Journalese
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Journalese is the artificial or hyperbolic language regarded as characteristic of the popular media. Joe Grimm of the Detroit Free Press likened journalese to a "stage voice":
- We write journalese out of habit, sometimes from misguided training, and to sound urgent, authoritative and, well, journalistic. But it doesn't do any of that.
Examples of Journalese
- "The governor Thursday ..."
- "The Nov. 22, 1963, assassination of John F. Kennedy .."
- "Mean streets and densely wooded areas populated by ever-present lone gunmen ..."
- "Negotiators yesterday, in an eleventh-hour decision following marathon talks, hammered out agreement on a key wage provision they earlier had rejected."
- "a bus plunged into a gorge"
Copy editors are sometimes afflicted by headlinese.
Further reading
- Fritz Spiegl: Keep Taking the Tabloids. What the Papers Say and How They Say It (1983)
External links
- John Leo: "Do You Speak Journalese?" (http://archives.cjr.org/year/94/6/journalese.asp)
- Joe Grimm: "There Is No Ease in Journalese" (http://www.freep.com/jobspage/academy/journalese.htm)