On-line News

Re: "Three arrested in Rideau Canal plunge that left four dead"
The Globe & Mail
*Recent stories have said that it was an honour killing. Pretty gruesome news. We just had a man convicted for killing his sister in Ottawa.
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Excellent that someone finally included a graphic in this story. Graphics are sadly missing in most on-line news. Something easily rectified. Newspapers used to be regional, or national (at least in theory!) but on-line requires a different sensibility.

I am glad that the comments section was closed, too. The Globe posted thos:
Can you imagine?
The journalists I speak to agree with me, as well. Otherwise, the media reduces articles to Facebook status where anyone and their cousins can post hurtful, uniformed notions and opinions and lies about a situation and the reader must cull through information to determine its veracity. I depend upon the journalist to provide a balanced, informed perspective. One based on research, as I would do if I had the time and the inclination to do so. (Which I often do, as you can tell!)

Why these people get away with posting hate messages directed towards the perpetrators or victims of crimes, or toward other commentors. It is really beyond me why they get this kind of byte.

I am amazed at the comments that are permitted to be posted on ALL stories. They really reduce the impact of the dignity of newspapers, such as The Globe & Mail. I am unsure why they post comments that do not rate printing in a newspaper. Why can't they have an editor make choices about who is printed? They allow commentors to rip apart each other, and each other's comments. I am one for a good debate, and have participated in one or two of my own, but this becomes mud slinging contests, as is the way on-line.

I seriously think that on-line news is going to have to rethink the means and methods of presenting news. Their mistake was making their 'newspapers' available for free on-line. Another mistake, is for a print source, originally a newspaper, to post extensive videos that take a long time to load. Or HUGE graphics, ads and images that take a long time to load.

Print newspapers are losing money, and culling staff. They are reducing the amount, the quality, and the type of information we receive. The direction some have taken has gone from experienced writers, with strong training in journalism, and backgrounds in health, education, and the like, to sob stories about sad events in people's lives that include opinions and interpret a story.

There are exceptions, for sure. Judy Steed's one-year sabbatical* on Senior Health Care allowed her to explore world trends. But that, still, does not give her an expertise in Canadian politics of health care, which are tense, indeed. LHINs are cutting hospital beds, Even the US, in President Obama's attempt at health care reform is facing opposition and dirty politics.

I wait, anxiously, to see the direction in which the media takes as they cut small town, local and regional reporters to save money. There has to be a better way around this.

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*2008 Atkinson Fellowship series: Boomer Tsunami by Judy Steed

She also writes a regular column:

Putting to rest fear of `a home'

Judy Steed July 18, 2009
It's a fact that most of us dread "ending up" in a nursing home.