WOWO Needs A Newsperson. Really.

The Maven loves reading help wanted ads, especially for media positions. So you can imagine the Maven's delight when the US Postal Service delivered the latest, and greatest mailing from Federated Media, parent of WOWO 1190 (and now on 92.3 FM.) As an influential member of Fort Wayne's media community, the Maven's modest company is on EEO mailing lists for a number of companies, including those wacky souls at the home office in beautiful downtown Elkhart.

Since some of my readers are not media-savvy individuals (and that's probably a sign of good mental health), let the Maven help you 'read between the lines' of the most recent ad. If you can not tell, the Maven's smart-ass comments are in red. 

Equal Employment Opportunities
WOWO-AM Radio (WOWO 1190) Recruitment Notice:

Positions Currently Available:

News-talk 1190 WOWO, Fort Wayne, Indiana’s #1 50,000 watt

(only during the daylight hours, at night it's a puny 9,800 watts)

news, weather, and talk station; has a rare opening 

(yes "rare" meaning only 3 openings in the last year - McDonalds has lower employee turnover)

for a full-time news anchor/reporter. 

(and doing commercials, public appearances, transmitter repairs, and occasional yard work on the weekend)

WHAT WE WANT: 

(WHY ARE YOU SHOUTING? HAVE YOU NO MANNERS?)

An experienced professional who can write contemporary news, 

(use street slang, the Urban Dictionary and 'conversational English' where grammar, spelling and the AP Style Book are not required)

deliver an energetic cast, 

(that's radio lingo for Newscast)

crank the daily grind of an anchor shift, 

(let's make it sound like it's hard work)

work a flexible beat schedule, 

(work the hours they want or they beat you)

generate appointment-listening story ideas, 

(oh, nice use of an industry buzzword meaning to string the listener along to the next ratings quarter-hour)

and gather the very best sound-bites. 

(Bites is the operable word here)

T & R being accepted right now.

(RIGHT NOW, FOOL!)

Send immediately 

(RIGHT NOW FOOL, can't you take direction??)

to Ryan Wrecker, WOWO Operations Manager, 

(No, Kayla Blakeslee, the WOWO News Director isn't making the hiring decision - so much for women in leadership-management at FedMed)

2915 Maples Road, Fort Wayne, Indiana, 46816 or email: Wrecker@wowo.com

WOWO Radio and Federated Media are an Equal Opportunity Employer.

= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = 

Compare to another News opening, this one at WIKY in Evansville. Which station would you rather work for?

  

Nice Placement, Journal Gazette

Ah, a Maalox Moment at the Journal Gazette. The bastion of journalism, erudite thinking and moral superiority has embarrassed themselves, once again. 

No, this budding chef is not a 16-year-old murderer. The young man in the picture is the latest victim of the JG's ignorance and stupidity and is actually the winner of a cooking award. 

Here's the full page (which has been taken down after the Maven and a few others called the newspaper. Heaven forbid the JG would spot the error. 

Choose Your Words Wisely

Too many years ago, in a journalism class at a recognizable southern university, the Maven had the unfortunate experience of having a news story hurled back at him by a very grumpy professor. The Maven's crime? Using a complex word when a more simple and direct word would have been a better choice. 
Our local media seems to have issues with choosing the correct word more often than not. There are a couple of plausible explanations for this, which the Maven will delve into as we go along.

First example: WANE TV's story revealing the victim of our city's most recent homicide.

The man was "suffering" from gunshot wounds. How do they know he was suffering? Logic would indicate that, but the use of the word "suffering" can be construed as an opinion, as opposed to stating fact. The use of "suffering a gunshot wound" is a "news speak cliche" and is better replaced with a phrase "the victim of an apparent gunshot wound".  

But wait, there's more. Our friends in the WOWO newsroom also seem struggle from time to time.
Again, a news story about the city's most recent killing. 

As you can see, the word "incident" is used where "killing", "shooting", "murder" would better tell the story. Is this an attempt to soften the blow to the audience, or just someone's idea of "that will sound good on my resume tape I'm sending to Dayton this weekend"? Don't know.
While were at it. What is the WOWO fetish of using the word "individual"? Actually, this one is easy. It's laziness  Cut and paste directly from the press release because "we don't think our audience is sophisticated enough to tell." 

It's Only News, Who Cares?

If the Maven's workplace were to be shuttered, the Maven would be shuddering, too. But, that's probably not what the confused writer of this WOWO news story had in mind. What we have here is slipshod work, and chances are if you click the link, the story, improper word and all, will remain just as the Maven found it. 

http://wowo.com/ArticleDisplay/tabid/74/ArticleId/14292/Tense-Times-for-Workers-at-an-Area-Ice-Cream-Plant.aspx

The fact that shoddy work like this is allowed to represent the WOWO brand is reprehensible. This 'work' should be tossed on the desk at the writer's annual performance review. The only reason that won't happen is because the supervisor probably doesn't know there's an issue, or does not care that there's an issue. 
The Maven just can't see someone like Victor Locke, Jerry Hoffman, or any of the previous WOWO News Directors allowing an embarrassment like this to be seen by their audience.