A world where the news is dominated by talking automata rather than by humans.
This is the thought that came to mind when I came across the following news story in the GMA News Online website the other day (November 4, 2011):
Magat Dam in NLuzon releases excess water
Saying its water level has gone critical due to several days of rain, Magat Dam in Isabela province in northern Luzon has released excess water from its reservoir.
Engineer Saturnino Tenedor said Thursday they may need to continue releasing excess water to keep the water level from going above 193 meters.
"We will have to continue releasing water if we see the water level is above 193 meters," he said in an interview on dzBB radio.
To what extent can the media validly use personification—the representation of an inanimate thing as a person—to jazz up otherwise humdrum news? Well, to report that Magat Dam, by itself and with no human agency, had “released excess water from its reservoir” is well within the bounds of personification. Indeed, it’s par for the course in journalism, and we certainly can’t fault the reporter or editor of the news story above for taking recourse to that kind of figurative language. But to make Magat Dam also talk, declaring by itself that “its water level has gone critical due to several days of rain,” definitely goes overboard and breaches the limits of personification. I think we have to draw a line somewhere before the news becomes dominated by talking automata rather than by humans.
So what would be a more levelheaded way of stating that lead sentence? I think that news story could figuratively allow Magat Dam to release excess water on its own accord but not to talk about its reason for doing so, as follows:
“
Its water level having gone critical due to several days of rain, Magat Dam in Isabela province in northern Luzon has released excess water from its reservoir.”
Of course, another way—a more straightforward one that’s usually the norm in straight-news journalism—is this:
“Magat Dam in Isabela province in northern Luzon released excess water from its reservoir Thursday
when its water level went critical after several days of rain.”
or this:
“
The water level of Magat Dam in Isabela province in northern Luzon went critical Thursday after several days of rain, prompting it to release excess water from its reservoir.”
SHORT TAKES IN MY MEDIA ENGLISH WATCH:(1) GMA News Online: A misspelled word that yields a wrong meaningSuspected NPA rebels burn logging truck in Surigao Sur
BUTUAN CITY — A logging truck carrying wood fletches was burned by suspected members of the New People’s Army last Thursday at Barangay Tubo-Tubo in Cagwait town Surigao del Sur, police said.
Caraga Police Regional Information Office headed by Supt. Martin Gamba said the logging truck was a Saddam type with plate number KEK 893, and owned by Antonio Cubil, a resident of Barangay Mararag, Marihatag, Surigao del Sur.
An investigation by the Cagwait Municipal Police showed that while the truck was being loaded with wood fletches, the suspects suddenly appeared and fired at the truck’s fuel tank and front tires, and then burned it.
I routinely ignore the misspelling of words in the news if it happens only once. But the use of the word “fletches” twice in the above story indicates that it’s neither a typo nor a proofreading oversight. It’s a serious misspelling error that makes the word mean something else altogether.
The word “fletch” is a verb that’s a back-formation of the word “fletcher,” which means a maker of arrows; in this context, to “fletch” means to feather an arrow. The news story above mistook “fletch” for the noun “flitch,” with an “i” rather than an “e,” which means a longitudinal section of a log. (Another meaning of “flitch” is a side of cured meat, particularly of bacon, but this is obviously not the meaning intended in that news story.)
So what that truck was carrying when the NPA allegedly burned it wasn’t bacon or feathers but logs, which give the news story an entirely different flavor.
(2) Manila Bulletin: Misuse of a diminisher instead of an intensifier 3000 little heroes
MANILA, Philippines — Because of its length, its vast settings, its tendency to have long lists, and the archaic language it uses, an epic does not excite most of our young people anymore. Students balk at the thought of reading, much less studying epics for extended periods of time.
But rather than encourage intimidation, the Bikolano epic “Ibalong” led to inspiration among the members of Aquinas University of Legaspi’s – Sama-samang Tinig ng mga Aktor na Gumagalaw sa Entablado (AU L-STAGE) theater group.
The second sentence of the lead paragraph above misuses the diminisher phrase “much less” for its comparative statement, thus yielding a sense opposite to what was intended. The correct intensifier for that comparative statement is “even more so,” indicating that the students balk more at the thought of studying epics for extended periods of time than at the thought of reading in general.
That sentence should therefore be corrected as follows:
“Students balk at the thought of reading,
even more so at studying epics for extended periods of time.”
(3) Manila Bulletin: Twofold noun-pronoun disagreement; use of wrong preposition; distracting repeated use of the same noun phraseQC folk warned of flooding
MANILA, Philippines — Quezon City authorities warned local residents of heavy flooding, ground water contamination, and spread of communicable diseases if local residents continue its lukewarm treatment toward the city’s waste segregation scheme.
With the city producing an average of 1,400 metric tons of garbage daily, Quezon City Mayor Herbert Bautista said things may turn worse pointing out the people’s indifference in the ecological impact of the massive volume of waste materials that the city produces daily.
In the lead sentence above, the singular possessive pronoun “its” disagrees with its plural antecedent “local residents” not only in gender but also in number; that pronoun should be the inanimate plural “their” instead. Then the phrase “lukewarm treatment toward the city’s waste segregation scheme” wrongly uses the directional preposition “toward”; the correct preposition is the attributive “of.”
Also, the repeated use of “heavy flooding” by that sentence is grammatically unnecessary and distracting. To make that sentence read better, the first mention of “heavy flooding” can be eliminated by rewriting that sentence as follows:
“MANILA, Philippines — Quezon City authorities warned of heavy flooding, ground water contamination, and spread of communicable diseases
in the city if
local residents continue
their lukewarm treatment
of the city’s waste segregation scheme.”
Alternatively, the preposition “toward” can be retained if the noun “treatment” is replaced by “attitude,” as follows:
“MANILA, Philippines — Quezon City authorities warned of heavy flooding, ground water contamination, and spread of communicable diseases
in the city if local residents continue their lukewarm attitude toward the city’s waste segregation scheme.”
(4) Manila Bulletin: Use of wrong prepositionIn a world of now 7 billion people, a bleak future lies ahead of young people
MANILA, Philippines — Last Monday, Oct. 31, the world’s population reached a stunning seven billion, and the latest addition to the burgeoning number of humanity came from the Philippines.
Danica May Camacho, born two minutes before midnight at the Jose Fabella Memorial Hospital in Manila, was chosen by the United Nations (UN) as the first baby to symbolize the seven billion global population milestone. The 5.5-pound premature baby girl is the second of two children of Camille Galura and partner Florante Camacho, a tricycle driver.
If you were looking for grammar or usage errors in the lead passage above, your effort has been in vain. The English of that lead passage is actually grammar-perfect. The fly in the ointment is the misuse of the attributive preposition “for” in this phrase in the headline, “a bleak future lies ahead of young people,” which gives the absurd sense of the future being physically ahead of young people. What’s needed in that phrase is a preposition to indicate the object of a perception, desire, or activity, and that preposition is “for.” That headline should therefore be rewritten as follows:
In a world of now 7 billion people, a bleak future lies ahead for young people(5) The Philippine Star: Misuse of the adverb “recently”; misuse of preposition “on”; wrongly worded phrasePDEA conducts random drug test on bus drivers
ZAMBOANGA CITY – The Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) has recently conducted a surprise random drug test to some drivers of an inter-provincial bus firm plying from this city to the nearby provinces.
PDEA Regional Director Adzhar Albani disclosed the conduct of drug test is in line with the agency’s campaign against prohibited drugs in the region.
The random drug test on the drivers of the Rural Transit Management Incorporated (RTMI) was conducted in two places, one in this city and the other in Dipolog City, the capital of Zamboanga del Norte province, Albani said.
The well-established usage of the adverb “recently” is in tandem with the past tense of the verb, not with the present perfect. The lead sentence above is therefore grammatically wrong by using the present-perfect “has recently conducted”; it should use the simple past “was conducted recently” instead.
Then the same lead sentence misuses the preposition “to” in the phrase “conducted a surprise random drug test to some drivers.” The correct preposition is “on.” You don’t conduct a drug test
to drivers; you conduct the test
on them.
Finally, that same lead sentence uses the wrongly worded phrase “an inter-provincial bus firm plying from this city to the nearby provinces.” The transitive verb “ply” means to go or travel regularly over, on, or through a certain area; that area is its direct object, without which the verb can’t work properly. Grammatically and semantically, this will happen if the phrase is reworded as “an inter-provincial bus firm plying this city and nearby provinces.”
That lead sentence should therefore be rewritten as follows:
“ZAMBOANGA CITY – The Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA)
recently conducted a surprise random drug test on some drivers of
an inter-provincial bus firm plying this city and the nearby provinces.
