A Ninja travelled on the monoline to the battle of Libor.
I’m confident I could excite Spielberg with the above tag line. He would surely sense the potential for a futuristic movie here: time travelling Ninjas fighting in the galactic city of Libor. Perhaps not loaded with Oscar potential but guaranteed to put bums on seats.
Doubtless some of you business types out there see a plagiariser in your midst. Why is this man basing a movie on those with no income, no jobs or assets? Look at the effect that has had on the London Inter-bank offered rate…I hear you say. Spielberg won’t touch this you declare with confidence, the great director throwing good money after bad. It’s almost too laughable to say aloud.
Yet aloud it must be said. The sequel must be based on clarity. It must speak the language spoken by its audience. These three short sentences are shouting loud and clear: make sense to those to whom you speak.
To the majority of you, who can’t be labelled business types, I apologise. It’s the fourth paragraph but it’s never too late to say sorry. If I have whetted your appetite for what sounds like a summer blockbuster then you may call me a fraud. That last word helps us get on the right track. We all know what fraud is and are doubtless aware of businesses who have been charged with it. This is what I am writing about here: business and finance. Or the inter-galactic language often used to cover it.
My movie tag has three terms from the world of business and finance. The second paragraph provides the definition of two of them. (Apologies for the word search task.) The third word is monoline and I have found a wonderful line from a journalist who makes the meaning almost self-explanatory:
“The first thing to understand about monolines is that they are not monolines”
Understand that I don’t understand. Surely this is not information that I need. This must be for the boardroom or the lecture theatre? Yes, if anywhere, it should be there. It must also be on the pages of papers like this in the lingua franca of our readers. The world of business and finance impacts on you: it effects how much you can spend, how secure your assets are and what plans you can make for the future.
I think we are all aware of the much, and rightly, publicised credit crunch. We read of bank runs, house-price crashes and get the general point that the global banking system has seen better days.
The last six months of this has seen papers barrage us with terms, jargon and esoteric language which have most of us running for the sports pages.
Business and financial news is now front page news. Papers, radio, TV, the internet and every medium you can think of or imagine in the future is, or will be, talking about business and finance. It is prominent in news pieces because it is relevant to everyone. Banks have been lending money to people who can’t pay it back and have stopped lending it to each other because the financial system is in chaos. Pensions, employment and house prices are all affected by this and everything else that transpires in the jargon filled business world.
JARGON:
“Obscure and often pretentious language marked by circumlocutions and long words.”
Or to me and you: alienating the reader. Headlines talk of downsizing, reports tell us of companies out-sourcing and feature articles hale business leaders who think outside the box. The headline should declare job losses, the report should outline jobs are being lost to another area and the feature should applaud said business whiz for doing their job…by thinking!
Many of the words and phrases used are empty in meaning. The following two headlines didn’t have me mimicking oliver twist, with his cry: please Mr Journalist Sir can I have some more. Ok, not exactly what the Dickens lad said but you get the idea. Feast on the following:
Credit crunch writedowns set to go on
Staking your futures on a hedge fund may not be a good thing
Headlines should grab your interest, entice you to read more. Journalists are in the communication business, there to inform the reader of what’s going on and how it impacts on them.
The use of too much unexplained business jargon has my accusing nature filled with irritation at what is simply arrogance and snobbery. The English language is a rich resource and the perfect tool for the journalist to use when talking to us. It has an estimated arsenal of half a million. The journalist must employ this great tool of the writing trade to explain terms that you can’t omit and replace the jargon that champions the obscure.
Perhaps there is a fear that to banish jargon and business vocabulary born from the world of science is to dumb down the content. It is, however, to make the information accessible; to provide the reader with essential news on issues of relevance to them.
Listening to Andrew Verity, of the Wake Up To Money radio show, gives me hope. He said that his job is to put business jargon and language in a form we can all understand. This is what the reporter is there for and you-the reader (and paying customer!!)-deserve nothing less.
Demand explanations, tell journalists to do their job. Translating business jargon into real speak may not be a simple task but is the task of the journalist not the reader. We are not talking here of information merely relevant to those plying their trade in the city but financial realities that will dictate your spending power and economic security. You already have a job, deciphering another language will not be top of your list for a second. The journalist must be your translator.
I refer all journalists to the first two words in the Economist style guide on jargon:
Avoid it.
