Via Sheila Krishnan
Daniel Okrent, The New York Times' Public Editor, justifies the gray lady's use of horrific, yet telling images from the tsunami-struck areas of the world. It's an interesting read, though somewhat unconvincing. He writes:
When I spoke with director of photography Michele McNally, who believes the paper has the obligation “to bear witness” at moments like this, she had a question for me: “Wouldn't you want us to show pictures from Auschwitz if the gates were opened in our time?”
I would be very curious to read Ms. McNally's take on using similarly evocative images right after the 9/11 disaster or the bombing of the Federal Building in Oklahoma City. Would she have published images that showed the human element amongst the carnage at Ground Zero, or the grim remains after the bomb blast? I recall seeing images, surely horrific, of people plunging to their deaths from the disintegrating World Trade Center towers. Can anyone remember more intimate and somewhat grisly images from that ill-fated day? I am struggling to remember any of them. The images from Oklahoma, too, were conservative and restrained.
Their absence may, in large part, be due to the way the press has access to the scene. But it may also be an unwritten policy of self-censorship at most publications; in the interest of preserving the privacy and respect of those who are grieving. While I agree with this in principle, the lack of parity in the administration of this policy has me a little disgruntled.
How do Western publications get away with publishing images of strife and pain elsewhere in the world but fail to do the same right here at home? Does a grieving mother in Sri Lanka not have the same rights as that of a grieving mother in the US? Why is the policy different? Why do we extend this courtesy to those in the West, but disregard it when we train our cameras on people who don't look anything like us?Is this a one-sided coin?
It would be interesting to conduct a study on image usage in publications world wide – putting images side by side from disasters in the West and compared them to images from the recent disasters from South and South East Asia. I wouldn't be surprised if The Poynter Institute has already embarked on it. If anyone know of such a study at Poynter or elsewhere, please point it out to me.
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Perhaps they are working in the framework of an institutional memory that is antiquated and slow to react to the modern world. So, subconciously, they are following a tradition that does not take into account the fact that the web brings the NYT all the way around the world. If we are just talking paper, a grieving 9/11 widow(er) is much more likeley to have picked up a NYT than a grieving Tsunami widow(er). Then it becomes more a matter of locality and less a matter of race.
I propose a slightly different study:Make an index wire service 9/11 & Oklahoma photos–national disasters. Make a similar index, with an additional spot in database for geography, of regional disasters (fires, floods, mudslides–things likely to produce gristly photos) and a similar index of very local disasters, again, with grisly photos. Rate all these photos for grisliness. Then ake a bunch of local American newspapers, the kind that don’t publish all or most of their photographs online. Toss out papers from the tristate area and Oklahoma. Adjust them all for the number of wire service photos they run, period. Compare the grisliness of the photos they run for their own local disasters, for their own regional disasters, for their neighbor’s local disasters, and for the neighboring regional disasters, and for the two national disasters. If there is no correlation between locality and non-grisliness then my theory is empty. But if there is some correlation, then it’s very possible the (perceived) disparity between national-tragedy-grisliness and international-tragedy-grisliness is really due to a lag in the photoeditors’ sense that the New York Times is a truly global publication.
Perhaps they are working in the framework of an institutional memory that is antiquated and slow to react to the modern world. So, subconciously, they are following a tradition that does not take into account the fact that the web brings the NYT all the way around the world. If we are just talking paper, a grieving 9/11 widow(er) is much more likeley to have picked up a NYT than a grieving Tsunami widow(er). Then it becomes more a matter of locality and less a matter of race.
I propose a slightly different study:Make an index wire service 9/11 & Oklahoma photos–national disasters. Make a similar index, with an additional spot in database for geography, of regional disasters (fires, floods, mudslides–things likely to produce gristly photos) and a similar index of very local disasters, again, with grisly photos. Rate all these photos for grisliness. Then ake a bunch of local American newspapers, the kind that don’t publish all or most of their photographs online. Toss out papers from the tristate area and Oklahoma. Adjust them all for the number of wire service photos they run, period. Compare the grisliness of the photos they run for their own local disasters, for their own regional disasters, for their neighbor’s local disasters, and for the neighboring regional disasters, and for the two national disasters. If there is no correlation between locality and non-grisliness then my theory is empty. But if there is some correlation, then it’s very possible the (perceived) disparity between national-tragedy-grisliness and international-tragedy-grisliness is really due to a lag in the photoeditors’ sense that the New York Times is a truly global publication.
Tragedy, Skin Color, and Respect
I would actually say that it’s more important to show the images than to withhold. Whether it’s Western or Indian or Iranian or Iraqi, it’s better to give a full accounting rather than withholding and “respecting” someones privacy. If that small inva…
Tragedy, Skin Color, and Respect
I would actually say that it’s more important to show the images than to withhold. Whether it’s Western or Indian or Iranian or Iraqi, it’s better to give a full accounting rather than withholding and “respecting” someones privacy. If that small inva…
You have raised issues which really need to be debated. NYT’s use of graphic images of the killing of four American contractors in Falluja or maybe the picture
of a dead American soldier being dragged in Somalia in 1994, but not the dead bodies of 9-11 or other disastors in the US lead to lot of questions. I remember reading an editorial in the Indian Express objecting to the western media’s use of graphic images, although I dont care much for their analysis, especially about photojournalism. Poynter did an interesting article on photo coverage of the train bombing in Spain and how various newspapers tried to “cleanup” the dead. Is it becuase Spain is a part of Europe? American media debates endlessly about sensistivity when it comes to covering America, but I sadly find it missing or misplaced when it comes to the “other”.
You have raised issues which really need to be debated. NYT’s use of graphic images of the killing of four American contractors in Falluja or maybe the picture
of a dead American soldier being dragged in Somalia in 1994, but not the dead bodies of 9-11 or other disastors in the US lead to lot of questions. I remember reading an editorial in the Indian Express objecting to the western media’s use of graphic images, although I dont care much for their analysis, especially about photojournalism. Poynter did an interesting article on photo coverage of the train bombing in Spain and how various newspapers tried to “cleanup” the dead. Is it becuase Spain is a part of Europe? American media debates endlessly about sensistivity when it comes to covering America, but I sadly find it missing or misplaced when it comes to the “other”.
News for You
In yesterday’s post I had observed that the American media seems to be paying enough attention to the tsunami disaster in Asia. Some bloggers have disagreed but I still will give the Americans some credit for giving us a break
News for You
In yesterday’s post I had observed that the American media seems to be paying enough attention to the tsunami disaster in Asia. Some bloggers have disagreed but I still will give the Americans some credit for giving us a break
Yes clear double standards.Forget 911 . what about hurricanes in florida. check out this cartoon strip talking about the same thing
http://www.imdiversity.com/villages/asian/Secret_Asian_Man/Secret_Asian_Man_Home.asp
http://jackofall.blogspot.com/
Yes clear double standards.Forget 911 . what about hurricanes in florida. check out this cartoon strip talking about the same thing
http://www.imdiversity.com/villages/asian/Secret_Asian_Man/Secret_Asian_Man_Home.asp
http://jackofall.blogspot.com/