Another tragic event. Another day of disbelief.
I’m not sure when we lost our capacity for imagining the grief of others without someone from a news crew shoving a microphone into the victim or grieving person’s face. Was it 9/11? The Bali bombings?
Child survivors in Connecticut being asked questions by the media before they talk to counsellors or trauma specialists?
Do I need to witness this? No.
Because I can imagine the horror, the fear that ripped through the school. I don’t need to see that reflected in the eyes of a terrified child who should never have to share the moment they lost their innocence to a camera crew or reporter.
It seems like every disaster, murder or shocking tragedy is leapt on by the media, who hungrily tear into it with the ferocity of a pack of hyenas. No detail is too small to be picked over, however grim.
Why?
It sells newspapers and it helps viewing figures.
We read the gruesome 8 page ‘special’ or stay glued to the TV as live footage of each particular disaster is live-streamed into our living rooms.
We are becoming desensitized voyeurs. We imagine that we are being empathic, but really we are just fuelled by a need to be part of a something bigger than our own mundane lives.We are complicit in the media frenzy.
I read once – “You get the media you deserve”
I shudder to think where this is heading.
Do you think there is too much media coverage of tragic events?
Oh God Yes! I avoided the TV yesterday and steered clear of social media.. it is all too much and sadly people took about 1.3 seconds to turn it & push their own agenda of pro/against guns, religion and faith, mental health.. its a friggin’ tragedy and we all need to have a little respect.
My heart breaks for these people, I can only imagine and I’m sure even then not come close to knowing what anguish they are going throu without a camera shoved in their face asking them to recall their last precious moments with their babies.
The media (and consumer) ought to be ashamed for monetizing and belittling such precious fragile memories
Completely agree Lisa x
I’m skipping over the details, because I am finding this whole thing too difficult to truly consider. SO many things about humanity that freak me the hell out. I don’t watch TV news. I avoid it if I can help it because it just drains me too much and shakes my fragile faith in human nature. BUT I will ask this: why *does* bad news sell better than good? Do we know this for fact, and if so, why?
I’m with you S. x
Yes but it’s the way of the stupid world. I cannot believe they interviewed young children. We watched the news for the first time tonight cos the kids were out the back playing cricket. Wish we hadn’t. I shall avoid it (this is the first blog I’ve clicked to read about it) but this in no way lessens the feelings of empathy I have for the relatives of those poor kids and adults senselessly killed. xx
I haven’t watched either just too stunned with what passes for news x
After reading about this horrific event early on Saturday morning I decided not to turn the tv on. I knew that I would find it too harrowing. I guess the reporters are going for the most shocking angle because (very sadly) that’s what sells.
Yes, unfortunately that’s true
Possibly the best thing of yours that I’ve read.
Thank you x
Beautifully, perfectly put.
One of the many reasons I’ve avoided coverage. I don’t want to be a grief voyeur.
In other, far less important news, back on my meds I go.
Too much heartbreak.
Xxx
Thanks for reading love. Sorry to hear your very important news x
Not important considering what else is happening in the world! Xxx
It’s so terrible the children are talking to media before grief counsellors. I can’t watch the coverage.
Good postc
I can’t believe it Carly. Thanks for reading x
Suddenly the Hunger Games are looking like a very real (and depressing) possibility at some point in the future…
*sigh*
Sometimes I don’t know whether I’m disgusted or disappointed in the media.
A little of both on my part. Thanks for reading x
Is it news or entertainment? Sometimes I think everyone forgets and it all blurs together.
So true. Thanks for reading Laney x
I heard about the massacre on social media. I made the choice not to read any news items about it, I didn’t want to watch any interviews with those people involved, whether they were children or adults. When did it become ok to sit on the sidelines of peoples grief?
I’m with you Tegan. Thanks for reading x
Oh I just wrote a post on a similar angle, that the media hype these tragedies up because they play on the emotional nerve of people and their reaction to HORROR. It’s almost as if the more horrific and shocking, the more attention and as you say more ‘sales’. Then what? The killer becomes so famous, the story so far reaching, maybe to some sick people it sets a standard; a challenge for outdoing the previous. I know that sounds insane, but do you think these people consider that? Mortifying.
Laney hit the nail on the head I think.
Thanks for commenting Carly.
I haven’t seen any footage. The little stories that have managed to get it into my subconscious are enough. I’m so upset to hear they have interviewed children.
So distressing x
I met someone recently who had to resign from working with a news program the day they got excited because a child had lost both arms in a terrible accident. It had been a ‘slow news day’. I think I would have resigned too.
I was horrified to see parents allowing their children to be interviewed mere hours after this traumatic event.
Oh my god, that is possibly the worth thing I’ve ever heard. I think the parents are too shell-shocked to think straight x
Well said.
The pictures and stories that are feeding through are like grief spam.
I read the stories and these people are real and they will not be forgotten, I just can’t bear to ‘like’ or share those posts. It’s all too overwhelming.
I have read lots of commentary of the nature of ‘grief porn’ and i think this is exactly what you are referring to. Thanks for reading.
I have stayed right away from newspapers and news shows this weekend for this reason. It just makes me so sick. I simply cannot believe they interviewed third graders. Cannot. Believe. It.
Same here. I am hoping that more people switch off/stop buying newspapers, then maybe the media will stop behaving in this way.
We are desensitised. Not just by what we see in the news but TV shows, movies, computer games etc. I was telling my 15 year old only last week, when we were kids on the cop shows if someone was murdered, all we saw was a chalk outline of where the body had been, now it is so graphic. It takes something out of the ordinary to really shock us now …. As we have just been. Very sad.
Very true Sandra. Thanks for reading and commenting.
Breaks my heart. I don’t watch the news anyway. If it somehow gets thrust in my face, all I feel is fear and sickness. How fucked up are we?
Some people are glued to the news 24/7. Why? How is it bring value to your life? How is it making society better? It’s not like anyone is acting upon it to improve. If they were then maybe the news would be a good thing. But they are not. They are just watching it to feel better about their own lives and be involved in drama.
I have people in my life that race to tell me every bad news story. I want to scream- I don’t want to fucking know. It’s not that I don’t care or am not compassionate, but I don’t want to be an intruder into people’s grief and me knowing about it is not going to help them.
The single best thing I can do to help the world is make the best version of myself possible. Practice kind thoughts, kind words, kind deeds always. That is the only way we can change our world. Each person doing this individually will help the whole.
The media disgust me and have so much to answer to, so do the people continually consuming this stuff.
I don’t even have to watch the news to have the images in my head constantly. I’ve taught in elementary school in the US so feel a little bit closer to what happened. I know the layout of the schools, the structure of the day, the goodness of the people, the innocence of the children and all I can see is that person who should never be named destroying the lives of so many and taking away someone’s babies. I’m struggling to remove the rage. Watching the news will never help me. Making money off this catastrophe is sickening.
the only thing I watched was Obama’s speech, a man of inspiration and hope who said it best, “Our community needs everyone to be at their best.”
And that is what I plan to do.
And hug my babies tightly and give so much thanks that I am fortunate enough to be able to do so. I wish I could somehow carry some of the pain for those mothers and fathers whose right to hug their child has been stolen from them
Completely agree. Think news has become entertainment for too many people xx