Steve from fagstein.com (excellent blog) talks about media firms cutting journalists like there’s no tomorrow. I think this is very normal of any big company: you want to do more with less and unfortunately, quality often goes with it. It’s a fact of life. If you want high quality work, you need to invest a lot of time. You can’t really write anything decent without doing some research and investigation first unless you are very close to the community affected.

What do we get nowadays? We all know about the terrible accident which killed Bianca, a little 3 years old girl, from Ile Perrot. Blame it on the journalist or the neighbours but printed comments like “the mother paid her rent on time” is NOT journalism. Where is the relation between the accident and paying rent on time?

How about talking to other kids, other parents, school principal and teachers where this happened? Don’t limit yourself to the first comment you receive. Go deeper. What will the city do about this? There are hundreds of things to do rather than print mumbling about paying rent on time.

Without pointing the blame directly at them, let’s not forget that journalist don’t have much time. They are part of a bigger machine and that machine is not stopping for anyone. They have to cover a lot of stories so can we expect dedication from them? Well maybe not. Long term dedication? I highly doubt. Can we expect dedication from the community? You betcha! Just look at everyone helping Cedrika’s parent. People in the community care. They posted her picture everywhere. People outside of the community rarely care, if at all.

“Luckily” for Bianca, she was right next to Montreal. Had she been from a very remote area would everyone in Québec still know about this tragedy now? I’m not so sure about this and this is very saddening as a human tragedy remains a human tragedy regardless of where you live. Why does it to be that unless things happen in a large city, they are not worth mentioning?

So what’s the solution to this problem? Journalists come and go just like a “hit and run” accident. Usually, something bigger will come up the nest day and coverage will fade away very quickly. Is this what we want? I guess not. We need a way to keep current issues alive and gather more interest. There has to be a way to spread the word. I’m working on this but I need your help. Let me know how we can make news better. What could be better? What is wrong these days?

I’m listening, email me (info@yulnews.com) or comment below. Thanks for listening.