Wednesday, August 21, 2013
False precision
Disclaimer: This is purely an impression. When you start noticing something, you tend to spot it everywhere....
With that out of the way, I've been noticing an increase in 'false precision' in radio news, both locally and nationally.
One basic principle of public speaking, whether in the classroom or the pulpit or the broadcast studio, is to round off big numbers. Everyone knows ... or used to know... that you shouldn't say $5,367,112.65 or 2.729 Percent. You should say Five Million Dollars or Three Percent. (Unless the exact number is useful to the listeners, such as today's special price on steak at Safeway.)
Another basic principle is to avoid footnotes. You don't need to specify the source in each sentence. The audience understands that you're quoting police reports, so you don't need to start every clause of every sentence with "According to Jackson County Sheriff Arthur Q. Potrzebie Junior" or "According to Police Department Second Assistant Public Relations Director Heather Hallberg".
Both principles are disappearing. Is this laziness? Orders from corporate headquarters to make the news seem more believable? Filling more time in each story to compensate for fewer stories? Or just my misfocused perception? I dunno.
¶ 5:13 AM 
