It used to be a surprising event for me to come across an article in a vetted news source with an editing error (grammar, spelling, etc.). It would occur perhaps once every five years. Now it occurs almost every day. My background in linguistics makes me regard this phenomenon as a sign of change in language use related to advances in technology and associated shifts in the ways we communicate, but my gut reaction is that this is another in a lengthy list of signs that people’s cognitive and communicative skills are eroding, and (a touch more emotionally) civilization is on the brink of collapse.
What do you think?
Past the Isle of Dogs 
I’m frustrated when I see mistakes in print. I see it with books, I see it with news stories online, and I see it with headlines that flash on the screen for tv. I almost want to offer editorial services to them for free, just to correct the mistakes, lol.
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Me, too!
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TV is the main cause of a decline in reading and the rise of secondary orality. Now it seems to go in overdrive and aim to make people even dumber. Bread and games.
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As someone who has worked as a sub-editor and proofer, I find these skills are not valued so much these days. I blame the electronic age we’re in for this. Getting basic things right such as spelling or syntax is not seen as important anymore. What is important to them is to rush out news stories, or something similar without it getting properly checked first. It takes too much time, so it is no longer considered necessary.
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When the news media went into a recession years ago, the first people they fired were the copyeditors & proofreaders (according to friends in the industry).
Looking for jobs, I routinely hear that copyediting & proofreading are important and necessary skills for businesses . . . But, when they’re asked to pay for those skills, they prefer to give said jobs to the administrative assistants (who lack the training or experience).
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This trend, if continued, bodes ill for our future.
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