barsmart t1_jaaf472 wrote on February 28, 2023 at 12:35 AM

Remember folks, most everything you read nowdays is brought to you via advertising money. Including this reply.

What is the main objective of advertising? To change minds.

That said, the headline should read:

"Pittsburgh Area Woman Killed By Police After Allegedly Shooting At Them"

God damn it that is boring, factual and unlikely to cause clicks, shares and 500 comments that sell more ads after every reload.

burritoace t1_jac4zo2 wrote on February 28, 2023 at 11:03 AM

I get this attitude, but I don't really think an article with that headline would see meaningfully less traffic. Local news is just overly deferential to the police and thus largely incapable of handling this issue fairly.

barsmart t1_jad1b4e wrote on February 28, 2023 at 3:45 PM

Every single news headline written in the past 5 years has been done so with the goal of maximum penetration into social media. The media corps pay a lot of money to 'experts' on SEO, social media placement and trending.

If you put my headline next to the one that was used - I have no doubt that mine would get picked last most of the time.

burritoace t1_jad9sqm wrote on February 28, 2023 at 4:41 PM

I understand what you're getting at, I just think this particular issue has another layer of complexity. "Pittsburgh Area Woman Killed by Police" is actually a more inflammatory headline in some ways, so there is something else going on here. Given that the police seem to be one of the only institutions that get this kind of kid-glove treatment by local media it is safe to assume there is a reason.

barsmart t1_jadcrv7 wrote on February 28, 2023 at 4:59 PM

I wouldn't even know who to compare the police to when it comes to headlines.

What other feet-on-the-ground public service gets treated worse by the media?

burritoace t1_jadhogb wrote on February 28, 2023 at 5:31 PM

Very strange. This is a case where the police are getting soft treatment by the media which they extend to nobody else. Plenty of other institutions don't enjoy this kind of treatment.

barsmart t1_jado03t wrote on February 28, 2023 at 6:10 PM

Premise is faulty.

Local media is very soft when dealing with all EMS and Fire services, to the point of not even reporting on things like Brentwood losing their EMS.

Local media is also very soft on new car dealers because of how much they pay for ads on the local market.

Local media is soft on local media... Bill Hillgrove slams his car into a grocery store at 2x the DUI limit, walks in to pick up a prescription and you have to dig for the article because the local media is busy talking about how he still calls games at 82. Don Cannon freaks out on air and no other stations covered it. (Little factoid, that nights show is the only one missing from the WTAE archive.)

Nobody else? Disagree.