Week 7.

1. I believe that the education level of readers that newspapers should be aiming at depends on what publication it is, as all have different target audiences.
For example, The Maitland Mercury writes for a community which are predominately tradesmen, whereas The Australian readers are commonly business persons.
This has resulted in each publication targeting different readers with different education levels. For example, The Maitland Mercury is written using a quite different language style (eg,the use of smaller, less comprehensive sentences with less descriptive adjectives), in comparison to The Australian.
To support this opinion, I have gained two excerpts.
In the article, "Ashtonfield teacher in Idol tussle" (Swain, 2007), it states, "He's been touted the Novocatrian set to give this yrs Australian Idol contestants a win for their money" (p.3).
However, on The Australian website within the article: "Business groups reject IR changes" (Maley, 2007), a sentence reads, "The Australian Industry Group also lamented the demise of statutory agreements, but noted the transitional arrangements..."
The differences are clear.
I also believe that newspapers do not only aim at education levels of readers through their use of language, but the stories they cover. Eg) The Mercury will usually cover stories that are central to the area, ie) local council stories, reports on the Newcastle Knights etc, whereas The Australian focuses on politics and business matters. This clearly demonstrates newspaper's targeting different education levels of readers.
Thus, I personally believe that the education level of readers that newspapers aim at differs between publications as it is based on who their target audiences are.

In addition, I believe the main metropolitan newspaper here, The Newcastle Herald is hitting the mark because it uses sentences which are not complex along with simple language to allow it to be easy reading for residents of the Hunter who are predominately working class.
It also provides stories that are in common interest to people with these education levels, as you do not come across as many in depth stories about politics within it in comparison to The Australian.

2.
Personally, I don’t believe that reporters should be able to inject their own thoughts into news stories because their role is to inform the public with news in an objective way which allows them to form their own opinion of issues. Also, The Daily Miracle, (2006), stresses the importance of Journalists ensuring fairness and balance within their articles and I do not believe that this can be achieved if they inject their own thoughts into news stories.

3. I thought that this suggestion was brilliant! A global language would be outstandingly helpful, as it would generate a lot more communication between persons of different languages because it would be easier.
Also, apart from breaking down the language barrier, imagine typing within Word and not having to correct the auto-spelling of Americanisms back to our versions of the words. It would be bliss.
Personally, I don’t think that it really matters that our language is being tainted with Americanisms and US spellings because ultimately, the words mean exactly the same thing! They are both English. It’s something that has always annoyed me. Why don’t we just decide on one spelling of certain words, such as colour and make it standard within America and Australia/England.
You can see why I am all for a global language.

4. Based on my own reading of newspapers, I find it hard to determine whether they have a serious commitment to accuracy because I have never noticed a correction published within papers that I read. Does this suggests that they have an outstanding commitment to accuracy as they do not make mistakes? Or, do they just never correct themselves? I think that the first suggestion is the most likely, thus meaning that they do commit to presenting accurate details.

5. If I wrote a serious mistake in a story but no-one wrote in to complain, I would still publish an apology because what I said was wrong. My job is to inform the public and I gave them false information. You never know, someone may have read it and complained straight to the APC so in a few months, I could be faced with a defamation case. Better to cover myself than be naieve and think no-one will ever notice.

Journalism Issue: Accuracy.
Within this chapter, I found it interesting that in journalism, "The worth of a word is not based on it's style or beauty. It centres on whether it is factual" (Conley and Lamble, 2006, p.156).
Coming straight from school where I studied Advanced English and Extension english and was quiet skilled at both, (if I may say so myself haha), I am used to writing in a very 'wordy,' style with alot of adjectives, as this is how we were encouraged to write.
However, now I am at university studying journalism, I am being forced to cut down my sentences, not use words such as 'exclaimed,' as they are too descriptive, and to replace them with the most basic words you can think of, for example, said. It kills me.
However, I do see where my teachers are coming from, as people read newspapers to be informed about an issue and they want this information quickly. They don't want to read "The quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dog." They simply want to know the fact that the fox jumped over the dog.
Therefore, the point I just raised, that people read newspapers to be informed leads me to my next issue, that there is a need for accuracy within journalism.
The public needs to be CORRECTLY informed and Conley and Lamble (2006) stress this, as they state that not only is innaccurate journalism ineffective journalism, it is dangerous. This is because journalists may be faced with defamation cases if they wrongly present information within their stories that negatively affects someone's reputation who is in actual fact, innocent.
This chapter also gave me great advice: "When in doubt, leave it out" (Conley and Lamble, 2006, p. 150).

Reference List.

Conley, D., & Lamble, C. (2006). A word's worth. In Conley, D., & Lamble, S.,(Eds.),The Daily Miracle: An introduction to journalism. (3rd ed). Victoria: Oxford. (pp.140-162).

Maley, P. (2007, August 28). Business groups reject IR changes, The Australian. Retrieved: August 28, 2007, from http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,22321874-11949,00.html

Swain, E. (2007, August 27). Ashtonfield teacher in Idol tussle, The Maitland Mercury. (p.3).