The Quality-Control Quandry

The article "The Quality-Control Quandry" by Carl Sessions Stepp made me think more about the future of journalism. It is interesting to know all the goes into putting out a newspaper. In times like these where the economy keeps worsening, we need our news to keep us in the know. But with a limited number of editors, are we getting all the of the news?

With the number of editors decreasing, there are less people to check the work of journalists before it goes to print. This means less source checking and fact checking also. This could lead to fabricated stories by lazy journalists who think that they won't get caught, because after all like the article writes, essentially all editors have time for is to check spelling and write headlines.

Are these budget cuts in the journalism world going to lead to more concise journalism? Well as the article said the future of journalism may be that journalists will be better trained to edit their own stories. But with less time going into what goes into print, major mistakes can be made.

The thinning of newspapers (literally) means that stories need to be as newsworthy and concise as possible in order to fit as many news stories as the newspaper can hold. But with less people working in departments to improve stories, does this make the production quality less or greater?

Is Cosmopolitan in trouble?

I will admit that I enjoy reading Cosmopolitan magazine. I recently have been reading it more often because my aunt got me a subscription for Christmas. In the latest May issue, there was a reader's survey in the back about the online website. It asked things like "How often do you check the website?", "Do you check the website more than buying the magazine in the store?" and so on...

I have been noticing lately that the magazines I enjoy reading are getting thinner. I have noticed this especially in my favorite magazine I read cover to cover: Entertainment Weekley. I feel like there is less advertisements and articles and reviews are more condensed than they used to be. To me, the slimming of magazines and newspapers is a real problem. Of course it is nice to have instantaneous updates online, but there is just something about holding a magazine or newspaper in one's hands. It is real, I can flip through it, and I can tear out articles I enjoy. I can give it to someone else to read and enjoy. It is more difficult to read things online. It hurts my eyes to stare at a screen for hours at a time.

So I'm hoping my favorite magazines don't fail like many newspapers. But in today's world maybe this is going to start happening soon. I think Gutenburg is going to roll over in his grave.

Is Cosmopolitan in trouble

Fake Palindromes

I came across an interesting column in my hometown newspaper called "Wood on Words" in the Rockford Register Star. Barry Wood is the columnist and in his March 29th column he takes about palindromes. Palindromes are very interesting because they say the same thing if you read them backwards. I had no idea there were so many. There are also words like "level" and "noon" that are spelled the same way backwards and forwards.

Other palindromes listed in the article are:

"Mr. Owl ate my metal worm."
"Evil olive"
"Was it a car or a cat I saw?"
"Rise to vote, sir."
"I prefer pi."
"Ma is as selfless as I am."

And there are many more. I just find it interesting that this exists in the English language. This is a very strange language indeed.