Pedantry, or when accuracy counts

[vilakins]

We've been watching the Christchurch earthquake coverage, and so far there have been no deaths, but two people are seriously injured. Despite this, a reporter standing outside a restaurant with its front sheared off (and the surrounding buildings looking undamaged from the outside) just said, "Carnage is not an overstatement." Um, yes. It is. Do you even know what that word means? I hope someone tells him. He obviously never learned Latin.

Greg however, noting the proportion of buildings damaged, said it seemed to be literally (and that's literally literally) decimation. [Edit] He's overstating too. It's more like 1 in 20.

So if you're hearing words like that in reports, don't believe them. There's a state of emergency just declared because there's no power and water in some areas, but though there's a lot of damage and people are in shock, things are a lot better than they might have been had it happened during the day.

Comments

[mab_browne]

I was just talking to my husband after looking at some of the pictures on Stuff. If this had happened in business hours - it doesn't bear thinking about. And Christchurch, too. For all that people know about the Alpine fault, I think that the entire country always assumed that it would be the bottom of the North island that got this, not Christchurch. (Although given that large earthquakes often come in clusters over a five year period, vide the late twenties/early thirties, I think this is a timely reminder to get my Civil Defence act together.)

[vilakins]

Yeah, me too. I have plenty of canned food but I do need more bottled water (though the hot water tank is a good resource). It's more likely to be volcanoes here, though we do get earthquakes too. [worries a bit]

And yes! It was incredibly lucky it happened at night.

[zoefruitcake]

I only learned the true meaning of decimation a short time ago.

Sounds like a lot of people are uncomfortable, but thankfully safe

[vilakins]

It was a punishment in the legions where they were lined up and one in ten selected and executed.

Not many people seem to know what "carnage" means, which is a worry.

[emerald-happy.livejournal.com]

Sigh. Silly reporter.

Glad everyone's okay.

Aargh, I logged on to tell Vila a joke and now I've forgotten it. I think if I go to sleep I will remember. Yes. This is a plan.

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

Awww. You will make Vila happy.

[entropy-house.livejournal.com]

Carnage is a word to make listeners panic.

I'm glad it's not carnage. What it is, is quite bad enough, without making people more frightened.

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

Exactly! That's what worried me; someone getting up late on a Saturday (it's still morning here) would panic. I hope someone spoke to the idiot.

[ultrapsychobrat.livejournal.com]

I've read your posts about the earthquake, and am so glad carnage is an overstatement. Having lived on the same Pacific Rim NZ is on all of my life, I've been through lots of earthquakes--this was a BIG one. It was on the news here, but they didn't talk about any deaths--at least, not so far. Hope all stays okay.

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

So far there haven't been any deaths; just those two seriously hurt by a falling chimney and flying glass respectively.

It would have been so different if it had happened during the day. I hate to think about it.

I've been in a few quakes, but no major ones. One damaged shops n the next street and took power out, but most I didn't even know about till I could get the unit (Wellington commuter train) because they were checking the line after one.

[samantha-vimes.livejournal.com]

"Does that mean most of the buildings collapsed?"
"Nope, one in ten did."
(Now kind of slur the words of the responding statement and see if you grin. :) )

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

I must be slow. One intended?

It's probably more like one in 20 actually. Greg really was overstating. :-) The spectacular ones are the offices and shops with their fronts sheared off (while the building around it look OK) exposing the insides like those photos from the London blitz.

I loved it when DW actually used "decimated" correctly.

[samantha-vimes.livejournal.com]

The whole phrase-- Nope, one in ten did = No pun intended. With a aural pun actually intended. Sorry, the phrase "one in ten did" hit my brain and turned into a really weird joke. After I wrote it, I thought my timing was bad, because your digression into the meanings of words had made me forget the seriousness of the situation.

I'm still recovering from a close call with heat exhaustion this week, so I'm not always braining well.

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

Ah. The 'w' sound of 'one' got in my way. And don't apologise; I started with the word stuff. :-)

It annoys me so much when people misuse words or just get them wrong. 'Liquefication' instead of 'liquefaction' (as applied to what the quake did to the swampy ground) isn't too bad because the meaning is obvious. 'Carnage' though was potentially very upsetting to viewers.

[samantha-vimes.livejournal.com]

Yes. Terribly stupid usage.
Carnage would be related to meat, right? Like carnal is "of the flesh" and chili con carne is chili with meat. And in slang usage, "You're meat" is a death threat. So, no dead bodies littering the landscape = no carnage.

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

Exactly!

[luinielle.livejournal.com]

I think reporters have a tendency to be drama queens (or kings)... I'm glad there's no carnage.

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

They love exaggeration but it wasn't needed here, and I'm sure that was plain ignorance.

[sheenaghpugh]

Reporters, eh... Yes, it's a big relief there hasn't been more injury. Nasty shock though.

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

Oh yes, and now it's the hard part with bad weather coming and people needing food, water, and shelter.

[miss-next.livejournal.com]

Journalists do like to overstate the case. Glad nobody has been killed.

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

My worry was that new viewers would have been imagining a huge death toll from a misused word like that. It wasn't overstatement but completely wrong, despite the widespread damage.

Yes, they do exaggerate. The reported looter were two guys who threw a brick through a window and grabbed some stuff. Two.

[linda-joyce.livejournal.com]

I am very glad that things are not quite as bad as they seem, but since I get most of my news from the BBC they are not so careless about word usage and they have made it sound bad enough.

I used to shout at the TV when I heard a word misused like those but I have calmed down a lot. The only thing I shout about now is qualifying unique, as in very unique, I can just about swallow almost unique after all it could be one of two in existence but putting very in front of the word really gets my goat.

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

Almost unique is fine, just like almost black, but a lot of people don't seem to know what it means.

I didn't mind "liqufication" instead of "liquefaction" (of the swampy ground) because the meaning still came across, but this guy made it sound as if there were bodies everywhere. Not funny; he could have panicked new viewers.

The damage to property is huge--and often patchy. One suburb or even street will be fine while the next is a mess. I was in one in Wellington that frightened me--I was woken by the underground noise first--but though we lost power we had no damage, yet the shops in the next street had most of their goods off the shelves. So yes, it's bad, but the fact it happened at night meant that there've been no deaths.

[entropy-house.livejournal.com]

What gets me is the nonsensical phrase 'one of the only'. For some unknown reason that's become popular, as if saying 'one of the few' isn't emphatic enough.

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

I've never heard that, not by itself. I think I've heard "one of the only people to have done whatever". That makes sense when extrapolated from "only n people have done that".

[entropy-house.livejournal.com]

I've always heard it with something tacked on at the end, yes, 'one of the only businesses to profit' etc. but that doesn't make it sound any better to me.

If you're one of the only, you're the ONE, so that's what I hear 'one of the one businesses'*pets my pet peeve*

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

But you can say "there are only three apples left" so "there were only five businesses to profit and that was one" seems OK to me. At least the meaning is clear, whereas it's not with "carnage" and "decimation" and completely misused words. Sadly "literal" is starting to mean "virtual".

[entropy-house.livejournal.com]

The problem for me is that they're mixing up two of the meanings of 'only'.

He was an only child. (meaning unique)
VS
He was only a child. (meaning mere)

I grant the meaning is clear, but slurring definitions is what leads to people thinking 'literal' means 'virtual'. That isn't a new thing- when I was small people were misusing literal.

Oooh, Google (at least mine) has a cute interactive thingie at the moment. It's a Buckyball that tilts to follow your cursor.

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

We had the buckyball yesterday (same date) but I didn't notice it tilting. :-( We have ties today for fathers' day; boring.

[nautile26.livejournal.com]

Good grief, that is some serious damage that Christchurch has suffered!

I've been away and had only heard radio reports of the quake until I saw tonight's news. People seem to be getting on with cleaning up however, and no deaths is certainly a blessing.

[alicambs.livejournal.com]

We sat and watched the morning news as it evolved and listened as reporters tried to dramatise everything around the CBD, not that what had happened wasn't bad enough, but it was irritating. Seeing the suburbs with people's homes destroyed and their gardens covered in sewage on tonight's news was actually worse as you could so empathise with how they must be feeling!

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

Some of that language would have panicked people just tuning in. That particular misuse was picked up on Media Watch. Ha!

I know reporters generate news, turning a slight disagreement in a meeting into near blows, but there's no call for it in this situation. They probably learn that crap when they're trained to speak in that odd reporter cadence ours share with yours.

[green-maia.livejournal.com]

There's a state of emergency just declared because there's no power and water in some areas, but though there's a lot of damage and people are in shock, things are a lot better than they might have been had it happened during the day.

Thank goodness it happened at night.

I'm with you - I hate it when people misuse words.

Why couldn't the reporters just state the facts, as you do? "There's a state of emergency just declared because there's no power and water in some areas, but though there's a lot of damage and people are in shock, things are a lot better than they might have been had it happened during the day" - say THAT on the news, and it would give everyone a good, reasonable idea of what the situation is and what needs to be done.

I nominate vilakins to be a reporter!

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

Thank you! I'd hate to be one though, having to report on disasters and horrible crimes and ask people who have lost family members "How do you feel?" [spit] Plus I don't think they're expected to just report facts, but to make them more "newsworthy".

I did consider applying for a job editing and maintaining a news site because that might be distanced enough, but I know I wouldn't get it, having no journalism qualifications.