From Prof. Dr. Kiran Thakur and Prof. Dr. Sanjay Ranade,
department of Communication and Journalism, University of Mumbai
Deal all,
We are happy to inform you that we submitted our report on the UGC funded Major Research Project on "Language of English Newspapers in India"on July 13. We traveled to Pune, Aurangabad,
Mumbai, Mysore, Bangalore, Chennai, Srinagar, and Tezpur for the study. The UGC had provided us a grant of Rs. 8.8 lakhs.
Following is a 54000-word, 200-page summary of thereport:
We
often come across newspaper stories that have intro containing words
ranging from 40 to 90 or more. . Such a long sentence is against the style-books
and textbooks that suggest that a
sentence should not have more than15-25 words. Spell check the text and run the
readability tests. These will tell you
the following: If you run readability Flesch Reading Ease (FRE) is often 0 (zero). The Flesch-Kincaid Grade
Level (FKGL) test gives a readability at move that 40
Even without running such a
test, one could say that the sentence was clumsy and a reader would find
it difficult to understand the news. A reader would have to read and re-read
the sentence to grasp its meaning. One comes across such examples of verbose and clumsy leads in most Indian English newspapers. The Times of India, The
Indian Express, The Hindu, The Hindustan
Times, The Statesman and scores
other newspapers are among them.
This is against the training
the journalism students get in the media schools. Veteran scribes and textbook authors similarly insist that journalists should
avoid passive voice and clauses in the news writing. They should not use
difficult words which lay persons may not understand. They should avoid
foreign words and abbreviation till their meanings are not explained in the
text. Yet, we find such words as ex-officio,
inebriated, clout, ensue, man Friday,
allude, inferno, carnage, potpourri,
demur, juggernaut, and hustings. The journalists are fond of using such words
presuming that these are simple for the readers to understand. In our study most respondents said they did not understand these words.
In some cases, more than 85 per cent respondents did not understand the words.
Here is a summary of our report:
Research
problems: Do journalists
in English newspapers in India write news that common readers can understand quickly
and easily? Do they use plain and simple language? Do they use difficult
words?
Research Methodologies and Methods:
We adopted Exploratory, Qualitative, Quantitative and Descriptive methodologies
and the following Research Methods: Field Study, a questionnaire-based survey that used printed questionnaire, online
questionnaire through a website and
survey through emails, focus group discussion, and personal interviews.
The
questionnaire-based study was carried out in stages. The questionnaires were administered to Master’s degree students of Communication, Journalism, Media, English language and MBA. In one study, Sub-editors in Marathi newspapers in Pune participated.
Readability Tests: The
study was exploratory. The first part of
the study related to a. ‘Long Intros’ of news stories. For this, formulae for the Flesch Reading Ease
Test and Flesch-Kinkaid Grade-level
Test provided by MS Word were used, and b. Study on ‘Difficult Words’ used by
journalists in newspapers.
We
divided the project broadly in two parts as follows:
a. Study of the language used by newspapers in their news
columns.
b. Readership studies to
find out if the readers understood the language quickly and easily.
We carried out readership surveys using the following tools: Focus Group Discussion, Questionnaire-based
survey, Survey through a website and through emails
The majority
of them were Masters Students of Communication, Journalism, English Language,
and Business Administration. Some respondents joined the online survey through a website:
We carried out Focus
Group Discussions at eight locations during which students, teachers and journalists
participated.
Focus Group Discussions and
interviews of media teachers and senior journalists of leading newspapers and
news agencies indicated that they expected the younger colleagues should stick
to guidelines for news writing and sub-editing. Sub-editors in Marathi
newspapers suggested that the news agencies should edit stories to enable easy
translation of the contents from English to Marathi.
Outcome of the study: Most respondents
indicated that the intros written by the newspaper
journalists, used in the study, were not easier and quicker to understand. The intros re-written by
the researchers for this study were easier and quicker to understand for the student
respondents. It was because these were written for simplicity, brevity, and
objectivity. The rewritten intros showed better
readability under the Flesch
Reading
Ease and also in Flesch-Kinkaid Grade level.
Study on difficult words: Our study on difficult words indicated that the journalists often use
words that were difficult to understand for the lay readers. Similarly, many
journalists use foreign words that the readers do not understood .
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Acknowledgements
We place on record our sincere appreciation for the
inputs by Ms. Ashwini Kamble and Mr. Sagar Atre in data collection for our
study.
Prof. Dr. Sunder
Rajdeep (Head, Communication and Journalism, University of Mumbai), his predecessor, Prof. Dr. Mangesh Karandikar, Prof. Daivata Chavan and Prof. Dr. Meenakshi Upadhyay, and our colleagues
in the administrative section of the department: Kaveri Akiwate,her sister, Sharada and Sanket
Mahadik.
We enjoyed the study. It was fun and was very satisfying.
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Please mail your comments and suggestions to:
drkiranthakur@gmail.com or/and
sanjayvranade@yahoo.com
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