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Charles Apple: The Visual Side of Journalism

 

‘The word side of visual journalism’ archive

Number of comments in parentheses

May 24: For your consideration… (3)

Oh, for Chrissakes. It’s going to be a long election year in New York City. Both of those front pages are from the Newseum. Of course.

May 22: Sports logos run wild on ESPN

Former Durham, N.C., Herald-Sun copy desk staffer R.L. Bynum pointed us toward this screen snapshot from ESPN’s college baseball coverage. You’re not looking for a typo here. You’re looking at school logos. That’s right. Four schools onscreen. But only one of the logos shown is correct: The first one. ESPN used the Miami logo for N.C. State, the Florida logo [...]

May 18: Q: What’s the difference between Duke and UNC? A: Exactly. (1)

So, if you work on the sports pages of a newspaper in the the Triangle area of North Carolina, what’s the worst possible error you could make in a headline? Right: Confusing the Duke Blue Devils with the Tar Heels of the University of North Carolina. Yet, that’s exactly what happened in this headline today in the Durham Herald Sun. [...]

May 17: For your consideration…

Heh. That image is from the Newseum. Of course.

May 14: Wurst spelers in Pennsilvania

Submitted for your approval: This ad on the back of a Harrisburg, Pa., city bus for Manheim Car King. They might not be able to spell. But hey: They’re across from Bass Pro. That counts for something, doesn’t it? Thanks to Kathryn Morton and Chris Anderson for the picture. — You know who else needs a copy editor? Local TV [...]

May 13: Why Paramount Pictures needs a copy editor (1)

My pal Andy Neumann of the Gannett Design Studio in Louisville writes with this little gem: I saw this TV commercial during the finale for Survivor. It’s for Star Trek: Enterprise, season one blu-ray. But as you see, it says “season two” “Season two” shows prominently in that ad. But the package shown is clearly season one (below left). Season [...]

April 30: Maybe Martha should just call Tim

As much as I dislike the New York Post — and whatever it is that passes for journalistic ethics there — I have to grudgingly admire its headline writing today. Curious, I had to go read that Martha Stewart story. That’s not what she said at all. However, she did come out and tell the Today show yesterday that she [...]

April 27: The U.S. Senate needs a copy editor (1)

It’s very, very cool that Republicans and Democrats put their differences aside Friday and hammered out an agreement to end furloughs in the FAA that have caused air traffic delays nationwide. The fact that the whole thing nearly came unraveled today when a typo was discovered in the Senate version of the bill? Not so cool. There’s a letter “s” [...]

April 26: In-your-face design from the Victoria, Texas, Advocate (1)

I love pages that make me smile. Especially if I’m not the one who has to answer the phones. This entertainment tab front from one of my favorite small newspapers — the 26,531-circulation Victoria Advocate — is a couple of weeks old. But I nearly fell out of my chair laughing at the headline. That’s a crawdad, y’see. And folks in [...]

April 24: Why video game manufacturers need a copy editor

Today’s it’s Namco Bandai — a maker of software cartridges for Nintendo’s 3DS gaming system — that needs a copy editor. My daughter, Elizabeth, tells us: It should say Naruto not “Nartuo.” Naruto being, of course, a popular Japanese “anime” TV show. And, obviously, a 3DS game. Interestingly, this is the second error I’ve added to my collection of a [...]

April 23: I thought maybe he just had ‘no comment’ for everything

I’m not sure if this really counts as an “error” on the part of Fox News. Perhaps it’s just laughable syntax. But still: I imagine an interview with a dead person would be awfully one-sided. Thanks to Betsy Pollard Rau — not only is she a journalism instructor at Central Michigan University but she’s also a newly-minted inductee into the [...]

April 19: Closed-captioning fail (2)

If there’s someone who has to work under the gun, it’s the person who types the closed-captioning you see on your TV. Talk about fast typing. Talk about needing — but not having — a copy editor. Yet, this goof is just too funny to pass up. A closer look: Thanks to my good pal Bob Voros, who spotted this [...]

April 19: Can you spot the typo? (1)

Anthony DeBarros, director of content at Gannett Digital, tweeted last weekend: Saw this while riding the rails a few months ago. Can you spot the typo? Kind of scary how well that error blends in to the rest of the copy. Thankfully, we have copy editors who are trained in how to catch stuff like that. — You know who [...]

April 18: On top of everything else, the New York Post needs a copy editor

Thanks to Michael Lowe of Savannah, Ga., for passing along this screencap Thursday afternoon.

April 18: Map Fail by InTouch magazine (1)

Jacque Petersell, senior news editor for the Scripps Central Desk in Corpus Christi, Texas, sends us a nice Map Fail from the current issue of InTouch magazine. She writes: I didn’t realize Hawaii was south of Texas … somewhere in what should be Mexico. Locating gossipy news briefs on a map seems rather silly if your editors can’t find the [...]

April 16: Why pay a copy writer when you can have dummy copy in your ad for free? (2)

Over the years we’ve spent chronicling the hazards of operating without copy editors, we’ve seen newspapers accidentally run what is called “dummy copy” in headlines… …we’ve seen lots and lots of TV stations do it… …and we’ve even seen it happen in advertising brochures. But I don’t think I’ve ever seen dummy copy in an online ad. Because it’d be [...]

April 15: Bad news: An error in display copy above the fold on page one (1)

An anonymous blog reader sends us a picture of his Sunday Chicago Tribune. Pay particular attention to the little deck beneath the Cubs video screen headline: That might be a little hard to see at that size, so here’s a blowup of the last three words of the deck. You see the problem, right? Wrigley is misspelled. It’s embarrassing enough [...]

April 10: Why Target needs a bilingual copy editor (2)

Target is selling a new line of women’s sandals. They’re called Orina. One little problem: Orina means urine in Spanish. Oh, my. I’ll bet someone’s pissed over this one. Here’s how NBC covered this story Tuesday. Much of their report seems to have come from this story by the Consumerist. Thanks to my pal Rogelio Aranda from Charlotte for the [...]

April 9: Don’t have a ‘meltown,’ National Examiner, but you need a copy editor

Tabloid journalism, as you know, depends greatly upon page-one headlines to sell the story and the paper. That just makes a misspelled word in a headline all the more worse. Check out that Carrie Fisher refer at the top right. The word they were looking for, of course, was melt down. Thanks to Khari Williams — a copy and production [...]

April 3: For your consideration…

That’s tabloid journalism in New York. It’s all about the f–king headline. On the left: The New York Daily News, circulation 579,636. On the right: The New York Post, circulation 555,327. The pages are both from the Newseum. Of course.

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