This started as a “letter to the editor” in the newsletter, but there was enough reaction that I thought I’d move it to my blog as an “explainer” that readers can find later, too.
Let’s start with the letter, from Premium subscriber Dale in Oregon:
I thoroughly enjoy every issue, including this one, and this is probably a very small gripe, but is it really necessary to add ‘Canada’ following ‘British Columbia’? I would hope most (all?) of your readers know British Columbia is a Canadian province. I have the same gripe about the Jeopardy TV show. The announcer always adds ‘Canada’ when introducing a contestant from that country, rather than just saying the particular province.
True is an American publication, so I don’t use the country for U.S.-based stories. Though in U.S. stories, the state, not just the city, is always identified. Even for New York City — there are cities named New York in other states, and in other countries. But no, I’m not sure “all” readers know B.C. is in Canada: that could well be a hard trivia question for someone in, say, eastern Europe. True has been read at some point in over 200 countries, though I gave up on trying to track country demographics years ago.
If I wrote of Rome, would I be talking about the one in Alabama, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, the other one in Kansas, Kentucky, Maine, Mississippi, Missouri, New York, Ohio (or Ohio or Ohio), Oregon, Pennsylvania (which is completely surrounded by Rome Township), Tennessee, or Wisconsin (or Wisconsin or Wisconsin)? Oh yeah, there’s one in Italy, too!
So yes, I follow the same rule for cities (and states or provinces) outside the U.S.: if a story is outside the U.S., it is made clear what city, state/province (if any), and country it’s in, though I’ll often skip provinces in small countries where the source publication doesn’t mention it. It has been that way, and worked well, for 32-1/2 years, and I guarantee changing it now would cause confusion later.
I also believe it is respectful of other countries to clearly identify them, and if there is anything we as Americans don’t need to do right now, “not increase a sense of disrespect for other countries” is high on the list.
As for Jeopardy!, an American show they clearly follow the same logic as the show can be seen in other countries.
Dale replied to say he “didn’t realize that was an editorial rule. I certainly understand the reasoning, which I hadn’t thought about.”
I’m not sure if I’d call it a “rule,” but most publications (including True) have a Style Guide for contributors and editors. The convention I use is probably a common style decision for internationally circulated publications.
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re: Dale’s comment that most Americans should already know that British Columbia is in Canada. There are Americans who think that New Mexico is part of Mexico, and that Hawaii is a foreign country. Oh and that Puerto Rico is also a foreign country. We are not the most geographically literate people.
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This (sigh) is True. -rc
It’s amazing to me how many papers don’t include the location in their online articles. It’s mostly limited to local papers, but I regularly run across random links, whether via Reddit, Facebook, Google News, or any number of other sources, and it’ll seem like they are talking about one location and it’s actually someplace completely different. It’d be really nice if more papers that publish their articles online listed out the full location name, rather than simply a city name. I’ve seen a number of small newspapers not even publish their city name, and you have to look at the paper’s name and then that ends up being ambiguous.
I’m also in Oregon, and you get some very interesting stories regarding Dallas, Detroit, Salem. While it’s typically fairly obvious when they are talking about the well known ones or the ones in Oregon, sometimes it can be tricky. Salem can be especially problematic as Salem, Oregon and Salem, Massachusetts are both decently well known.. Similarly, I run across articles talking about Portland, Maine and it takes a while to realize that it’s not about Portland, Oregon.
Overall, I approve of your decision to be more specific even when not strictly needed as, otherwise, it’d likely be too confusing.
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News organizations near state borders are big at screwing this up. They know their local audiences know that “Springfield” is either local or over the border, but the Internet is an international medium, and that audience often has no idea. Hence errors in True now and then where, because the source is in (say) X state, I’ll say Springfield, X, in the story, but it’s actually not: it’s actually just over the border in Y. Newspapers (and TV news operations) are no longer “local” when they publish online. -rc
In regard to international readership and acknowledgment of place names, you might give some thought to the American tone of your writing. (This is not a complaint. I have been a happy reader since the beginning.) Since I have been living in Australia for 35 years I have lost touch with American terms which apparently are common there. Last issue you had an article about the railroad accident with a Waymo. I had to ask my American husband what a Waymo was since I had never heard of one. While Australia is influenced a lot by American TV and news, we still don’t have everything they do. Do you still consider yourself American now that you live on the high seas? Given the popularity of social media snippets about the Australian version of English, it’s common knowledge that we differ in many things. I think in Australian now and have to translate to American. So, don’t assume your international readership would know what a Waymo is.
Again, not a complaint at all. Until I moved here I didn’t realise how different our languages are. A lot of ours is British based but one does have to learn what a snag is, or that you used to be an ambo.
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A lot of points here! But the big one I can address easily: True indeed is an American publication as I grew up with American newspapers (and other journalism), went to an American journalism school to learn the “ideal” American-style of journalism, and (yes) do still have to consider myself an American citizen as I have to have a passport. And while I’m delighted to have friends here of different nationalities, including a fair number of Aussies, most residents are in fact American.
The lovely thing about being an Internet-based newsletter is that means pretty much everyone reading has Internet access, and can so easily check Waymo at Wikipedia and learn not just what it is, but what makes it controversial. As True is literally “about” promoting thought, I’m just not going to spend my time doing the thinking for readers to anticipate what they might not know about. Indeed, Waymo is only in a few cities in a few U.S. states, so most Americans haven’t seen one either. In fact, I’ve never seen one either, let alone ridden in one.
Oh, and last, I’ve had many foreign readers say they love to read the newsletter as it helps them learn the finer points of American English. I can’t let them down! -rc