Front page newspaper coverage of the weather often include cliche images to tell an old story.
In the past few days, newspapers across the country have determined that hot weather is among the most important pieces of information to convey to readership. Not that the readers wouldn't already know that it is hot, but once it is officially published in the local paper it becomes news.
In the age of the Internet, however, this sort of coverage really becomes old news, way old news. So why do editors, reporters and photographers spend so much energy putting together front page stories related to what their readers must already know? Pictures accompanying these types of stories often tend to be cliche.
Cliche images are pictures that have lost any sense of originality or force through overuse.
Look at how many times the mass media re-presents "hot" weather using images of kids in swimming pools. Kids and animals are always safe subjects because they have the "cute" factor going for them.
In this age of instant information, when people can get news from multiple sources any time they want, I question the value of allocating so much front page real estate to weather art, when there are so many other important events happening around us.
I can see how a newspaper might justify weather related stories if they are connected to consequence, but much of what I see on the front page with cliche weather art is just plain old fluff.
It seems that cliche images are used as an apology for a lack of real reporting. In a sense, editors justify using cliche weather art because they have nothing else to report of substance or because they think this is what readers want to see. In other words, there is a lot of hot air in the newsroom when it comes to selecting hot weather art.