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communication fail
Jul. 3rd, 2012 11:29 amStudy shows men don't have to worry about cat litter waste, but women could die of it.
Now this is what I got from reading that article. There's nothing in there that states one way or the other if men are similarly affected by this. If they aren't, where's the question about why they're not, even if it's speculation on the part of the study's author(s)? If they are, why isn't that included?
In a gambit to be 'cute,' stereotypes were perpetuated and necessary information was left out. Time is hardly the only offender; I saw a variation on the "cat ladies" headline all over Google News Science. When you're doing journalism about death or illness, there's no place for 'cute,' especially when all you're going to do with it is something lame-ass like this. Sometimes there's room for creativity, but not 'cute' - and sometimes, even creativity is misplaced. (I once spent an hour trying to write a lead paragraph for a story about two teenage girls killed in a rainy car crash on their way home from visiting one's sister at college, and went through all manner of variations on the theme of "flowers cut down in the prime of spring" or some offensive bullshit; luckily, I abandoned it and just wrote the damn lead from the police report.)
Now this is what I got from reading that article. There's nothing in there that states one way or the other if men are similarly affected by this. If they aren't, where's the question about why they're not, even if it's speculation on the part of the study's author(s)? If they are, why isn't that included?
In a gambit to be 'cute,' stereotypes were perpetuated and necessary information was left out. Time is hardly the only offender; I saw a variation on the "cat ladies" headline all over Google News Science. When you're doing journalism about death or illness, there's no place for 'cute,' especially when all you're going to do with it is something lame-ass like this. Sometimes there's room for creativity, but not 'cute' - and sometimes, even creativity is misplaced. (I once spent an hour trying to write a lead paragraph for a story about two teenage girls killed in a rainy car crash on their way home from visiting one's sister at college, and went through all manner of variations on the theme of "flowers cut down in the prime of spring" or some offensive bullshit; luckily, I abandoned it and just wrote the damn lead from the police report.)
