I went to the Pan Am 103 Media Panel last night. There were five journalists there who all covered the tragedy at different times and in different ways. One of the things I found most interesting was the discussion about ethics in journalism. One of the professors was at Hendricks Chapel keeping an eye on everyone and she saw a few journalists getting in the faces of people crying and shining bright camera lights at them while they were sobbing. She also told a story of a reporter who got close up footage of a woman who had a child on the flight and just found out about the crash and just fell over in disbelief. He believed it was powerful and great footage but his producer refused to air it because it was too powerful. She was later asked about how she felt being recorded in such an emotional moment and she said it was like being “visually raped.” These were instances where she believed journalists did not honor the privacy of people involved and exploited the tragedy they were experiencing. This is an issue that I think about because it’s hard to know where you draw the line between doing your job as a journalist or reporter and respecting people.
A conclusion she arrived at to outline ethics in journalism was that if someone is not in control of him/herself and does not have the ability to say that he/she doesn’t want to be filmed or interviewed, it should be off limits. I really like this idea and I never thought about it this way, but I think that is definitely true. Nevertheless, I don’t think you can ever actually be taught what is right and what is wrong, it is just a decision you have to make in the moment.
Some of the advice that the whole panel gave was to not be afraid to weigh human compassion to the pressures being felt. Today there is a huge pressure in journalism to be first on a story, give out the most information and almost be as invasive as possible, but many times this is not the best way to go. They also said don’t assume you know how people are going to react to you or the situation. We as journalists need to make almost instantaneous decisions about how to handle a situation and many times there is success down a different road than everyone else is following. Overall I really enjoyed hearing the different perspectives of each of the journalists especially since these are issues that will probably pertain to me in the near future.