I have just read that 98% newspaper mistakes go uncorrected and that's not good news to millions of readers who have been led to accept the news media as the best source for correct information.

Jean Yves Chainon of the Editors weblog said:

Almost half of the articles published by daily newspapers in the US contain one or more factual errors, and less than two percent end up being corrected, reports a study. It’s time to increase both the size of correction boxes and reporting accuracy.

Editors Weblog

Well i cant be sure of percentages but indeed most nigerian newspapers contain a lot of errors. In one instance, i had to call up the editor of the paper and complain. He promised to look into it, but i still notice errors which i feel should have been avoided. I cant help but pick out errors easily when i read through text, it is like a talent, wish i could do some editing for the fun of it.

Hello Orikinla
Would you know of how to submit a poem to any of these News Dailies? I am particularly interested in The Guardian.

Iwerebor:

Hello Orikinla
Would you know of how to submit a poem to any of these News Dailies? I am particularly interested in The Guardian.

Which of the Guardian newspapers?

The Guardian of Nigeria or Guardian UK?

For The Guardian of Nigeria, send them in c/o of OKINBA LAUNKO,

E-mail: [size=14pt]okinbalaunko@yahoo.com [/size]

onyx79:

Well i can't be sure of percentages but indeed most nigerian newspapers contain a lot of errors. In one instance, i had to call up the editor of the paper and complain. He promised to look into it, but i still notice errors which i feel should have been avoided. I can't help but pick out errors easily when i read through text, it is like a talent, wish i could do some editing for the fun of it.

Onyx,
You can make some money doing proofreading for the thousands of careless writers in Nigeria and abroad.

Proofreaders are paid from $50 for 3, 000 words. And from about $200 to edit 35, 000 to over 60, 000 words.

My Nigerian editor collects from N5, 000 for 5,000 words.

naijacutee:

Why do they go uncorrected? Are they reported mistakes?

They were not reported mistakes.

The editors were lazy.

The Computer has made many editors to relax and rely on the PC to correct their spelling errors and bad grammar.

I think the problem most newspaper organisations have is that they are understaffed so they don't have enough sub editors and proof readers. When the few on duty are overworked and tired, they would be unlikely to spot errors that may be right under their noses.

Orikinla:

Which of the Guardian newspapers?

The Guardian of Nigeria or Guardian UK?

For The Guardian of Nigeria, send them in c/o of OKINBA LAUNKO,

E-mail: [size=14pt]okinbalaunko@yahoo.com [/size]

Onyx,
You can make some money doing proofreading for the thousands of careless writers in Nigeria and abroad.

Proofreaders are paid from $50 for 3, 000 words. And from about $200 to edit 35, 000 to over 60, 000 words.

My Nigerian editor collects from N5, 000 for 5,000 words.

The Guardian of Nigeria. I have sent an email to the address. Thanks.

ladykay:

I think the problem most newspaper organisations have is that they are understaffed so they don't have enough sub editors and proof readers. When the few on duty are overworked and tired, they would be unlikely to spot errors that may be right under their noses.

The report was on newspapers in the US and they have enough hands to correct all the mistakes before going to press. But, they have actually failed to do their best.

Newspapers in Nigeria would be worse.

The best newspapers in English are the dailies published in the UK. Fleet Street is still the best standard for print journalism.
British journalists and writers are better than American journalists and writers in English.

That na US o i wonder Nja percentage

@poster
well i guess u made ur post here so dat we nairalanders can criticise u abi? so dont feel bad.

meanwhile is ur list in any particular order of wealth? say from richest to, or are dy just rich ppl?

sorry dat post was not meant 4 dis column,
anyway dat is terrifyin to hav such a high percentage of uncorrected error in US not 2 talk of naija!!!!

I have just read that 98% newspaper mistakes go uncorrected and that's not good news to millions of readers who have been led to accept the news media as the best source for correct information.

To the originator of this thread, I humbly and good-naturedly submit your initial posting (to which I've taken the liberty of adding emphasis by way of bold print).

Is not "media" a[i] plural [/i] noun and "source" a singular reference to it?   

Joking aside, what's more disturbing to me is not so much the typos and grammatical errors in print journalism, but rather the egregiously misstated information.  Some "facts" are created from specious logic in attempts to affirm their validity.  Some are long-held beliefs that are simply not verified.  Some are wrongly used as a point of reference to "connect" with the reader.  Of course, these apologia do not justify their existence. 

Indeed, it is a problem.  How must it be addressed?

@poster, I think I agree with you 100%. for me the worst right now is the nigerian This Day newspaper.
Cases abound of mistakes in tenses, grammar, spelling and the worst culprit of them all that generally ticks me off:
Not completing a story due to space. You would be reading a story and all of a sudden, it is just cut off. It is not continued anywhere else and you are left to imagine the end. It sure gets to me.
I think the editors in This Day need to sit up

The Punch is a very good example of such paper in Nigeria

Iwerebor:


Onyx,
You can make some money doing proofreading for the thousands of careless writers in Nigeria and abroad.

Proofreaders are paid from $50 for 3, 000 words. And from about $200 to edit 35, 000 to over 60, 000 words.

My Nigerian editor collects from N5, 000 for 5,000 words.

@Orikinla, can you please link me up for proofreading jobs? I'm highly interested

I don't know about the statistics but I must say that Nigerian Newspapers are horrendous in terms of spelling and grammatical mistakes. I get angry just reading some of them! I just can't imagine my little brother reading that and learning to write like that. It's a NEWSPAPER for God's sake! You'd think there's some standard, a reputation to preserve, an impression to make. But NOOOO,,,,they can get just anyone to put lots of word together in any order and call it an article. I thought a journalist would at least GRADUATE from uni. But it shouldn't be surprising, the education level in Nigeria nowadays is shocking. Even the TEACHERS write crappy English so what can we expect of the students that learn from them?

If its just an occasional mistake, it's easy to turn a blind eye on it. But when you find about fifteen mistakes in ONE article you start to think maybe there's something wrong! I know better than to read Nigerian newspapers in my parents presence because I'll probably annoy them by fuming aloud at every mistake. The mistakes irritate them too but I suppose I get too vocal about it.

Initially, I thought it was only me.
When mistakes are made on headline stories on a regular basis, then there is something wrong with quality control
Nigerian editors or whoever is responsible should improve.

Have you also noticed the horrible mistakes being made on the scrolling texts and captions on our tv stations?