Graphic post on Twitter fails ethical standards
JEERS TO a Twitter post from a GMA-7 reporter who published in full color and without any blurring a video clip of a shooting in Tondo, Manila on March 12.
Twitter user @qrstuvmojica tagged CMFR regarding the graphic video. The reporter’s caption read: “TRIGGER WARNING | WATCH: Tricycle driver, patay matapos malapitang pagbabarilin ng isang lalaking sakay ng motorsiklo sa kanto ng Raja Matanda St., Tondo, Manila”
As reported by the media, Rolly Marquez, while driving his tricycle, was shot at close range by a man on a motorcycle. Marquez died on the scene while the suspect fled to Raja Matanda Street and abandoned his motorcycle. Police said they recovered two empty shells of an unknown gun caliber at the scene.
Journalists should be conscious always that their use of social media retains their identity as journalists and that netizens regard their content as news. Any post they make should observe the standards of news ethics as they would in mainstream media.
News as public service avoids sensational treatment of the subject. News should not be handled as a commercial commodity nor a tool for reporters to gain social media following. As of press time, the post has garnered 395K views.
Any report on a crime must also be sensitive to the victim’s family who should be informed by police before releasing the information to the media. The video sensationalized and in a way trivialized death, making the dead body an object for voyeurs looking for shock and distraction in social media.
Several weekend newscasts – GMA-7’s 24 Oras Weekend, TeleRadyo’s Sakto, and TV5’s Frontline sa Umaga – also erred by airing footage of the killing and the dead body, although none of them used visuals as graphic as the offending tweet.
All newscasts blurred the video and paused it right before the actual shooting, then cut to the body already lying on the road. Online counterparts news.ABS-CBN.com and GMA News Online also published articles with the blurred video. Only The Philippine Star reported on the incident without using visual elements.
Blurring images however does not always diminish the impact of sensational news treatment on the public. The lack of clarity can be more suggestive, leaving the imagination to respond freely to the sensational visuals or text.
In the past, the media had observed restraint in showing close up photographs of the dead, out of respect for the person’s dignity and privacy. The custom was also an attempt to preserve the profound significance of personal suffering and dying; safeguarding public sensitivity about these particular human events.
Journalist Pennie Azarcon Dela Cruz wrote in the Philippine Journalism Review that “studies that show how constant exposure to violence, in this case the gratuitous reportage of violent crimes, can increase one’s threshold of shock and outrage. One would need more and more stimuli or worsening violence, to react.” Sensationalism diverts journalism from its purpose; distracts attention from such substantive issues as the need for justice, the lack of police attention or the low capacity for investigation to identify suspects more quickly. Crime reporting should promote greater understanding of the patterns of attacks and threats — to inform the public about the need to protect themselves as well as to search for solutions.
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