CNN Is Good at Simplifying News

Published in Diario Economico
(Portugal) on 4 August 2010
by Antonio Sarmento (link to originallink to original)
Translated from by Fabiana DaSilva . Edited by Piotr Bielinski.
Ever since the Deepwater Horizon accident four months ago, newspapers around the world have written pages and pages on the subject. Television channels did the same: the technical details of the disaster and potential solutions filled paragraphs and images with vulgar expressions for specialists, but were little understood by readers and viewers. It's just like saying an area of 20 hectares and not saying anything else, such as: this is the approximate size of 20 football fields.

It was here that CNN went into action. For instance, while news watchers walked in circles trying to decipher what is the pressure of 6745 pounds per square inch in the interior of the contention cap used by BP, news anchor Reynolds Wolf gave an example using a piece of paper and placing two phones and his wallet over it. “One pound per square inch is what's being pulled down on this pad that we have here…”Mr. Wolf explained directly to the audience. “Now, imagine 6,745, that's the latest reading we have in terms of pounds per square inch of force that's being exerted against that containment cap.”

While BP announced the injection of tons of mud and cement in the well, CNN reporter Tom Foreman simplified: "stopping the oil when it was about to leak was as if we had to stop a train going at high speed. Now it is as if the train has been stopped, but it is still hard to push it."* Meaning: the job of news representatives is to simplify the information, making it accessible to all of its viewers and readers.

*Editor's note: The above quotation, accurately translated, could not be verified.


QUARTA-FEIRA, 4 DE AGOSTO DE 2010
Simplificar a informação
Desde que aconteceu o acidente na plataforma da BP (a Deepwater Horizon), há quatro meses, os jornais de todo o mundo escreveram páginas e mais páginas sobre o assunto. Os canais de televisão fizeram o mesmo – os detalhes técnicos da catástrofe e da resolução do problema encheram parágrafos e imagens com expressões vulgares para os especialistas, mas pouco compreensíveis para os leitores e espectadores. É a mesma coisa que escrever uma área com 20 hectares e não dizer mais nada - essa é a dimensão aproximada de 20 campos de futebol.
Foi aqui que a CNN entrou em acção. Por exemplo, enquanto os consumidores de notícias andavam às voltas para perceber o que era uma pressão de 6745 libras por centímetro quadrado no interior da tampa de contenção usada pela BP, o repórter Reynolds Wolf exemplificava da seguinte forma: pegou num pedaço de papel e, em seguida, colocou em cima dele o seu iPhone, um segundo telemóvel e a carteira a rebentar pelas costuras. “A força exercida em cima desta folha é mais ou menos 1 libra por centímetro quadrado", explicou em directo. "O que se passa na tampa é 6745 vezes mais", acrescentou.
Ontem, enquanto a BP anunciava a injecção de toneladas de lama e cimento no poço, o repórter Tom Foreman, também da CNN, descomplicou: “Estancar o petróleo quando ele estava a sair, era como se tentássemos parar um comboio de alta velocidade. Agora, é como se o comboio estivesse parado, mas ainda continua a ser muito difícil empurrá-lo para baixo.” Tradução: a função do jornalista é simplificar a informação.
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