🃏JokerNov 22, 2024

Why does news oulets report on offcials as their country as a whole?

https://sh.itjust.works/post/28469940

Why does news oulets report on offcials as their country as a whole? - sh.itjust.works

I don’t know when it started to happen, but I always feel frustrated when I see headline along the lines of “USA says” or “China signal”, countries are not people. I don’t understand why don’t even the best news outlets put headlines like " Official x said this on official order on USA" Or something like that. I really don’t understand who came up with this way of reporting where they report on officials as their country and I always thought that this is dumb.

Show threadChefTyler1980Nov 22, 2024
Countries do make official statements and individual officials in a government can be understood to be speaking on behalf of a nation.
Show thread🃏JokerNov 22, 2024

But in that case they would be better reported as " Country X said in official statement " Or “Official Z speaking on behalf of country Y, said”

Right?

Show threadChefTyler1980
If the statement is an official one why does it matter who delivered it?
Nov 22, 2024 at 3:48pmWeb
Show thread🃏JokerNov 22, 2024

It’s more factually correct and better representative of the situation.

Just because official X said that, does not mean that the whole country is ok with him.

Citzens and politicians should be separated to keep emotions outside of this.

Let me show you two headlines here:

“Russian president declare officially a war on Ukraine”

Or

“Russia declare war on Ukraine”

Which one is more representative and more accurate of the situation?

I think you would understand my point from my example here.

Show threadsimplymathNov 22, 2024

This is so common in writing that is has a special word.

Why do they say the shorter thing? Because it means exactly the same thing to anyone who has taken high school level English classes and uses fewer words.

“Russia” is not an entity that has an ability to do things and readers understand that.

Definition of SYNECDOCHE

Definition of 'synecdoche' by Merriam-Webster

Show threadRhynoplazNov 22, 2024

Just because official X said that, does not mean that the whole country is ok with him.

Im pretty sure everybody knows that. It probably doesn’t need to be spelled out every single time someone makes am announcement.

“Company X is excited for release of new product”

Vs.

“This Company X PR rep says they are excited for release of new product, although the 10,000 other employees at Company X have not yet made official statements on their opinions of new product.”

Show threadChefTyler1980Nov 22, 2024
Well Russia is a country. Russians are citizens. There’s a test here whether or not a reasonable person can understand and I would argue that a reasonable person would understand the difference between a country and a citizen of the country.