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document seen by

  • 26-10-2017 12:50pm
    #1
    expectationlost
    Registered Users Posts: 11,753 ✭✭✭✭


    What do people think when they read in a newspaper that "document was _seen by_" this newspaper, does that mean it was leaked to them or they have a unpublished copy somehow or does it mean they've read a widely available document but they just don't want to point out, its out there?

    There are other phrases uses and codes used in newspaper that I would also like to understand.

    Sometimes papers say "it is understood" which I understand to mean they heard it from another news source first but they don't want to say that. 'It has emereged' is another similar one. Also don't understand newspaper saying "revealed" something when the info is publically available.

    There are other phrases that are supposed to be like coded language for things that we're all meant to understand what the paper is trying to say but can't.


Comments

  • #2
    jmcc
    Registered Users Posts: 7,291 ✭✭✭jmcc


    "document seen by": It generally means that a source shows a document to a journalist but does not give him/her a copy of the document.
    "It is understood": We're not really sure and cannot state it as fact.
    "Revealed": Got the press release just like everyone else.

    Regards...jmcc


  • #3
    Peregrinus
    Registered Users Posts: 26,050 ✭✭✭✭Peregrinus


    "Document seen by" = We've seen a document that isn't generally or publicly available. It may have been leaked to us intentionally, or it could have come into our hands by accident. Probably the former, though, since the reason we are being so coy about the exact nature and provenance of the document is to protect our source. If we've found a secret document that was left on a bus, or just stumbled across a public but previously unnoticed document in a library or archive, we'll usually give you chapter and verse on that.

    "It is understood" = Everybody in the press has heard this, and when we ask people who would know about it, those people do not outright deny it.

    "Sources close to X" = Someone close to X has told us this, probably with the approval of X. It may in fact have been X himself who told us this.

    "Revealed" = This story has broken because somebody wants it to break. It's in somebody's interests that you should know this. That's why they told us about it. "We can reveal . . ." means we have been given this story but we are not disclosing our source. "Mr X revealed . . ." means what it says; Mr X is the source, and for his own reasons he wants you to know about this story.


  • #4
    expectationlost
    Registered Users Posts: 11,753 ✭✭✭✭expectationlost


    Thats what I understood 'document seen by' meant, one of the editors of newspaper told me that they used that phrase in an article because they basically wanted another day of the story for themselves and they wanted to throw other journalists off the idea that the report was available on the web (they seem to think that other newspapers can't use a search engine) , which as a reader and subscriber confused me a bit as I searched for the full document.I think they were more concerned about the competition then the reader, which is a mistake.

    And they they did it again yesterday. 'Documents seen by' for document published on the government website the day before.

    They also used revealed: for a document that was on lobbying register site that I had read that week already.


  • #5
    expectationlost
    Registered Users Posts: 11,753 ✭✭✭✭expectationlost


    expectationlost wrote: »
    What do people think when they read in a newspaper that "document was _seen by_" this newspaper, does that mean it was leaked to them or they have a unpublished copy somehow or does it mean they've read a widely available document but they just don't want to point out, its out there?

    There are other phrases uses and codes used in newspaper that I would also like to understand.

    Sometimes papers say "it is understood" which I understand to mean they heard it from another news source first but they don't want to say that. 'It has emereged' is another similar one. Also don't understand newspaper saying "revealed" something when the info is publically available.

    There are other phrases that are supposed to be like coded language for things that we're all meant to understand what the paper is trying to say but can't.
    hurrar BBC Journalists Have Been Told To Stop Saying "BBC Understands" Because It's "Slightly Pompous" https://www.buzzfeed.com/markdistefano/bbc-stop-using-understands?utm_source=dynamic&utm_campaign=bfsharetwitter&utm_term=.pfXnbE7A7 and code for just repeating what somebody else reported
    "Either it’s true and we know it in which case just report the story, or we’re unsure in which case don’t report it until we are"


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