Vignettes

Writing and delayed feedback

R.S. KARUNARATNE

I always wanted to be a writer. So after slogging in a government department which sapped my creative energy I opted to become a journalist. I wrote on many subjects, but I did not know how many people read them.

Sometimes an artist or an author wanted some publicity. So I went and interviewed them, wrote a feature and had it published. After a couple of weeks, the person I interviewed would phone me to ask whether the article had appeared.

“Yes, it appeared on.....”

“Oh, thank you very much. I couldn’t buy the paper that day. Can’t you send me a copy?”

On such occasions I nearly lost my cool. I never obliged them by purchasing old newspapers and posting them. However, most people wanted free interviews, free publicity and free copies!

One day I really wanted to check whether people read what I wrote. While travelling on trains and buses I kept a constant vigil. But I could not find anyone reading newspapers. They were simply scanning them.

That means, reading the headlines and glancing through the first paragraph of a news item or a feature article. Most of them finished reading a newspaper in a few minutes!

I thought, “What’s the point in writing, editing, and publishing news items and feature articles in newspapers?” Most of the people who buy newspapers do not read them and give various excuses for not doing so.

“I have really no time to read newspapers. I simply run through the headiliness,” said a busy executive in a leading bank.

“Newspapers carry all stale news. I get first hand news on my mobile phone,” said another. However, most of them buy newspapers. Why do they buy newspapers if they don’t want to read them? I am still trying to find an answer. Believe me, one day I found an elderly man reading one of my regular columns to the Sunday Observer while travelling on a train.

As the train was not crowded I managed to sit close to him. After a few minutes he pulled out a ballpoint pen and started underlining certain words and sentences. I was curious to know why he was underlining a newspaper article as if he was going through a university tutorial. When we reached Colombo Fort Railway Station I causally asked him whether he enjoyed reading the article.

“Nope”, he said.

“But I saw you underlining some words and sentences.....”

“Well, I was trying to gauge him.”

I was rather puzzled and pressed him for an explanation.

“Most of these fellows (journalists) use very simple words. So, I have nothing to learn. They should use big, Latinized words like Mr..... (He mentioned the name of a well-known editor who is no more).

“So, you like to read big, high sounding words?”

“You are too young to understand newspaper language. That editor used high sounding latinized words and challenged us to understand what he wrote. I used to underline those words and consulted the dictionary to understand their meanings. But today’s journalists use simple words and we have nothing to learn from them.”

Although I did not want to quarrel with him, what he said had an element of truth. In the 1950s and 1960s it was rather fashionable to use high sounding latinized words especially in the editorial and serious articles.

However, much water has flowed under the bridge since then. Today’s trend is to write simple words and expressions so that the majority of readers will understand what they read.

The biggest problem journalists are facing today is that they have no way of finding out whether people read what they write. In other words, journalists do not get a regular feedback.

The circulation figures do not indicate that people read everything that is printed. As you are aware some people buy the Sunday newspapers to read the advertisements.

Editors and other journalists who work for a newspaper would like to know the nature of their readers and how they respond. If they fail to know how readers respond the newspapers go out of business.

Feedback would make it easier for professional communicators to reach the largest number of people, tailor the nature of their messages to the capacities and interests of their audience.

The kind of feedback journalists get is very limited. Sometimes, there is a delayed feedback from readers when they care to write a letter to the editor. In such letters readers denounce or applaud news stories or other material that has been printed. What is more, such delayed feedback usually comes from disgruntled people with an axe to grind.

Even delayed feedback helps newspapers to design and redesign their presentations in order to gain reader attention.