not employ people who are not journalists right? Please get your act right and give us the right news. We depend on the media to give us the right information - ALL THE TIME!

 

Posted in: Ramblings