Caustic reactions, pro and con, as AP opts to lowercase ‘Internet’

It’s the end of another era for communicators nationwide: The Associated Press has announced revisions for its 2016 Stylebook.

The “definitive resource for journalists, and a must-have reference for writers, editors, students and professionals” is putting a decades-long debate to rest with one seemingly simple shift:

We will lowercase internet effective June 1, when the 2016 Stylebook launches. #ACES2016 http://pic.twitter.com/vv53323GL6

— AP Stylebook (@APStylebook) April 2, 2016

Associated Press editors made this change—and several others—known in their review of the 2016 Stylebook at the ACES conference this past weekend.

Editors, reporters and PR pros tweeted their reactions to Saturday’s announcement. Here’s a sampling of the mixed bag of responses:

“But the youngs don’t capitalize ‘Internet.’ ”
” The youngs don’t capitalize 'Kansas City.’ “

— Bill Walsh (@TheSlot) April 3, 2016

The AP Stylebook will no longer capitalize "internet.” What a shame. https://t.co/uqWMi8U8fZ via @slate

— Katherine Purple (@katmpurple) April 4, 2016

Failing news service AP de-capitalizes “Internet” in their irrelevant stylebook no one uses anymore. Sad! https://t.co/EWn8PvFMfJ

— Peter Feld (@peterfeld) April 4, 2016

I don’t care what the AP Style Guide says. I will never lowercase the specific network the “Internet.” There’s a very important distinction.

— Whitney Merrill (@wbm312) April 3, 2016

AP finally catches up with @guardianstyle. We’ve been lowercasing internet since 1999. https://t.co/eDy73kWZSc

— Guardian style guide (@guardianstyle) April 3, 2016

A slew of digital newsrooms—Buzzfeed, Vox, Quartz, The Verge, Gawker—chose years ago to go against the AP style grain in not obeying the formality of capitalizing the tech term.

Here’s how the head of U.S. English Dictionaries’ at Oxford University Press explained the Internet’s red tape to the New Republicin 2015:

We use “the” when we talk about the internet, and that perpetuates the usage of the uppercase. It’s the difference between an internet and the Internet. The word’s origins date back to the 1970s, when an “inter-network” was just a collection of smaller networks that communicated using the same protocols. Functionally, the internet of today is just the largest example of an internet—which, incidentally, means that the word entered our vocabulary in lowercase.

Now—as such has happened with many conventional wisdoms in the Internet age—the general thinking has changed.

RELATED: White paper: 10 punctuation essentials.

In response to the AP’s announcement, here’s how The Verge described initially lowercasing the term:

The idea of treating internet as a proper noun came about from the beginning of internet communications. As some argue, the distinction is that the internet we know and use today is just one internet out of many possible internets. It just so happens that the internet we use is also called the internet. It’s like the Sun that we orbit and the sun of another planetary system.

The 2016 AP Stylebook will include more than 240 new and modified entries, some of which have already been released to AP Stylebook Online subscribers. The changes will take effect when the new print edition of the Stylebook is published on June 1, the AP reports.

Here are a few other noteworthy style changes—highlighted by Thomas Kent, the AP’s standards editor:

exponential growth : Used when something has grown by increasing amounts. For instance, a population might increase by 5 percent from 1980 to 1990, 10 percent from 1990 to 2000 and 15 percent from 2000 to 2010. Not simply a synonym for a large increase.

accident, crash : Generally acceptable for automobile and other collisions and wrecks. However, when negligence is claimed or proven, avoid accident, which can be read by some as a term exonerating the person responsible. In such cases, use crash, collision or other terms. See collide, collision.

L: The name of the Chicago train system. Not El.

mescal : Clear liquor from Mexico made from a variety of agave plants.

normcore : A fashion trend that combines “normal” and “hardcore” and is characterized by unpretentious, unisex, average dressing.

What do you think of the changes, Raganreaders? Will you adjust your “house style” to reflect the AP’s?

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