With school shootings and suicides, journalists must minimize harm

in #art6 years ago

Photo by rawpixel on Unsplash

I’ll paraphrase a quote often (and likely erroneously) attributed to George Orwell: News is printing what someone does not want printed. Everything else is public relations.

That quote pencils in some shading on the fine line journalists often walk. We’re bound to our duties of reporting the truth at all costs, often souring us to those we write about. At the same time, most journalists follow a clear code of ethics that binds them.

I often refer to the Society of Professional Journalists’ Code of Ethics as an industry standard. The tenants of this code most often overlooked, in my eye, seem to fall under “Minimize Harm.” Why? Because it’s boring.

It doesn’t fuel a drive to perform excellent journalism like “Be vigilant and courageous about holding those with power accountable” can. In fact, it often gets in the way. It makes us consider how much truth is enough truth.

As much as we’re loathe to admit it, rules often exist for a reason, and this one is unquestionably a good thing. Over time, I’ve come to appreciate how important this tenant of our code is.

It’s this tenant that leads me to conclude that the way we report on certain issues is seriously flawed.

School shooters have been inspired by the promise of infamy, which news reports can give them: Their name scrolling news tickers across the country as anchors recite their crimes against humanity, a low-res JPEG of their face slowly being zoomed in on.

A video of the Parkland shooter (I will not name him, and I no longer think news organizations should) excitedly discussing his future notoriety recently made rounds on the news, contrasting with a New York Times report on so-called “Columbiners,” those who have a cult-like reverence for the Columbine shooters and sometimes use them as inspiration for their own shootings. This report makes mention that the notoriety of these cases motivates others to follow in shooters’ footsteps. The specific, mythological details of tragedies like Columbine inspire them. They’re competing.

Oddly enough, the article isn’t self aware enough to not feature an extended lede rehashing those details.

I tried to find an article with a transcript of the Parkland shooter’s video that wouldn’t mention his name. Most had it in the headline. This NYT story seems to get more right than the others: His name is only mentioned on what I counted to be the seventh reference.

Suicide prevention experts often caution against sharing explicit details of an incident, lest others be inspired in a phenomenon known as suicide contagion, which CNN details in a report here. The author cites a study that claims suicide rates increased by nearly 10% in the four months following Robin Williams’ death.

NPR’s ombudsman acknowledged that mistakes were made following their coverage of the deaths of Kate Spade and Anthony Bourdain, when the methods used were reported in both cases. Reporting that particular detail is a particular no-go because of how it can contribute to contagion.

NPR is not the only outlet to make this mistake. Some went much, much further. If you’ve seen such a report, you’ll understand what I mean when I say the color or nature of the method of their deaths is irrelevant. That’s not journalism, that’s tabloid bullshit.

We should always be looking at how industry leaders are doing things, and how journalists as a whole can be doing better.

For instance, notice the subtle changes in language present in that CNN article. The phrase “committed suicide” is not used; “death by suicide” is preferred, as the former seems to stigmatize suicidal thoughts by linking the action linguistically to murder and other crimes. Attention has been called to this simple change in phrasing this week, and any small efforts that can produce large differences in comfort and safety shouldn’t be ignored.

Reports of the Parkland shooter’s video is a prime example of how we could’ve done better. His face could have been blurred. We could have reported that video’s existence, shared the horror of its dialogue with the world, without giving him exactly what he wanted. Every semblance of him, anything that would give him notoriety, could’ve been removed, blurred or distorted.

We commit so steadfastly to telling these stories, the truthful meat of the matter, that we forget human lives are at stake. When we give a voice not to the voiceless, but to “Columbiners,” we empower them to take more lives in a vicious cycle.

When we detail Kate Spade’s suicide down to the color of it, we endanger others. That is not minimizing harm. That’s not holding those with power accountable. In this case, we’ve empowered the evil. We’re the powerful that need to be held accountable.

I suggest the SPJ, the Associated Press, and other important news industry trendsetters adopt new guidelines to refuse school shooters any publicity or notoriety, and strictly advocate for ethical reporting regarding suicide.

But will they?

AP appears to have been on top of issues with reporting suicides for awhile. It could be that some organizations have been slow to play catch-up, some, like NPR simply made mistakes, and some, like the New York Post, are publishing unethical schlock. If you must click that link, please crank your ad blocker up to 11.

Do better.

On the other hand, SPJ retweeted this article recently, but a cursory Google search brings up nothing from them about how to cover school shootings except a reference to this article about Las Vegas. The grievance? News reports that ISIS had claimed responsibility. Not that the perpetrator’s name and face was thrown across the country without a care for months.

Do better.

No Notoriety” policies for reporting on school shootings, along with similar initiatives detailed in this Vox article, would be a good start. For suicides, it simply becomes an issue of deciding that human lives are more important than small details.

Journalists did not pull the trigger. We did not hand guns to the depraved. We did not afflict Spade and Bourdain with their demons. But the way we tell these stories matters, and if small changes can stop a shooting or hold back any one person from a weightless step, then we must make them.

We must do better.



Posted from my blog with SteemPress : https://selfscroll.com/with-school-shootings-and-suicides-journalists-must-minimize-harm/
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