31. 01. 2005

NEWS WRITING MANUAL

BELGRADE, January 31, 2005 – The Belgrade Media Center has presented the book “How to write news for newspapers” by Sandra Sare. The book is a study of language of public communication, presenting the common use and misuse of the language and a detailed manual for writing articles and reading newspapers. Jasmina Debeljak from Belgrade Media Center said that the book was aimed to journalists-apprentices in the print media but also their senior colleagues and editors, envisaged to strengthen the sense of responsibility of public statements. The book also provides information on public language, otherwise unavailable within the regular curriculum. “Although this book was designed as a journalists’ manual, it is however the detailed study of language of public communication, containing the most important details of social, political, professional and ethical misuse of language. The book provides instructions on how to use the language correctly”, Jasmina Debeljak was quoted as saying. Professor of General Linguistics at the Faculty of Philology in Belgrade Vesna Polovina said that this book represented the very first important publication which dealt with the application of the linguistic rules in different journalistic domains. ”I sincerely hope that journalists would take instructions more seriously, particularly dialect, jargon, literary and ordinary language. The common misconceptions affect the correct use of the native language. We never stop learning how to write”, said Polovina. Director of the Ebart Consulting Media Documentation Velimir Curgus Kazimir expressed his hope that the book would find its place in every newsroom right next to the book of spelling rules and foreign words dictionary, since the professional writing of the articles has started to die out in the Serbian journalism for the past ten years. Kazimir added that this was the first edition that addressed the political correctness in reporting on other ethnicities and minorities.