The above is an article about an opinion poll on American gun laws taken after the recent attack by a lone gunman in a Colorado movie theater.
I am not going to go into what I think about the attack, but I was struck by this story on the NBCNEWS.COM web site the day I downloaded the link.
Understand, I spent more than 30 years as a newspaper journalist, much of that time designing how the newspaper would present that issue’s news. Story placement often says a lot (although there are other factors that go into the equation like advertiser preferences when appearing in certain sections or on certain pages) about what the editor(s) think are the important news on a given day.
You see this in newspapers all the time. The big story always will appear “above the fold” so that potential readers can see what it is. In broadcast news (radio and TV), the big story always is the first one talked about. On web sites, well, the rules of the old newspaper world somewhat apply. In such cases as this, if the person putting the page together thinks the story is really important, than it will be on the first part of the site you see. That is a given. Where it is placed again will tell you a lot about what the “news editor” thinks you should read first. If it is in the top left corner with a large headline that usually is a signal that says “Read me first.” The reason for this is that in English, we read left to right (other languages read right to left, so putting the lede story at the top right would be in order) and so our eyes enter the page at the top left.
So, the first thing you see usually is the thing they want you to read. Of course, pictures play havoc with this, because if you have a really strong image, that will capture the eye first, mainly because it takes up more space and the implied action is stronger than just printed words … unless it is something like WAR but that would be an attention getter almost any time … particularly in large letters and standing alone.
Anyway, there is an art and science as well as a message to these story placements and the people at major news organizations are paid their “big” bucks to know all three.
In the case of the story above, it was the lede story at the time, which meant the editor wanted me to read it first. Being a guppy, I did.
What struck me most about the story was how the reporter seemed to be amazed that the shooting didn’t seem to sway a lot of people behind the necessity for new gun control measures to ban semi-automatic weapons like “assault” rifles (I have never really understood what makes an assault weapon, unless it is a fully automatic weapon, and if you are referring to “military” style weapons and you are an American, you need to brush up on your law concerning what weapons the unorganized militia is supposed to have) or limitations on how and where people got ammunition for their weapons.
Well, I know NBC News is a progressive group and progressives are enamored with the idea of disarming civilians but still it was very telling that it would put such an assault on the dumb masses for not understanding how correct the gun control advocates are and how wrong those who believe that an armed populace is the greatest guarantor against tyranny are.
So, much for the hows and the whys of the news biz and yet another reason I have gotten really sick of broadcast “journalists” … damn, I hate to use that word to describe any broadcast on-air airhead. My uncle was right … they are a whole different breed and not one to associate with by choice (and he was a former television news manager).
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