CLARITY, CLARITY, CLARITY

There is a strong – indeed overwhelming – argument that, whatever
politicians, lovers and secondhand car dealers may do, journalists must be
clear above all; that journalism has no point otherwise; that an essential
part of its function is to interrogate the politicians and conmen, to
represent and communicate with the ordinary person confronted by
authority, salesmanship, jargon, pretension . . . Journalism must be clear.

Individual words and phrases must be clear so that your reader can understand
them. For example, you must be careful with technical terms – a
word suitable for a specialist periodical might be too abstruse for a daily
paper. And, just as important, anything you write must be clear in structure:
you must say things in the right order – without aimlessly repeating
yourself or digressing too far from your main point.

Does this mean that the traditionalists are right after all? For journalism
(as opposed to other kinds of writing) do we have to go back to the slogan
‘Write plainly and clearly’?
Certainly, if journalism could be reduced to plainness and clarity, life
would be much simpler and well-edited listings pages could stand as the
perfect model of good style. But obviously this won’t do. So we have to
think again.

Plainness and clarity are associated for two reasons. First, to repeat the
point, there are certain kinds of journalistic writing (basic news, instructional
copy) where they belong together. Second, the easiest, safest way
to achieve clarity is by plainness: avoid frills and you can be confident you
will get your meaning across without having to strain too hard.

This is why trainee journalists are instructed to write plainly: to learn
to walk before they start running. The point is not that these instructions are wrong but that they are
incomplete: plainness is not all. For if we distinguish between plainness
and clarity, we can see that journalism – though it must have clarity
– should not necessarily be plain. It should be plain where plainness is
a virtue – as in basic news and instructional copy – and it should be
coloured where colour is called for, as in feature news.

News Values of Media

Sources

Transparency is critical to media's credibility with the public and their subscribers. Whenever possible, media pursue information on the record. When a newsmaker insists on background or off-the-record ground rules, media must adhere to a strict set of guidelines.

Material from anonymous sources may be used only if:

• The material is information and not opinion or speculation, and is vital to the news report.
• The information is not available except under the conditions of anonymity imposed by the source.
• The source is reliable, and in a position to have accurate information.
• Reporters who intend to use material from anonymous sources must get approval from their news manager before sending the story to the desk. The manager is responsible for verifying the material and making sure it meets media guidelines. The manager must know the identity of the source, and is obligated, like the reporter, to keep the source's identity confidential. Only after they are assured that the source material has been verified should editors allow it to be transmitted.

      Reporters should proceed with interviews on the assumption they are on the record. If the source wants to set conditions, these should be negotiated at the start of the interview. At the end of the interview, the reporter should try once again to move some or all of the information back on the record. Before agreeing to use anonymous source material, the reporter should ask how the source knows the information is accurate, ensuring that the source has direct knowledge.

Media routinely seeks and requires more than one source. Stories should be held while attempts are made to reach additional sources for confirmation or elaboration. In rare cases, one source will be sufficient – when material comes from an authoritative figure who provides information so detailed that there is no question of its accuracy.

Media must explain in the story why the source requested anonymity. And, when it’s relevant, they must describe the source's motive for disclosing the information. If the story hinges on documents, as opposed to interviews, the reporter must describe how the documents were obtained, at least to the extent possible.

The story also must provide attribution that establishes the source's credibility; simply quoting "a source" is not allowed. Media should be as descriptive as possible: "according to top White House aides" or "a senior official in the Indonesia Foreign Office." The description of a source must never be altered without consulting the reporter.

Media must not say that a person declined comment when he or she is already quoted anonymously. And media should not attribute information to anonymous sources when it is obvious or well known. Media should just state the information as fact.

Truth

Nothing in news report – words, photos, graphics, sound or video – may be fabricated. Media don't use pseudonyms, composite characters or fictional names, ages, places or dates. Media don't stage or re-enact events for the camera or microphone, and they don't use sound effects or substitute video or audio from one event to another. Media do not “cheat” sound by adding audio to embellish or fabricate an event. A senior editor must be consulted prior to the introduction of any neutral sound (ambient sound that does not affect the editorial meaning but corrects a technical fault).

Media do not ask people to pose for photos unless media are making a portrait and then media clearly state that in the caption. Media explain in the caption the circumstances under which photographs are made. If someone is asked to pose for photographs by third parties and that is reflected in media-produced images, media say so in the caption. Such wording would be: ``Person X poses for photos.’’

Graphics

Media use only authoritative sources. They do not project, surmise or estimate in a graphic. Media create work only from what they know.

Media create charts at visually proper perspectives to give an accurate representation of data. The information must be clear and concise.

Media credit their sources on every graphic, including graphics for which journalists have created the data set or database.

Media pictures must always tell the truth. Media do not alter or digitally manipulate the content of a photograph in any way. The content of a photograph must not be altered in Photoshop or by any other means. No element should be digitally added to or subtracted from any photograph. The faces or identities of individuals must not be obscured by Photoshop or any other editing tool. Only retouching or the use of the cloning tool to eliminate dust on camera sensors and scratches on scanned negatives or scanned prints are acceptable.

Minor adjustments in Photoshop are acceptable. These include cropping, dodging and burning, conversion into grayscale, and normal toning and color adjustments that should be limited to those minimally necessary for clear and accurate reproduction (analogous to the burning and dodging previously used in darkroom processing of images) and that restore the authentic nature of the photograph.

The Art of Copy Editing

Copy editing is a most important and time-consuming task. It requires the editor's close attention to a document's every detail, a thorough knowledge of what to look for and of the style to be followed, and the ability to make quick, logical, and defensible decisions in correcting for grammar, punctuation, terminology, sentence structure, clarity, conciseness, tone and voice, inconsistencies, and typographical errors.

To begin with, editors are thoroughly familiar with and comfortable applying the universally accepted editorial and typographic marks and symbols-or Indonesia Language System (EYD) if they are working on text in Indonesian.

The editorial function comprises two processes: mechanical editing and substantive editing. Mechanical editing involves a close reading, with an eye on consistency of capitalization, spelling, and hyphenation; agreement of verbs and subjects; scores of other matters of syntax; punctuation; beginning and ending quotation marks and parentheses; number of ellipsis points; numbers given either as figures or as words; and hundreds of other, similar details of grammatical and typographic style.

In addition to regularizing those details of style, the copy editor is expected to catch infelicities of expression that mar an author's prose and impede communication. Such matters include but are by no means limited to dangling participles, misplaced modifiers, mixed metaphors, unclear antecedents, unintentional redundancies, faulty attempts at parallelconstruction, mistaken junction, overuse of an author's pet word or phrase, unintentional repetition of words, race or gender or geographic bias, and hyphenating in the predicate, unless, of course, the hyphenated term is an entry in the dictionary and therefore permanently hyphenated. Job seekers especially need to attend to such details in their executive résumé.

The second, non mechanical, process--substantive editing--involves rewriting, reorganizing, or suggesting more-effective ways to present material.

• Experienced editors recognize, and do not tamper with, an author's unusual figures of speech or idiomatic usage.
• They preserve the author's voice with a view toward the faithful reproduction of the author's manuscript.
• They silently correct inconsistencies, misusages, and misspellings solely for the purpose of clarifying the unclear.

• They know when to make an editorial change or simply suggest it.
• They know when to delete a repetition or merely point it out to the author or to job seekers on their executive résumés.
• They respect an author's right to expect conscientious, intelligent editorial help.
• They never make queries that sound stupid, naive, or pedantic or that seem to reflect upon an author's scholarly ability or powers of interpretation.
• And they handle untold and unsung other matters of style and usage.