Shots fired in Rivière-des-Prairies
Shots were fired at an apartment building in Rivière-des-Prairies late Sunday. Nobody got hurt.
Why do some media insist on illustrating a story like this with (in the Gazette’s case here) a meaningless file photo of police danger tape? It takes up room on the page and conveys nothing. Say what you like about QMI, they almost always send a photographer: even if all they can show is police and their vehicles at the scene, at least it’s an illustration of the story.
Kevin 11:24 on 2020-09-14 Permalink
Because the home page layout requires an image.
Kate 11:27 on 2020-09-14 Permalink
I guess so. And you can’t put a cat meme in there.
Ian 12:32 on 2020-09-14 Permalink
Maybe they should… I say generic cop stories should have an image like this:
https://www.pinterest.ca/pin/497858933798797886/
Daniel 12:33 on 2020-09-14 Permalink
When I worked at a news website, we had many edicts from on high about EVERY story needing an image, no matter how generic the image or mundane the story. Every story. (It often had to do with various news readers — apps, feeds, etc. — allowing photo-centric browsing. So without a photo, the story did not exist for that medium.)
Sometimes we’d throw up a generic police tape image and replace it later with live art if we managed to get some. Sometimes the news cycle moved on and other stories rose to the top of the pile and required more attention.
Photogs cost money. You know this, but it can’t be overemphasized how much of this comes down to understaffing and lack of resources.
Michael Black 12:40 on 2020-09-14 Permalink
I don’t see that news in the paper version, but there is one column of very short news pieces, including one about gunfire in Montreal north.
There are always stories that deserve a brief entry but not worth more, or a photo. “Just the facts”, so no need to send a reporter or photographer. That changes with the web, the layout very different, plus it costs the paper very little to add a photo to the online version (the cost is to the reader, who uses up bandwidth or has to wait for the useless photo to load.
If we’re complaining about the Gazette, why not the video that seems to be on every webpage, and starts automatically? And if I scroll down, a smaller version appears. If I wanted video, I’d watch tv. The video is titled with the news story on the page, but most of the time it’s for some other story.