This archive report was first published on 6 December 2019.
Headlines are meant to be attention-grabbing and concise, but sometimes they can be misleading due to a misplaced word. This was the case with a recent Ugandan media headline that read, 'Uganda's 32 Media Houses Closed.'
At first glance, the headline seems to suggest that all 32 media houses in Uganda have been shut down. However, upon closer inspection, it becomes clear that the headline is actually referring to 32 out of a larger number of media houses that have been closed.
According to the story, the correct placement of the word '32' would be as an adjective preceding the word 'Ugandan', making the headline read, '32 Ugandan Media Houses Closed.'
This is not the only example of a misplaced word causing confusion. Another headline from the same day, 'Fire Hits City's Supermarket', also presents a related problem. The apostrophe 's' in 'City's' implies that Nairobi has only one supermarket, which is now destroyed by fire.
However, by dropping the apostrophe 's', the headline can be rewritten to 'Fire hits city supermarket', transforming the noun 'city' into an adjective that describes one of many supermarkets in the city.
As a veteran journalist, Philip Ochieng highlights the importance of word position in sentence meaning, emphasizing that a misplaced word can lead to misunderstandings and miscommunications, especially in delicate international negotiations.
