I received the following questions from Forum member forces20 by e-mail this morning:
Although I am not a campus journalist in our institution, I am curious about the meaning of the following journalistic terms:
1. Nose for the news
2. Conflict of Ideas
3. Conflict of interest
What is the difference between “conflict of ideas” and “conflict of interest”?
And just a quick grammar question: What are the subject-verb agreement rules for collective nouns (e.g., “public audience,” “army,” etc.)?
My reply to forces20:
1. A “nose for news” means the instinctive skill or facility for discovering things. In journalism, specifically, it means the ability to ferret out newsworthy things from routine or trivial day-to-day activities or occurrences. A person who has a nose for news is naturally inquisitive and with a strong interest in affairs or events other than those that involve himself or herself. When you have a strong nose for news, that means you have the potential to become a news reporter someday, whether for your campus paper or for the mass media.
2. A “conflict of ideas” simply means a state of opposition between the ideas of a person or group and those of another person or group; there is an unresolved disagreement between them in how they view certain issues or things. On the other hand, a “conflict of interest” means a conflict between the private interest of an individual or organization and its public obligations; for instance, there’s a conflict of interest when a judge or justice assigned to try a court case is a close relative of one of the litigants, so the moral and decent thing to do is to inhibit himself or herself from trying the case.
3. In American English, the rule is that a collective noun, such as “public audience," “company,” “organization,” “committee,” “family,” and “team,” is singular when it acts collectively or represent one group, but is plural when the members of the collective body act individually. Examples of singular usage: “The public audience is usually receptive to such emotional appeals.” “The company wants all its personnel to wear a uniform.” “The family takes a four-day picnic every summer.” Examples of plural usage: “The army fought one another and annihilated themselves.” “The family are fighting over their inheritance.” “The team are divided on whether they should participate in the next Olympics.”
In British English, however, collective nouns like “company,” “organization,” and “committee” are normally treated as plural. Examples: “The company make a substantial donation to public charities every year.” “The company are at odds over the issue of Facebook usage during office hours.” “The committee are of the opinion that the increase in club fees is not warranted at this time.” “The committee are quarreling among themselves over the issue of meal allowances.”
