Avoid newspapers displaying an indecent haste in getting to the facts. Short punchy sentences, swiftly conveying information, suggest that the reader is in a hurry, has something better to do. Places to go, people to see, wanting to know the state of the world in ten minutes, reeking of business. This style of journalism is clearly aimed at persons who wear wristwatches - and consult them.
Ideally there should be many more words to get through than strictly necessary and the path to knowledge must take a circuitous route. The press should insinuate the news rather than report it.
No lady or gentleman would rush her or his morning paper (least of all by reading it in the morning). The mature reader will take a more sedate approach. The mature reader will begin with the obituaries.
Followed by the court circulars, then possibly the day's race cards. Then the theatre reviews.
Financial pages go straight to line the rabbit hutch or to light the fire in the study. On no account should they be read, other than in a period of onsetting recession, in which case they may be declaimed aloud to gatherings of family and friends for mutual delight and hilarity.
Then to the comment pages and editorial, to put one in a properly prejudicial frame of mind before moving to 'the front of the book'. International news first - start with the Tropics, other developed nations' remote holdings, one's own remnant empire and former colonies, then the neighbours. Finally domestic news, beginning with the parliamentary sketch: never quite as satirical and scurrilous as Hansard, but it will do
Words, from a mostly metrocentric perspective. See Metrocentricity for pictures.
17 December 2008
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