I don’t know who started this, but I always feel frustrated when I see headline along the lines of “USA says” or “China signal”, countries are not people.
I don’t understand why don’t even the best news outlets put headlines like " Official x said this on official order on USA" Or something like that.
I really don’t understand who came up with this way of reporting where they report on officials as their country and I always thought that this is dumb.
I always assumed that it was to quickly delineate what people say in their capacity as a citizen vs what they say in their capacity as a representative of their government.
“Sarah Carter, from the Canadian embassy, says to avoid the all-you-can-eat buffet” could be interpreted as a personal opinion. “Canada says to avoid the all-you-can-eat buffet” is clearly an official statement.
Plus, sometimes the news may be reporting on a memo or announcement from a government entity which was crafted by several people and has no author listed.
In that case, it can reported on in formal way.
“Russian official said” Or even “Chinese Minister of Foreign Affairs said Russia should try to calm down”.
You get my point.
They are ‘representatives’. The US President or relevant diplomat literally speak for the country which is why the language is appropriate. Like it or not, your leader (and their delegates) speaks for you in an official capacity which is what that kind of dialogue describes. The extra specificity you desire is superfluous and actually subtracts from truly describing what is going on.
Being awarded with a Medal of Honour by Biden? No. Biden isn’t giving you a datta-boy. The entire nation is expressing their gratitude. Is it fair that an entire nation gets marred by 1 individual’s buffoonery (exhibit A: Trump’s entire first term)? No. Accurate? Yes (see the next 4 years).
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Headline#Headlinese