When i read this three things come into mind; Journalism as a course which has its ethos, ICT which is just but a tool to be used and finally language which is acquired at school through learning. I want to believe that it is part of a requirement in any journalism training that the student must be good in the language either English, Kiswahili or any other relevant one. I am tempted to blame the media houses for possibly having people who are either sleeping on the job or might not have the requisite qualifications to be on that job. Even if ICT was part of the curriculum in journalism training, while the student is not conversant with the language and style it is futile. It is impossible to spell check (ICT) a word you have no idea about. How wonderful it is to use ICT when you know what you want to achieve! Sam ________________________________ From: Andrea Bohnstedt <andrea.bohnstedt@ratio-magazine.com> To: saguyo@yahoo.com Cc: KICTAnet ICT Policy Discussions <kictanet@lists.kictanet.or.ke> Sent: Tuesday, October 4, 2011 11:58 PM Subject: Re: [kictanet] Declining English grammar in our Newsprint Grammer? :) Yes, there's an awful lot of bad spelling, haphazard punctuation, and so on. The Financial Standard treated us to'The boy who often got into trouble with his father for not tacking in his shirt' in an article about the CBK governor. It also claimed that 'The sale of the Grand Regency Hotel bloated the otherwise good work by the governor.....' But two points: Victor is right that ICT may be part of the problem - in particular the mobile phone. SMS English has become pervasive, and you regularly find graduates who literally can't string a sentence together anymore. I receive internship applications in SMS English. Also, hiring unemployed graduates isn't the solution: proofreading, editing, subbing isn't something that you just know how to do even if you have an English degree. Figuring out how to use spellcheck isn't very difficult. But many people just don't use it because, I suspect, they don't see the value in it anymore. Also, spellcheck won't fish out everything: sparking and sparkling are both proper words. Except there's nothing that sparkles a riot. And then there's the school system - remember the 'misclennous' expenses listed by the striking teachers? Or the many, many typos on the Elimuportal.net? Yes, it's a topic I'm a bit obsessed with: http://the-star.co.ke/business/andrea-bohnstedt/36970-when-english-becomes-g... . On 4 October 2011 23:29, Victor Bwire <victor@article19.org> wrote: Infact it is the ICT use that is the cause of the problem- given the little ICT literacy by some of our newsrooms- most of our sub editors learn computer by on job-rarely able to master command of the computer functions- including grammer, spell checks-it will continue happening
Previously, we used to print hard copies of the articles for editing manually with red pens- thus very few mistakes- but now
Many of journalism courses do not include introduction to computer lessons- so how will the graduates know how to use them
Who regulates journalism training or draws the course or approves the same in the country anyway- if you even happen to see some course outlines offered in some of the colleges and universities offering journalism including Government ones- you will feel sorry
________________________________ From: kictanet-bounces+victor=article19.org@lists.kictanet.or.ke [kictanet-bounces+victor=article19.org@lists.kictanet.or.ke] on behalf of james ratemo [jratemo@gmail.com] Sent: 04 October 2011 21:16 To: Victor Bwire
Cc: KICTAnet ICT Policy Discussions
Subject: Re: [kictanet] Declining English grammar in our Newsprint
Bwana PS what are you insinuating? We open our newsrooms fro the so called English majors? Some of them are in the newsrooms already...maybe they are sleeping on the job...my opinion
On Tue, Oct 4, 2011 at 11:11 PM, <bitange@jambo.co.ke<mailto:bitange@jambo.co.ke>> wrote: All of today's newspapers had several grammatical errors. At this time and age of ICT, is it not too embarrasing to have such errors? We have thousands of English majors without jobs. It is time for media to be thorough in what they do by utilizing our many graduates without jobs. As a Kenyan I get embarrased to see such errors.
Ndemo.
Sent from my BlackBerry®
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From: Grace Githaiga <ggithaiga@hotmail.com<mailto:ggithaiga@hotmail.com>> Sender: kictanet-bounces+bitange=jambo.co.ke@lists.kictanet.or.ke<mailto:jambo.co.ke@lists.kictanet.or.ke> Date: Sun, 2 Oct 2011 13:32:57
To: <bitange@jambo.co.ke<mailto:bitange@jambo.co.ke>> Cc: KICTAnet ICT Policy Discussions<kictanet@lists.kictanet.or.ke<mailto:kictanet@lists.kictanet.or.ke>> Subject: [kictanet] GSMA: Calls will remain high between African countries
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The Kenya ICT Action Network (KICTANet) is a multi-stakeholder platform for people and institutions interested and involved in ICT policy and regulation. The network aims to act as a catalyst for reform in the ICT sector in support of the national aim of ICT enabled growth and development.
KICTANetiquette : Adhere to the same standards of acceptable behaviors online that you follow in real life: respect people's times and bandwidth, share knowledge, don't flame or abuse or personalize, respect privacy, do not spam, do not market your wares or qualifications. _______________________________________________ kictanet mailing list kictanet@lists.kictanet.or.ke<mailto:kictanet@lists.kictanet.or.ke>
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The Kenya ICT Action Network (KICTANet) is a multi-stakeholder platform for people and institutions interested and involved in ICT policy and regulation. The network aims to act as a catalyst for reform in the ICT sector in support of the national aim of ICT enabled growth and development.
KICTANetiquette : Adhere to the same standards of acceptable behaviors online that you follow in real life: respect people's times and bandwidth, share knowledge, don't flame or abuse or personalize, respect privacy, do not spam, do not market your wares or qualifications.
-- James Ratemo Online Sub-editor/ICT reporter Nation Media Group, P.O Box 49010-00100, Nairobi Cell Phone: 0724960649 OR 0731960649 Email: jratemo@ke.nationmedia.com<mailto:Emaili-jratemo@standardmedia.co.ke> or ratemoj@hotmail.com<mailto:jamrats2001@yahoo.com> Website:www.jratemo.wordpress.com<http://www.ictcradle.com/>.
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The Kenya ICT Action Network (KICTANet) is a multi-stakeholder platform for people and institutions interested and involved in ICT policy and regulation. The network aims to act as a catalyst for reform in the ICT sector in support of the national aim of ICT enabled growth and development.
KICTANetiquette : Adhere to the same standards of acceptable behaviors online that you follow in real life: respect people's times and bandwidth, share knowledge, don't flame or abuse or personalize, respect privacy, do not spam, do not market your wares or qualifications.
-- Andrea Bohnstedt Publisher +254 720 960 322 www.ratio-magazine.com Find/post East Africa careers Find/post conferences, workshops, trainings, other business events _______________________________________________ kictanet mailing list kictanet@lists.kictanet.or.ke http://lists.kictanet.or.ke/mailman/listinfo/kictanet Unsubscribe or change your options at http://lists.kictanet.or.ke/mailman/options/kictanet/saguyo%40yahoo.com The Kenya ICT Action Network (KICTANet) is a multi-stakeholder platform for people and institutions interested and involved in ICT policy and regulation. The network aims to act as a catalyst for reform in the ICT sector in support of the national aim of ICT enabled growth and development. KICTANetiquette : Adhere to the same standards of acceptable behaviors online that you follow in real life: respect people's times and bandwidth, share knowledge, don't flame or abuse or personalize, respect privacy, do not spam, do not market your wares or qualifications.