A recent story by The Star that was heavy with references to police activity became a distraction for one thing: abuse of acronyms.
The heading said: “How Kenya stepped up security after Westgate attack.” But the blurb of the September 21 story by Nancy Ogutu immediately threw readers off. “IG said NPS has also installed a reliable surveillance system in major towns and cities”.
What is IG? The story didn’t say. We assume it stands for Inspector General of Police.
What is NPS? Net Promoter Score? National Police Service? Not said. We counted how many times the story said NPS in seven consecutive paragraphs. Four times.
Paragraph 3: “In a series of tweets on Tuesday, Mutyambai said NPS has employed over 40,000 new police officers.”
Paragraph 4: “This is added to the 24,000 additional Administration Police officers deployed into general duty after the recent NPS merger.”
Paragraph 6: “He said NPS has also installed a reliable surveillance system in major towns and cities and procured modern security equipment.”
Paragraph 9: “Mutyambai said NPS has also unveiled a robust and grassroots countering of violent extremism by networking with communities in preventing terrorism and building resilience in communities.”
In 20 years, will a reader understand this story?
Look, this is journalism. Here we inform. We enlighten. We explain. We clarify. Acronyms do none of this.
It’s civil society that’s obsessed with acronyms. Ever attended a conference with three different NGOs making presentations? In less than five minutes, your head will be buzzing with acronyms.
They look for every excuse to introduce an acronym. They have acronyms for everything. And it’s assumed you know what each means. If you don’t, you look stupid. Nobody likes to look stupid, so everyone pretends they know every single acronym thrown at them. NGOs practically abuse you with acronyms.
Yet the acronyms are dished out with a flair of importance. By using them, the speakers sound impressive, important, schooled.
In journalism, “impressive” and “important” mean opaque. Here we don’t use words to impress. We use them to inform. We use words not to show off. We use words to explain stuff.
So, dear editors at The Star, don’t add salt to injury by ending the stories with an acronym, too. Eti edited by CM!
