journalese

As early as the 1880s, people criticized the stilted, cliched language used in journalism as journalese.{{cite book|title=An Introduction to Late Modern English|last=Tieken-Boon van Ostade|first=Ingrid|publisher=Edinburgh University Press|year=2009|isbn=978-0-7486-2598-7|page=144}} Journalists, who write many similar stories under time pressure, may fall back on cliched or familiar phrases.{{cite book|title=The Editorial Eye|last1=Harrigan|first1=Jane T.|last2=Dunlap|first2=Karen Brown|publisher=Bedford/St. Martin's|year=2004|isbn=0-312-15270-1|pages=79–80}} Journalese often takes the form of specific turns of phrase, such as "hammered out agreement" or "called for tighter restrictions". Terms with legal meanings, such as "mayhem", may be overused to the point that they become meaningless.{{cite web|last1=Corbett|first1=Philip B|title=Fluent in Journalese|url=https://afterdeadline.blogs.nytimes.com/2015/03/17/fluent-in-journalese/|website=New York Times}} Journalese can also take the form of specific word choice. This is most obvious with the use of rare or archaic words such as ink (as a verb), nab, slated, ailing, quizzed (in place of "asked" or "questioned"), funnyman, or synonyms of attack to mean criticise. In some cases, this is due to fossil words that are present in idiomatic journalese statements. Journalese can be a result of a desire to save on page space by using shorter words or phrases.{{cite news|url=https://www.smh.com.au/entertainment/books/wordplay-columnist-probes-journalistic-cliches-20141229-12eygu.html|title=Wordplay: Columnist probes journalistic cliches|last=Astle|first=David|work=The Sydney Morning Herald|date=December 29, 2014|accessdate=March 5, 2022}}

Brevity is particularly important in headlines,{{cite magazine|last1=Collins|first1=Lauren|title=Mother Tongue|url=http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2013/11/04/mother-tongue-3|magazine=The New Yorker|date=November 4, 2013}} which have their own idiosyncratic style of writing called headlinese. Headlinese's focus on using the smallest possible words has influenced the vocabulary choice of news stories themselves.{{cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/media/mind-your-language/2014/dec/04/sub-ire-as-hacks-slash-word-length-getting-the-skinny-on-thinnernyms|title=Sub ire as hacks slash word length: getting the skinny on thinnernyms|last=Bodle|first=Andy|work=The Guardian|date=December 4, 2014|accessdate=March 5, 2022}} Anthropomorphization is another form of journalese, such as with the use of the verb saw (past tense of see) in the phrase "The 1990s saw an increase in crime", which is used to avoid using the past tense of "increase", as in "Crime increased in the 1990s". Other forms include use of onomatopoeia, genitives of place names ("New York's Central Park" rather than "Central Park, in New York"), and gap filler articles like bus plunge stories.

Some people regard journalese with amusement, due to its frequent colourful use of language,{{cite web|last1=Hutton|first1=Robert|title=Journalese is like a poker player's tell: it shows when a story is flimsy|url=http://www.newstatesman.com/media/2013/09/what-george-orwell-knew|website=New Statesman|access-date=3 July 2017}} and some terms can make news reports easier to understand, such as replacing complex jargon with simple and concise phrases.{{cite magazine|last1=Collins|first1=Lauren|title=Mother Tongue|url=http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2013/11/04/mother-tongue-3|magazine=The New Yorker|date=November 4, 2013}} However, political correspondent Robert Hutton says that "lazy writing goes with lazy thought", and it is often a mark of a weak story with poor evidence or an attempt to dress up something as more significant or interesting: "Journalese is like a poker player's tell: it shows that the reporter knows the story is flimsy, and he or she is trying to make it appear more solid." Other critics fault the use of the passive voice and similar constructions in journalese as a form of weasel wording where the writer chooses "to hide the culprit" of the action that the writer is describing.[https://www.economist.com/books-and-arts/2018/05/26/the-weasel-voice-in-journalism "The weasel voice in journalism], The Economist, May 26, 2018 Newspaper subeditors (copy editors) are often trained to remove journalese, and the New York Times has a customised grammar checker that flags egregious journalese examples.

• Academese
• False title
• Legalese
• Varietyese

{{reflist}}

{{Wiktionary|journalese}}

• Fritz Spiegl: Keep Taking the Tabloids. What the Papers Say and How They Say It (1983)

• [https://web.archive.org/web/20060226185100/http://archives.cjr.org/year/94/6/journalese.asp John Leo: "Do you speak journalese?"]

Category:Newswriting

Category:Jargon

Category:Copy editing