Oregon Exchanges
For the Newspaper Folk of the State of Oregon
HOW TO READ A NEWSPAPER: SUGGESTIONS TO PATRONS OF THE PRESS
[This article is Dean Eric W. Allen's address, delivered recently to the wide audience served by KGW, the Oregonian radio station. Several newspapermen have asked Oregon Exchanges to print this address. In the editor’s opinion, these suggestions as to how the readers might well read their newspaper is of not inconsiderable value to the editors as tips on how to prepare the paper for the readers.]
A LECTURE on how to read a newspaper would seem at first thought about as useful as a fifth wheel for a wagon. For nothing has ever been produced, except possibly the billboards, where the effort of the writer has been so plainly in the direction of making his product easy to read. Reporters are carefully trained to use simple, direct language; to speak in short sentences; to avoid all Latin and foreign expressions, and to make their articles, or stories, as they are called, not only simple and to the point, but short. After the article is written an individual called the copyreader or sub-editor undertakes to go over the reporter's copy and to make it still easier to read by even further clarifying the reporter's language and perhaps further shortening his article. He also writes clear, simple, direct, and forceful headlines, in short, unmistakable words, to be printed in large type at the head of the article, in order to make everything as easy as possible for the reader.
And yet, in spite of all that, the speaker feels safe in venturing the assertion that certainly not more than half of the newspaper readers know how to read the newspapers in such a way as to get any considerable benefit from them. Many a person spends plenty of time with his paper every day and yet remains essentially ignorant of what is really happening, poorly supplied with general information, unacquainted with the personalities of his community leaders, out-of-touch, and behind the times. Another man, devoting himself to the same newspapers as the first, and spending upon them only the same amount of time, can acquire a competent grasp upon all that is in them that he needs to know. The reason is that he knows how to read a newspaper, while the first man does not.
MISUSE IS POSSIBLE
Like any other useful tool or device, the newspaper can be misused. The better a chisel is, the more likely it is to give a severe cut if it is mishandled. A perfectly good hammer can be used to mash the thumb, as well as to drive a nail, in the same way the newspaper, unskillfully read, can contribute to misinformation, violent prejudices, mistaken notions, and degraded ideas. The same is true of conversation, of the reading of books, of indulgence in sports and amusements. and, in fact. of all the contacts of life. On the other hand, intelligent newspaper reading plays an absolutely essential part in the development of a well rounded mentality.
To read the whole of a modern twenty-
