Writes Juergen Specht:
> This all remind me on this children game...you create a
> sentence, tell it to next child, they tell it further and so
> on...later you compare the results of what the last child
> heard of your original sentence. This even impressed me
> as a child, but I had no idea at this time that journalism
> (and often business plans) are based on this concept.
We always called it Chinese Whispers -- although I suspect
the name has passed through the PC mill by now. A game
taught to children in the hopes that as adults they would
learn the dangers of relying on passed on information and
unverified facts.
In the keitai world (I hastily write) there is no doubt this
is a problem. I enjoyed the story of your old DDI phone.
Keitai are a new phenomenom. The world of imode is even
newer. To add to the damage, it comes out of Japan. And
reporting on Japan (as with many other countries) is
notorious for its inaccuracies, particularly (but not
exclusively) when that reporting is done by journalists not
even in the country, or newly arrived. To cap that off, it
is a technical subject. To write about it requires excellent
knowledge, outstandingly well-versed sources and a deadline
that is not totally imminent as you try to explain in the
most fascinating way possible just how each piece connects
to the other (or whatever) to an audience that may well know
very little (and perhaps care just as much) about the
subject. Am I defending bad journalism? No. Do I wish any
news/magazine stories written about keitai were gems of
accuracy and good writing? Yes, absolutely. Do I believe
this is in any way possible? No. In this matter, I have lost
my idealism. I have seen too much. The situation will
probably worsen over the next few years as the topic gets
hotter. More people will see a need to write about it, and
more people will be (initially, anyway) far from qualified
to do so. There is a learning curve for us all.
But, lists like this (archived as well as the keitai-l list
is) are a good way for journalists world-wide to find those
well-versed sources. Now, if we can only solve the Chinese
Whispers/deadline/general ignorance of all issues dilemmas
....
Our definitions of bad journalism match well, by the way.
best
Tanya
Received on Mon Mar 4 14:22:49 2002