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Published on 04/21/1999 All articles from this issue

Online messages could put reputations on the line

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By David L. Grey

Media Watch

We all make mistakes. Last month (March 24) this column was about errors in the established news media. This one encompasses far more - as so many of us have also become participants in the so-called new media.

Call this column Mistakes "II" or "Too." And think primarily Web sites, the Internet and especially e-mail.

Many of us have become "mass"communicators whether we realize it or not. A lot of our electronic messages are still meant to be received by only one or a few. But as with much writing today, the Internet and sites meant for browsing and then e-mail are seen by ever more eyes - and especially when forwarded, faxed, printed out and photocopied.

Our images as message senders and in some cases our personal/professional reputations are, literally, both online and perhaps on the line.

Are these potential powers serious? It depends on who we are, what we do and how we do it. And whether we care or try to take care.

A few, maybe obvious, but recent, off-the-real-screen samples:

Web sites and e-mails spotted that intermix "it's" and "its" seemingly without distinction or double checking. Messages using "there" and "their" in much the same way. Or even just the tossed-in extraneous comma or x, y, zz.

Elementary stuff or should be. But such red mail flags may suggest uncomfortable things about the messenger. What was sent was done in a big hurry (sloppy or full of that excuse), without rechecking (careless or caring less) and/or, indeed, not aware or understanding enough what is received and how it might be perceived.

Or maybe the main difficulty is catching errors off the glare of a moving computer screen instead of steadied printed words. Whichever, slow down.

These real communication glitches might be borderline acceptable, if they had not come from ever-more-relied-upon medical and summer campinformational Web sites, a nurse's and then physician's personalized-yet-professional e-mail (not pharmacy prescriptions) and via e-messages from a freshly degreed college graduate and even a journalism educators' association administrator.

These are finalized messages that happened across the computer of one columnist collecting specimens of mistakes we all, as humans, can make but probably should catch before ever shared and absorbed by others.

Yet another kind of sampled error is even more troubling. From a more distant example: The English-language-educated e-mailer who occasionally but consistently referred to getting a needed "message" at the physical therapist. Concern here is the apparent inability to see and correct a very ingrained habit ... or maybe worse: not being aware of the difference the second "a" makes?

In many ways we are (reveal selves in) what we write. Or appear so to others. Many a computer cookbook today talks about Internet and e-mail etiquette (dangers to privacy, rudeness, etc.). These are major issues of our technological expansions and evolving roles but, sadly, not the only personal reflections and inventories we may need to face up to in our Y2K mirrors.

David L. Grey, Ph.D, is professor emeritus of journalism at San Jose State University, where for 24 years he taught and did research on media law and ethics. He is a Mountain View resident.