Hello,
I think the cultural context should be a big determinant in deciding what we should be posting.
on our news sites. Who our are readers? What are the traditions within those countries in portraying violence? As journalists we have a duty to our readers to be sensitive to the cultural context of our readership. We also must keep in mind that these norms are constantly changing.
In 2005, I got the opportunity to experience coverage of Hurricane Katrina in the U.S and Spain. The Spanish media had no problem showing floating bodies in the streets of New Orleans and other casualties while these images are never shown in the U.S media.
Secondly, in my travels elsewhere I have noticed a strong difference to coverage of warfare. The Western media is hesitant resistant to showing civilian casualties in warfare and rarely shows enemy causalities as well. The possible exceptions are in mass-killings like those in Rwanda or at Srebrenica, which received extensive coverage in the international media and reports routinely included shocking images of the mass graves.
Conversely, in many countries images of those mourning their loved ones is usually muted. While in the United States in particular such images can become iconic. Consider this image of a woman grieving over the loss of her son. In many places including images like this in your story can be considered "too personal" or off limits. At the same time images like this( and other disturbing ones) can have a strong effect on readers and the views of policy-makers.
This is just one example but, I believe the differences are stark. It as if we are often watching two different wars on our news screens. Sometimes, with the Cartoon example or the beheading I think we can get away with just describing the offensive content using neutral language. Still it is important to realize any kind of censorship is dangerous. We should be very careful with the self-censorship we engage in. I do think disclaimers should be put up on news sites that may use explicit material to warn our readers. We should trust our readers as adults to make the choice of what content they want to be exposed too.
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Hi Joe,
ReplyDeleteFirst, very sneaky way of getting us to your blog. I like it! And I will be stealing that idea for next week's assignments, assuming I remember of course.
You're travels have certainly helped us understand how different countries view offensive content.
One of the greatest things that happened in journalism was the camera. You are right, words can be neutrals and even the best adjectives will never capture an event or tragedy as well as a picture can.
And you are right that we should not treat our readers as children. They are mature adults who can decide for themselves if they want to click on a link that shows offensive content after reading the disclaimer.
Take care,
Anthony