Jaclyn Gross
COMM 409
Blog 4
Situation Definition-
Earlier this week in South Carolina a White cop was charged with murdering a Black male. There was a video released with of the White cop shooting the Black male continuously in the back. The video is graphic and descriptive. By showing the video, The New York Times was testing a few ethical issues. One being there were no warning signs or introductions that the video would be graphic, which is unfair to the audience. Another issue regarding this video includes video manipulation. The video was recorded by a regular citizen and went viral immediately therefore whether or not the event should have been documented was invalidated.
When dealing with this case there are multiple questions in the back of everyone’s mind. For example, the video gives a fair, true representation as to what happened when police officer, Michael Slager shot and murdered, the 50 year old black man, Walter Scott. The lines and boundaries regarding what is ethical and questionable in the world of journalism are blurry. “Journalism becomes debased if it falls into the hands of unethical media owners and journalisms or when editorial resources are squandered..” Journalism ethics are often questioned because each station and audience has a different view. In this case some may think it is ok to share this video while it may disturb others. This video being released although bringing questions of ethically acceptably to the surface, was beneficial to the public. The video captures each aspect of the events that took place. The audience, the media, and law enforcement can all see what happened with very little questioning. This makes making
I believe that the stations were in the right to show the video. With that being said I believe that the stations owe it to their audience to give a warning of what is being shown in the video. Although it is not specifically graphic violent, the shooting that took place was aggressive and people should be advised in advanced.
Reference:
Ward, Stephen J. A. The Invention of Journalism Ethics: THE PATH to Objectivity and beyond. Montreal & Kingston: McGill-Queen’s UP, 2004. Print.