News.com.au: A last-ditch effort to find journalism’s worst cliches
The Australian newspaper has reported on journalism’s worst cliches:
Journalist Chris Pash has spent nine years scouring newspapers and websites to find the media’s favourite hackneyed phrases.
And at the end of the day he has this to say: journalists must never again write the words “at the end of the day”.
In the past 15 months alone, Pash says the term appeared in 21,268 articles carried by Dow Jones Factiva, a global database that collects the output of about 25,000 major newspapers, magazines, newswires and other written news sources.
“I suspect at this point in history it is the most popular cliche in journalism globally,” he says. “It is all-pervasive.”
The seven most overused cliches: 1. At the end of the day; 2. Split second; 3. About face; 4. Unsung heroes; 5. Outpouring of support; 6. Last-ditch effort; 7. Concerned residents
May 19th, 2010 at 5:46 pm
[...] This article inspired me to go further – not with the benefit of any academic research, but with a thrown-together list based on experience and recent reading. [...]
May 30th, 2010 at 11:32 pm
a perfect word storm
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/business/media/perfect-storm-a-cliche-that-unsettles-reporters/story-e6frg996-1225873234730
June 7th, 2010 at 2:51 am
Cut to the chase
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/business/media/rudd-speak-is-more-cliche-than-word-precision/story-e6frg996-1225876199225