If a woman isn’t married, is she a Ms, Miss or Madam? Frankly, it really depends on the ‘house style’ of the particular media. Ms was not used in the past. The thinking was that if you are not married, you are a Miss even if you are 40 years old. Madam is usually for married women who prefer using their maiden name.
A male is less complicated – he’s just a MISTER. These days, people want to pick their own honorifics. Remember that the media’s role is not about letting you have your way, but making sure the reader has a better idea of who you are. Of course, over time, things can change , so Ms has proliferated. What do you envision of a Ms? Probably a professional working female who is single?
Honorifics depend on the culture the media wants to promote in society and the relationship it wants to cultivate with readers.
But if it’s an arts/entertainment/sports article, media tends to get less formal and might use first name because that’s how most readers/fans know them as. This is the case when they are reported in their respective domains, in entertainment and sports. But if they appear in news outside their domains, they get their honorifics back. Yup, it depends on the editorial policy of the media outlet. (Note that many don’t even have a house style – so just hantam)
For The Straits Times, the honorific is dropped when someone is charged with a crime and restored if the person is in the clear. So getting an honorific is like being conferred a privilege. No more Mr Iswaran, for example. But it’s still Mr Ong Beng Seng since he hasn’t been charged. (Please don’t go on and on about innocent before proven guilty. I didn’t make this rule.)
What about those with PhDs etc? medical doctors will get the Dr as a matter of course even though some surgeons think they should be plain Mister. If you have a doctorate in something other than medicine, which you sometimes see on some business cards, it doesn’t mean you will be Dr So-and-so in media reports. One reason is that there are plenty of honorary degrees around. But you get a Dr if you are speaking about the domain in which you are the expert, that is, your doctorate is about it.
Children don’t get an honorific, like Master for boys. It’s a pretty loose rule though because would a 17 year old be consider a child, a youth or an adult? Sometimes, media gets around this by simply using first names. So she is Student Angie Tan, 16, at first mention, and plain Angie at second mention.
Why not just do away with honorifics, like so many media outlets? At least, it would eliminate one headache for journalists. As I said, that depends on the sort of relationship the media outlet wants to establish with the reader or the image it wants to project. Honorifics are formal addresses and would be out of place in a magazine for teenagers. A more formal outlet would also not address the reader as YOU.
BTW, you can call me Bertha but report me as Ms Henson, although I really prefer Madam. So says the mistress of the wall.
Bertha Harian 