Comment by zacmps
2 years ago
> This is just another way for media organizations to distort the news
No, it's not. This is done because stories with images perform better, and obtaining images (& licenses) for photos of every event is not always possible.
Yes, it does distort the news.
If I read a story about a riot and the included picture is from a different but similar urban disaster scene that shows buildings on fire and windows broken I come away from the article with an internal expectation of the disaster scene including fire damage and broken glass -- but that isn't necessarily the case.
This happened constantly with the reporting around the BLM social unrest.
Articles sell better with additional sensationalism, but when the narrative being espoused doesn't conform to reality then it is a distortion, regardless of the motivating factor.
The fact something makes the article perform better doesn't mean it's not deceptive.
Indeed, a major incentive towards inaccuracy in journalism is the pursuit of impact.
'Perform better' is frequently ..not synonymous, but amounting to the same as 'distort[ing] the news'..