Picture this: Compelling local media images

By Joe Coffey / The Fifth Estate

Corridor media outlets, please figure out how to put engaging, fitting, real images on the stories you produce.

At the very moment Iโ€™m writing this curmudยญgeonly piece of media criticism, the Gazetteโ€™s lead web story features a generic image of a police car light bar. KGANโ€™s lead web story image is the Iowa State Patrol logo. KWWLโ€™s shows a generic silhouette of a firefighter behind flames. KCRGโ€™s features a generic image of broken glass strewn across a nondescript road. The photo credit at the bottom says โ€œPublic Domain Pictures.โ€

Why is it so hard to give us a compelling, origยญinal image?

I suppose you canโ€™t blame local media entities for saving a buck when it comes to staffing peoยญple 24/7 to chase shots of wrecks and mid-level crime. Why, then, are stories of that ilk the perยญpetual lead offerings on these news sites? Take a look and youโ€™ll see that the majority of the images accompanying the stories on local media websites are often generic, or at least lame.

Iโ€™ve been there. My KCRG pager used to go off in the middle of the night back in the day, scrambling me toward the latest meth house bust or the smoldering ruins of what was an active house fire before I arrived. I know how hard it is to get a good visual for every story every time.

Some years ago, I recruited Peter Turnley to speak to the budding journalists at the Univerยญsity of Iowaโ€™s School of Journalism and Mass Communication. Heโ€™s an award-winning phoยญtographer who has shot dozens of wars and big events for the covers of Newsweek and Time. Sadly, his presentation touched on the decline of his vocational species. These days, those magaยญzines are more likely to feature something like an artistic illustration of a light bulb above a brain to accompany a feature story pontificating on the origins of American ingenuity or whatever.

Itโ€™s amazing how much Photoshop has changed our culture. Maybe itโ€™s just not a good time to make a career out of photojournalism.

The dearth of interesting local media visuals goes beyond declining budgets and dedication to news. Thereโ€™s a tendency for Corridor media outlets to prioritize story gathering according to their long-established preferred platforms. This, despite the fact that TV, print and radio all have websites and have been competing on them for 20-plus years now. TV stations continue to post videos with the assumption that weโ€™re interested or willing to watch a video instead of read the story and see some pics. Or, theyโ€™ll copy/paste stories written for a newscast onto web pages that just donโ€™t deliver the right experience in that style of writing.

Newspapers are still presenting articles online with the assumption that readers on smart deยญvices have the circa-1975 patience to make it past the third sentence of a drawn-out lead before the โ€œnut graphโ€ (the gist of a story) is presented. They donโ€™t seem to be treating their audiences the way a good business treats customers, reยญsearching media consumption habits and doing whatever is necessary to service them.

The good news is that there are indeed great shooters in this market. For example, the paยญperโ€™s rounds up their best photos every month and puts them online in a video slideshow. You wonโ€™t have any luck finding them via the Gaยญzetteโ€™s search engine, so search โ€œCedar Rapids gazette favorite photosโ€ on Google to find them. Youโ€™ll see artistic photography, great moments at local events and Norman Rockwell-esque slicยญes of Midwestern life thatโ€™ll make you proud to live here in the Corridor. Some of these shots are simply fantastic.

I want to believe that all the Corridor media outlets have talented shooters. Is their work simยญilarly buried while police blotter news wins the main page day after day? Are the triple-duty TV reporters (who write, shoot video and grab stills) not being challenged to come up with something better than a yellow strip of police tape? Are the great shooters not advocating for themselves, pitching photo essays of important events and main page placement until they get it?

Maybe itโ€™s the best time ever to be a photoยญjournalist. The need is definitely there.

Joe Coffey is the owner of Coffey Grande Studios.