Media Advisory

(from Moon-Yun)

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Media Advisory: Continuing Coverage on Virginia Tech Shooting

SAN FRANCISCO (April 17, 2007) -- Now that the identity of the suspected shooter at Virginia Tech is known, AAJA [Asian American Journalists Association] cautions the use of his heritage or immigrant status in news coverage.

We understand the need to research the background of Seung-Hui Cho (first name is pronounced "sung hee") and to provide details about him as a nation struggles to make sense of the horrific incident.

But we are disturbed by some media outlets' prominent mention that the suspect is an immigrant from South Korea when such a revelation provides no insight or relevance to the story. The fact he is not a U.S. citizen and was here on the basis of a green card, while interesting, should not be a primary focus in the profiling of him. To highlight that suggests his immigration status played a role in the shootings; there's been no such evidence.

We remind the media that the use of racial and other identifiers must be accompanied with context and relevance. Without it, we open the door to subjecting an entire people to unfair treatment or portrayal based on their skin color or national heritage.

We at AAJA, representing approximately 2,000 reporters, editors, photographers and executives in the industry, encourage journalists to refer to style and reference books, both within their own shop as well as AAJA's at http://www.aaja.org/resources/apa_handbook/.

Offensive Language vs. Censorship

(from Moon-Yun)

Because of the Imus incident, are we all going to have to edit and have "approved" whatwe're going to have to say to an audience? It wasn't very nice what he said about the women's basketball team but the same company that fired Imus are profiting, I'm sure, from rap songs that sing about raping and killing women. It's OK for "cool black dudes" to belt out hate but God forbid it's the geeky ones out there. I personally don't like rap. It's not my kind of music. Black men need to get over whatever it is that makes them think it's so "cool" and "liberating" to call each other "N!"

Test 3

(from Moon-Yun)

For some parts of the test, I felt like the copyeditor would have looked up the answers on a stylebook and not necessarily have the answer in his/her head, such as with the punctuation question. Would that be true?

Computer editing

(from Moon-Yun)

My friend plans to write a book about his crazy life. I am thinking about offering my editing services since taking this class. I'm afraid that if I do the proofreading markings, he's going to freak out. To be diplomatic, I was thinking of making the edits on the computer instead of marking it on the paper. What do you think?

More about em-dashes

(from Moon-Yun)

As I went over the second exam, I realized I didn't know what a "1 m" or "2 m" meant nor what it stood for and when we use them. Why can't we just use hyphens? Isn't it easier? I lifted these text from last night's Oscars. Are these "1 m" or "2 m" and how did they decide to use them and why?

After five best-director nominations — and five losses, including one for the masterpiece "Raging Bull" — Martin Scorsese got payback big time last night, taking the Oscar for best director and best picture for the mob saga "The Departed" at the Academy Awards.

Al Gore may not have won the presidency in 2000, but in 2007 he won an Oscar for best documentary — the global-warming cautionary statement "An Inconvenient Truth."

Oversimplified?

(from Moon Yun)

I did the test today (1st run) and I'm boggled by the oversimplification of the test. I just used the last test as a guide (per your suggestion) and I basically followed your markings. That cannot be what we're assigned to do. Am I missing something?

Flair

(from Moon Yun)

As I mentioned in my previous question, I'm the editor for an online movie website called "Ain't It Cool News." I have a very good writer who writes with a lot of flair. The problem is she doesn't have formal education in journalism so she lacks the style and the standard format. I noticed that when she submits her articles. I don't want to ruin her natural flair but do you think I should come up with suggestions to make her a better, yet formal, writer?

Laughing at Errors

(from Moon Yun)

When I go to the small Korean restaurants or dim sum places, I get a chuckle from reading their menus sometimes. They almost get it but not quite right since English is not their first language. I wanted to offer my services and help them correct their menu but would that be impolite and patronizing? What do you think of "Headlines with Jay Leno" where he makes fun of such cases? Fear of being laughed at...is that where people turn away from becoming writers?

Hypersensitivity

(from Moon Yun)

This class will come in handy because I'm also the editor of an influential movie website called "Ain't It Cool" news. One of my writers, though a good reporter, is in need of a good editor. He makes so many mistakes, whether it's grammer, spelling, sentence construnction. You name it; he does it. He's hyper sensitive so I can't complain to his face. Or can I? Is there a diplomatic way of saying, "Hey, you need to look over your copy." Or should I stay silent and use the new skills to edit his text to the best of my abilities?

Amazing and show titles

Hi, this is Moon Yun. I'm going under "Lotusflower" because I had to create a whole new account because for some reason I couldn't get back in with old account. As an entertainment reporter, I'm starting to do red carpet events and I like watching the awards show like the Golden Globe and the Oscars. I feel the actors are getting real lazy with their grammer, especially with the word "amazing." They've all started to use "amazing" as in "I'm doing amazing" or "We're doing amazingly." That just rings so false. Isn't it more appropriate to use amazing in the context of...Working with Steven Spielberg on the set of "War of the Worlds" was an amazing experience?

I tend to get confused sometimes with quotation marks around the title of a TV show or movie. I wrote something about "Lost's" Evangeline Lilly with the apostrophe and "s" inside the quotation marks even though it's not part of the title. Is it ever O.K. to italicize a TV or movie title when, say, writing a news release? My friend and I were having a discussion about that. He felt it was acceptable practice and made the news release look attractive but I felt the reporter would just think we were making stylistic error.

Thank you.