{"id":272,"date":"2007-02-06T11:15:56","date_gmt":"2007-02-06T17:15:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/index.php\/2007\/02\/06\/nomenclature-fine-thanks-you\/"},"modified":"2007-02-07T00:37:29","modified_gmt":"2007-02-07T06:37:29","slug":"nomenclature-fine-thanks-you","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/2007\/02\/nomenclature-fine-thanks-you\/","title":{"rendered":"Nomenclature? Fine, thanks. You?"},"content":{"rendered":"

The reportage dichotomy keeps coming up. Who’s in charge: the people in the article or the people creating the article? How about a few terse examples, with questions we can consider over lunch.<\/p>\n

As noted yesterday<\/a>, a school stopped what it called a gang initiation. In it local officials again say real gangs — just like on TV — are mushrooming in our bucolic region, using this hazing as an example. Or was it hazing? Maybe the hazing of facts is the goal, so to speak. The evidence seems sketchy: Was it an initiate or some hapless loser getting beaten up? The unasked and certainly unanswered question is: Are our sky-is-falling leaders using "trouble in River City<\/a>" (caution, audio) for political ends?<\/p>\n

Here is a sunnier example: Pinnacle Hills Promenade opened<\/a> last fall. What is the Promenade? Its executives tell the media it’s a “lifestyle center.” Sounds like an assisted living facility for the elderly or disabled, no? But the phrase has a specific if little known meaning at this point, says this article<\/a>. Promenade’s press releases call it a “retail, dining, entertainment, office and recreation destination.” Sounds like one of those Six Flags Over Disney amalgamations. What Promenade is is a shopping center. Technically it’s a mall, but commonly mall means all-enclosed. Thus shopping center should get the nod in the Mass Media, referring to open-air stores, shops and restaurants (movies, too) with common parking. Yet shouldn’t the managers get to call it what they want, at the risk of confusing people?<\/p>\n

If an expert on Iraq comes to town, should the press after the pro-U.S.-presence speech call up anti-war experts and include them<\/a> in the report? Or does “here are both sides” that we see often on TV and read in print create an implication that we are being winked at? Is balance balanced?<\/p>\n

Do we have to call it a community college; why not junior college? Active Years,<\/i> a terrific regional magazine, now insists it is AY.<\/i> An eclectic local gift shop, Dark Star Visuals, now calls itself DSV; neither name explains its primary inventory comprises beads, but isn’t the name spelled out more enticing?<\/p>\n

To me, these have a common element: Who gets dibs on terminology? Who wants to split an order of fries? -30-<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The reportage dichotomy keeps coming up. Who’s in charge: the people in the article or the people creating the article? How about a few terse examples, with questions we can consider over lunch. As noted yesterday, a school stopped what it called a gang initiation. In it local officials again say real gangs — just […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-272","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news-spin"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":374,"url":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/2007\/11\/calculus-build-up\/","url_meta":{"origin":272,"position":0},"title":"Calculus Build Up","author":"Ben S. Pollock","date":"November 19, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Where do \"they\" come up with these numbers. The following made headlines just over a month ago, but something over the weekend brought it back to mind. This time I thought about it. There is a fact here, but the percentage is bunkum. If I'm missing the point, please, someone,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "News, Spin"","block_context":{"text":"News, Spin","link":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/category\/news-spin\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":4726,"url":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/2014\/03\/two-tales-or-maybe-one\/","url_meta":{"origin":272,"position":1},"title":"Two Tales, or Maybe One","author":"Ben S. Pollock","date":"March 13, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"Ethics Presentation for \"News Reporting II\" (This is not a blog post per se but an outline for a talk I'm giving to a class. It's not a PowerPoint-like slide show, although a short video is included. It's both for my use and for students if they wish to check\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "News, Spin"","block_context":{"text":"News, Spin","link":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/category\/news-spin\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Kitty Genovese, from March 27, 1964, New York Times article, \"37 Who Saw Murder Didn't Call the Police\"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/03\/KittyGenovese.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":4018,"url":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/2012\/12\/pentagon-toilet-seats-coming-to-a-head-in-2012\/","url_meta":{"origin":272,"position":2},"title":"Pentagon Toilet Seats: Coming to a Head in 2012?","author":"Ben S. Pollock","date":"December 12, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"It's been a lot of years since talk of military excess rose up. Pentagon overspending once was a talking point every bit as common as welfare, Social Security, crime and abortion rights. We know what happened, 9\/11. It may not have been that the U.S. military could do no wrong\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "News, Spin"","block_context":{"text":"News, Spin","link":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/category\/news-spin\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":30,"url":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/2005\/12\/education-tests-everyone\/","url_meta":{"origin":272,"position":3},"title":"Education tests everyone","author":"Ben S. Pollock","date":"December 8, 2005","format":false,"excerpt":"Copyright 2005 Ben S. Pollock . \"We have met the enemy, and the enemy is us,\" says Walt Kelly's Pogo. (Not Gene Kelly, who never danced punk's pogo.) That classic Cold War punch line's almost an affirmation for those of us who consider ourselves enlightened Americans. But as such, a\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "American Culture"","block_context":{"text":"American Culture","link":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/category\/american-culture\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":361,"url":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/2007\/10\/secret-coda\/","url_meta":{"origin":272,"position":4},"title":"Secret Coda","author":"Ben S. Pollock","date":"October 5, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Corrections: For the Record An article on Thursday about the arraignment of three men in the shooting of two New York police officers, one of whom died, misstated the schedule set by a judge for a trial in the case. The trial is expected to begin by February, not by\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "The Course of Words"","block_context":{"text":"The Course of Words","link":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/category\/course-of-words\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":121,"url":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/2005\/08\/unintentional-humor\/","url_meta":{"origin":272,"position":5},"title":"Unintentional humor","author":"Ben S. Pollock","date":"August 19, 2005","format":false,"excerpt":"Copyright 2005 Ben S. Pollock Friday, Aug. 19, 2005: The latest innovation in Internet advertising is a boon to humor columnists. Maybe it's not the absolute newest improvement but now widespread is a customization factor: You open a newspaper Web site's article on, for example, gardening, and a couple of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "American Culture"","block_context":{"text":"American Culture","link":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/category\/american-culture\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/272","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=272"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/272\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=272"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=272"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=272"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}