Posted on: Sunday, July 4, 2004
AFTER DEADLINE
When our captions are inaccurate, let us know
By Anne Harpham
Regular readers of our Getting it Straight column will have noticed several recent corrections of photo captions.
We've mostly misidentified people, but in one case we incorrectly described as smoke what was really steam from the catapult on an aircraft carrier. There's a big difference.
From the photographer to the caption writer, the information that accompanies a photo is taken very seriously.
Photographers are required to provide information with all the photos they submit. That includes names and ages of people in the pictures. It is the photographer's responsibility to track down that information and get the facts and correct spelling.
Photographers also should provide editors with information on what is happening in
a photo beyond the obvious. For example, if a photo shows two people shaking hands, the photographer should provide information about the occasion. That information is filed electronically with each photo and stays in our archives and on any copy of the photo made for newsroom use.
Once a photo is chosen to use, a photocopy of the picture and caption information is provided to the copy desk. Often, reporters also are asked to supply information for the caption.
Photo captions are written by the copy editor who edits the story and writes the headline.
If there are any discrepancies between information in the
story and with the photo, they are to be reconciled there.
Editors often go back to photographers and others involved in the caption-writing process to reinforce requirements in gathering accurate information.
room to improve
At the beginning of the
year, I recapped our efforts in 2003 to reduce the number of errors in the paper.
The good news was that we had cut back somewhat on errors, a record marred only by the realization there were still too many that could have been avoided.
A mid-year check shows fewer errors in the first half of this year compared with the same period last year. Down about
14 percent, in fact, from 325 published corrections by June 30, 2003, to 284 through June 30, 2004.
No one on our staff likes
errors in the paper, and no one takes them lightly.
If you take your work seriously, errors are upsetting even when they are not our fault, when we repeat wrong information given to us. So we continue to look for ways to reduce errors and
increase credibility.
I know that people sometimes do not bring mistakes
to our attention because they don't want to hurt feelings, don't want to seem picky or think we won't care.
However, we want to make sure that mistakes are not
repeated, as well as setting the record straight.
This year, we ran a couple of corrections of errors repeated because we didn't know there was a mistake the first time we reported on a story.
When we run corrections, they are filed electronically in our archives with the original story.
So please let us know when you see a mistake. We are eager to correct what was wrong.
Senior editor Anne Harpham is The Advertiser's reader representative. Reach her at 525-8033 or aharpham@honoluluadver tiser.com.
