New mountain road annoys some drivers
CTV says the new configuration of the Camillien-Houde is annoying some drivers because the new traffic lights don’t seem to apply to cyclists. This is clearly because a cyclist cannot make a U‑turn on a downslope and kill somebody, but I don’t think that occurs to them.
Blork 09:46 on 2019-06-13 Permalink
/hmm. If they plan on keeping that configuration I hope they improve the signaling. That one tiny red/green light is hardly visible. Chaos will ensue.
walkerp 09:46 on 2019-06-13 Permalink
Ah once again, pure objective journalism from CTV. No pro-car bias there.
And no byline. Who writes these stories?
You could just as easily write the exact same story neutrally “New Traffic light configuration implemented on Camillien-Houde”
You really trying to tell me there is no influence from the top about these kinds of stories?
jeather 10:47 on 2019-06-13 Permalink
Why would the cyclists need to stop? They’ve got, as far as I can tell, separate lanes so they’re not sharing the lane with the cars. It’s like being upset the pedestrians get to keep walking.
Blork 11:09 on 2019-06-13 Permalink
@walkerp, I think there is something more insidious happening. 20-some years ago, the various news outlets started emphasizing (in their promotions) how they try to “go behind the story” and all that stuff about the “people behind the news” and blah blah blah. Basically they were actively and openly subverting the tradition of fact-based news that focused on the issue in favour of a more emotion-based approach. (You see this more with local news than national news, but not entirely.)
The idea was to make news more appealing by focusing on people and emotions. In other words, turning all news into fluff and entertainment that’s supposed to make us feel more engaged because of the emotional effect.
From that POV, the story is not that the new traffic light configuration was implemented on Camillien-Houde; the story is “how it affected people” (oh the warm and fuzzies!) In this case it appears to have angered some people, and that’s the story. If those drivers had stood there applauding the light, that would have been the story.
It’s easy to think that there is some big car boas conspiracy behind all the pro-car news, but I’m pretty sure it’s just so-called news going after the biggest displays of emotion. And over time, they have learned that anger gets the highest level of engagement.
…and that, to me, is far worse, because it implicates the entire news industry in re-toning the news to make it “appealing” and “engaging” instead of informative.
Kevin 11:16 on 2019-06-13 Permalink
@walkerp
One person wrote it while two others gathered information (one at the mountain, another talking to officials in another part of town) so it got the ‘staff’ designation. One person is still working on this so the byline may change.
The point of a headline is to entice people to read it. As I write this A/B testing is showing that a headline mentioning only the new configuration is not doing well, while a headline about driver anger is getting people to read the article. If that changes, the headline will be changed.
@Blork
I’d argue that emotion is a hook to get people interested in the facts.
Framing an article around how an issue affects people and how it makes them feel has always been important. Look at Studs Terkel (born in 1912!) and his body of work.
It’s all about people.
Joey 12:25 on 2019-06-13 Permalink
What’s the purpose of the one-way stretch? Has the road been made too narrow to allow two lanes of traffic? Or is there a more insidious objective (i.e., we were forced to keep the road open, so we’re going to make it as inconvenient as possible for drivers)?
Kate 12:30 on 2019-06-13 Permalink
They want to slow drivers down, I think. It’s that simple.
Blork 13:50 on 2019-06-13 Permalink
@Kevin, I think the emotion as a hook to get people interested in the facts was the original intention, but like most things it has evolved and morphed into something unrecognizable. On one side you have the suits barking for more eyeball-drawing headlines, and on the other side you have young wet-behind-the-ears journalists who see that emotion-tugging stories are the ones that win prizes and get attention. Result: journalism that more and more takes its cues from lifestyle blogs and the like.
walkerp 14:37 on 2019-06-13 Permalink
So why not interview some bikers? I bet your A/B testing would prefer “Cyclists ecstatic over priority light on Mont-Royal!”
Yes, I understand and abhor the long-term trend of selling emotional satisfaction instead of helpful intormation, but it is the editors who slant it one way or another and you have to start questioning why CTV is consistently generating copy that presents any change as a threat to the lifestyle of car drivers.
Kevin 16:30 on 2019-06-13 Permalink
@walkerp
As I said, a reporter was still working on the story and it has been updated.
I’m sorry to inform you the cyclists don’t like it much either.
Kevin 16:45 on 2019-06-13 Permalink
@blork
I am sorry to say that doesn’t sound like anywhere I have ever worked.
Blork 18:17 on 2019-06-13 Permalink
@Kevin: I can only report on what I observe from the audience’s POV. I hope I’m wrong.
Uatu 06:30 on 2019-06-14 Permalink
CTV 6pm news knows their audience: cranky old people who still listen to cjad, read the printed Gazette and still use snail mail. So nothing new. Just ignore ’em. Their newscast is irrelevant anyways…
CE 15:07 on 2019-06-14 Permalink
Growing up, I used to watch the CTV Atlantic (ATV) newscast and it was first rate. Nobody watched Global or CBC. A couple years after moving here, I was in a house with a TV and caught the CTV Montreal news. They had some cranky old guy (he was some kind of higher up in the organization) who ranted about the Turcot rebuild and some of alternative plans being floated. He suggested that the alternative plans, many of which were drawn up by highly respected urbanists, would include “tofu stands for cyclists.” This man was so ridiculous and so unnecessarily vindictive that I never watched a CTV Montreal newscast ever again.