The News

As some of you may know, last year I became obsessed with two shows: Homeland and the Newsroom. I watched the whole first season of Homeland in about 24h and kept raving about it until the second season calmed me down a bit (until the last episode). It was exciting and hectic and fast.
The Newsroom was a different story. I watched it one episode per week (more or less), enjoying it. The first episode destroyed me then built me up piece by piece. I couldn't believe that such a show was being made. I'm not going to say that the Newsroom is the best show ever made. It isn't. I'm not even going to say it's a great show (Homeland is a lot better). In fact, I'm not going to defend the show at all. It preys on people's emotional connection to "better times past" and to "doing things right", even though, deep down, we know that's not how things actually work. It's an alright show, but let's be honest, the news are news because they're interesting. When they say they will cover the "real news" it sounds exciting, but then, is the real news only international conflicts and politics?

In any case, I don't want to discuss the Newsroom. But I do want to discuss news. I read Metro nearly every day. I also read El País (a Spanish newspaper, more or less left wing) and The Guardian. I read an article or two of the Financial Times, scan through the New York Times and try to read (although this is purely to practice my language skills) Der Spiegel and Le Monde. I like my news in newspaper form, even though I also listen to the radio every morning (lately it's BBC radio 4, but it changes). I like to know what's going on in the world, though I will be the first to admit I have a weakness for celebrity gossip (yes, I know what Rihanna has been up to this weekend in NYC). In 2008, after the Mumbai attacks, I became conscious of how newspaper are illustrated. This is, I became conscious of photojournalism. I don't know much about photojournalism, and more than that, I don't really care about it. The reason it became a small nagging thought in my head is because I was disturbed by many of the pictures of victims of the Mumbai attacks. It had happened before, after the 11M (the bombs in trains in madrid) in 2004, and even after September 11. But it was only after the attacks in Mumbai that I started to wonder if it was ethically or morally licit to show pictures of dead or severely injured people in the media.

Firstly, it has always shocked me that this usually only happens when an act of violence occurs in a developing country. I have rarely seen photographs of victims of violence in Europe or the US (to put two examples). Secondly, permission is required from people who appear on television or on photographs, but I wonder if the same applies to bodies. It probably doesn't, but I can't help but feel that the families of the deceased might not want the pictures to be out there. Thirdly (and least importantly), I find that the pictures are sometimes a way to sensationalise a piece of news. Writing that 20 people have been killed after a bomb doesn't sell half as well as showing a picture of the moment the bomb goes off. But does showing a photograph make the news any more important? Does it make a better point? Somehow I don't think so.

On the other hand, photographs break through. It's possible that some people can read "20 dead" and just skim over it because they've become insensitive to this kind of news, and a photograph shows, in a way, the reality. 20 dead means 20 dead. 20 people who won't get up in the morning, who won't see their parents or brothers or children again. It means 20 lives. Maybe a picture showing destruction, or showing the bodies expresses this feeling better than words can.

I can't decide. On the one hand I feel like pictures of dead people should be avoided in the news as a sign of respect to them, and to their families. On the other hand, I can't help but feel that photographs make us truly conscious of what people dying means, of what war means, of what pain means. It is a conflict. And I guess, the playing out of this conflict is part of the reason I will keep watching the Newsroom.