Displaying the Death of Gaddafi in the Media
Monday, October 24, 2011
In the past week the death of Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi has made the headlines in the news and front pages of every news paper. Along with the stories some news outlets chose to show graphic images of Gaddafi after he had been killed. Now one of the major issues is whether or not the media should of displayed these pictures like they did.
In an article by Poynter, it shows how differently certain countries news papers decided to show images to go with these stories. Very few American newspapers actually showed Gaddafi's body after being killed.
In the newspapers in other countries some papers showed photos of Gaddafi before he we killed or photos of the rebels celebrating. However most of the newspapers decided to show the pictures of Gaddafi after being killed.
Is it appropriate to be showing these brutal photos of the death of Gaddafi?
Many people say that the tolerance of these images is starting to rise. In an interview for MSNBC Kelly McBride said that this is occurring because more people search for gruesome images then expected, then when they see them in the media it doesn't bother them.
The Week ran an article that saying that many news companies are defending their decision to show these images. They state that by showing theses photos they allow the public to know that Gaddafi is in fact dead.
Many people feel showing images like these in the media is now becoming unavoidable. The thing that the media needs to do now is decide how exactly to show these images.
1 comments:
In a world with violent video games and slasher horror films it isn't really a huge deal to see an all gored up human being. I saw some of these pictures of him and they are pretty bruta; however, I can't say they do bother me.
I was really surprised that the USA didn't publish many or if any pictures of his death; however, I wonder since it was happening overseas and not on U.S. soil does that make a difference?
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