Machka 

+1

Most newspapers are written at a very low reading level ... anywhere from Grade 3 to 9, and quite often at the lower end. If you go through a newspaper (at least, my local newspapers) with a red pen, grammar book and dictionary, you'll be able to circle heaps of grammar and spelling errors. The newspapers here report old news ... most of the stories have been on the radio or TV for several days before they appear in the newspapers, or they report on minor events that happened 2 or more weeks ago. And quite often the stories are brief and meaningless ... you read them and think ... "And so?" or "And then what happened?"

Now I do have to say that the online papers I've read in Australia, especially those reporting on the fires, were better written.

But a lot of newspapers aren't much more than fashion magazines or home decorating magazines. My local one has a small section for international, national, and local news, and the rest of the paper consists of the comics, lifestyles, entertainment, etc. etc. ... stuff you can get all over the place on the internet.


Here's one entire article in my local paper, for example:

"St. Luke’s Anglican Church may become a city historic site if its congregation gets the designation from city council."

Yep. That's it. Now, I don't know ... if I were the journalist writing that exciting bit of news, I might do a little bit of research and find out when that church was built. I might add the fact (and I found this out the other day myself, quite by accident) that it was built from sandstone from a quarry which used to exist on the local river. I might mention a little bit about what the city was like back when it was built.

I know which church it is, and it looks like something right from England, but I don't know anything else about it, and a well-written article could have told me a few things. But all I get is one sentence.