 Tiny sample of smiling reporters . |
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After
Rupert Murdoch’s recent
visit to Townsville , he tweeted
that the Townsville Bulletin, one of his many publications, is
an excellent local
newspaper . You would not have expected him to tweet otherwise. There is, however , one glaring aspect
of the paper which frequently , inexplicably, detracts
from the
image of a
caring , sensitive
, local publication
: the use of
graphics of
smiling , happy looking journalists
in tragic
stories about murder, road
carnage , other sad
events and serious
community matters.
The November
4 edition, for example, which
portrayed smiling
Murdoch on the front
page , the report spilling over to P4 ,
with him tipping a boom in
the North , just as he did in Darwin earlier this year , illustrates the point. On page 5 was a large stock head
of beaming
reporter Samantha Healy having
won two awards at a multi media night in Cairns.
The stories
were about a Palm Island
boy who tragically
died from a
preventable illness and devastation
caused by synthetic drug use . Hardly subjects for an article with a happy snap . She deserved
a write up , but surely
with a non- beaming
photo .
On the same
page , there was a pic of smiling
reporter Jane Armitstead
in a story
about drunken crime soaring in
Townsville. Again , not
a laughing
matter . The same happy photo of Armistead was reasonably
used in a
report about news
of welcome rain but surely not
apt for another about a childcare
worker
suing an employer for $260,000
after tripping over at work.
The November
2-3 weekend edition
of the paper
ran the tragic court
case about the man sentenced to life imprisonment
for
the murder of a 16
month old boy . Under the
heading HEARTBREAK RELIVED AS TOT’S KILLER JAILED , see above , was
the smiling face of reporter Emma
Channon . Later , on page 13,
there she was
shown again , same jovial expression ,
in a court case
about a seven year old girl allegedly duct –taped
and gagged by
her father .
A quick
glance through the November
11 edition spotted at least three
smiling journalists in reports
about a grandfather collapsing
and dying after screaming at
children chroming , a toddler
left inside a hot
car at the Townsville Airport
and anger about a
pedestrian crossing where a woman , 86 ,
was hit , receiving
two broken legs. There was another smiling reporter shot in the follow up to the grandfather's death . Ivories were flashed in a report about Mt Isa residents being "dudded " by the Newman Government over funding of the emergency helicopter .
There
are numerous other examples
of inappropriate use of
smiling
reporters in sad and serious
reports. Similar happy photos regularly appear
in another Murdoch paper ,the Cairns Post . One prime example in the Cairns paper this week is the court
story
about a woman whose face was mutilated in front
of a child who will have to recount the horrendous event
again due to one word ruled inappropriate
which will result in a rehearing . Other serious
matters in the same edition had happy reporter snaps. Surely this unsatisfactory situation has been discussed at editorial conference, raised by reporters whose standing heads are inappropriately used in page do ups ?
It is realised that
newspaper nowadays
are often made up in some distant
location down south, some even overseas .
This means the local knowledge of sub editors ( often made redundant) is lost and
strange things appear in print.
Reporters at the Townsville Bully
have apparently fallen about
laughing on occasions due to clangers caused by this situation . One particular case involved a name like
Butterworth being turned into Butterscotch via
the distant page
master . Surely
the editors of the two papers and staff
realise that the frequent
running of smiling
reporter pix in serious
and sad stories should
not be happening .
It is not
a good look that detracts from the newspaper
. What do the journalists think ? It lends
weight to the
old saying that news stories
are just
there to fill
in between the
adverts and that smiling females
make good eye candy...the P3 bird syndrome . NEXT : Another supposed newspaper development which will cause many seasoned journos to chuckle and choke on their pots .
