The importance of disturbing images

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This article was published 24/02/2016 (3651 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

“Decisions about photographs and their use will always be difficult and controversial for journalists. The rights of individuals and the sensibilities of the readers must in every case be weighed against news values, and a balance struck that is at once professional and humane.”

— John L Hulteng, author of “Playing It Straight”

“That they disturb readers is exactly as it should be: that’s why photojournalism is often more powerful than written journalism.”

— Nora Ephron, Esquire

Manitoba’s RCMP reported last month that more people lost their lives on roads and highways in the province in 2015 than the previous year.

The numbers were stark — there were 70 fatal crashes in the province last year, resulting in 79 deaths. While that’s higher than in 2014, it remained below the five-year average of 79 crashes and 88 deaths. Yet if motorists would better heed driving conditions, refrain from drinking and driving, and generally pay closer attention to the road, these numbers could be much, much lower.

Every year, RCMP and Manitoba Public Insurance beg the public to help them make roads safer: be sober and alert, take extra time to get to your destination, put away your cellphones, buckle up when driving, and above all, slow down.

On Friday of last week, The Brandon Sun published a photo on our front page of yet another of these tragic situations, this time at the scene of a fatal collision at an intersection south of Boissevain that took place Thursday afternoon.

The image shows emergency crews and vehicles surrounding the mangled remains of a vehicle that collided with a semi-trailer and had become wedged underneath.

In the days that have followed the publication of that photo online and in the print edition, we have taken considerable heat for our choice of image, particularly the fact that it also shows a white sheet covering the victim.

We expect these kinds of criticisms every time we publish strong images. We are told such photos are sensational journalism, in poor taste, an invasion of privacy, a symptom of a media organization capitalizing on tragedy, or all of the above. Further down this page you can read one of the more well-written comments readers have sent us regarding our decision to run the image in question.

We understand these criticisms, and why readers sometimes believe that we go out of our way to “make enemies or lose friends,” to quote John Foley, the former managing editor of The Day in Connecticut.

The reality, however, is not so cut and dry. In our newsroom at the Sun, images of disasters and collisions are always discussed among editors, reporters and photographers. They are carefully chosen to illustrate the news, and in these situations we always attempt to balance the public’s need to know with the privacy of the victims; between professional and humane. There is no black and white answer.

But it is our role in society — our responsibility as journalists — to produce words and images that not only inform sources, readers and viewers, but also to sometimes disturb them. And we do so with defendable justification, especially when there is a potential for harm.

Yet in spite of ourselves, we’re not always great at explaining that role to readers, who have our work distributed to their doors, screens and smartphones every day.

We do not go out of our way to display gory scenes to the public. Yet the unfortunate reality is, photos and stories of collisions and disasters are important for the public to read and understand. Look closely at the photos that we run — you will nearly always see documented within them men and women in uniform who are doing their jobs on scene.

These are the EMS workers, the police officers, the firefighters — whether paid or volunteer — who spend their time cleaning up some of the most horrific scenes of violence and death. They do the work that so many of us cannot. And always it takes a toll on their peace of mind.

It is a privilege and an honour to see them work, toiling in heat waves or in the dead of winter. And we wish they did not have to be out at these scenes so frequently. No one, whether they be an emergency worker or a journalist, leaves a scene like that unmoved — or in some cases, unharmed.

Perhaps, together we can contribute to safer highways.