Two posts by journalists about the Taroko Express No. 408 derailment have circulated on Facebook among people in the news industry. One senior journalist posted a photograph, in which all the reporters turned their cameras away when the victims’ bodies were removed from the scene of the crash. By not taking photos, they showed their respect for the victims and their families.
The other post, which was made anonymously, pointed out how aggressive and bloodthirsty the media are, and repeatedly apologized.
Both posts are intended to reveal the dilemmas and difficulties of reporters’ work on site, and to show their unwillingness to give in to bloodthirstiness.
Presumably they would have catered to the general opinion among Internet users, but strangely, despite that they were circulated among news industry personnel, the responses were not necessarily supportive.
To turn the camera away is equivalent to abandoning the news scene. Maybe this act was meant to be as moving as the legend of the Christmas Truce during World War I in 1914 — for the sake of a higher goal, enemies were willing to drop their weapons temporarily. That media workers — who are in constant competition — put aside their work at the scene means that they chose to surrender their work of communicating facts for a higher goal — be it humanity, or an attempt to establish a new model of journalism.
However, whether to shoot at the scene is one thing, and whether to include the clips in the newsreel, or whether to broadcast them, is another.
If a reporter has to avoid working at the scene to gain public respect for their profession, does that mean society does not need reporters? Is this really okay? Perhaps this is an ethical issue worth discussing in journalism classes.
As for the Facebook post in which the reporter kept apologizing, it has attracted lots of ridicule, as seen on my colleagues’ Facebook pages. In the post, the reporter cited many involuntary situations at work, and then apologized for these situations one by one. It does not qualify as an apology, because it just shifts the blame on to others.
However, judging from the post and a subsequent post from the same source, despite their fragmented content, they express an anxiety about the poster’s work flow and social positioning as a news industry professional.
Although there are a lot of controversies and issues worth reflecting on, the two posts convey a particular phenomenon: Journalists continue to reflect upon and do not ignore criticism from outside the news industry, but news content and presentation are dominated by revenue models.
Someone who is anxious about being trapped in this kind of work environment would do better to choose a medium that is not affected by the profit model.
Journalism is an industry that involves lots of hard work, but it is also a profession from which it is hard to gain generous remuneration.
However, it is a rather idealistic view that every journalist who is willing to devote themselves deserves respect. Sometimes the price of practicing this ideal is paid by society as a whole — the consequences of a reporter’s mistake are sometimes no less than a disaster, so it is not surprising that the profession comes under scrutiny.
As for Internet users who are unable to communicate with media outlets that are not on their political spectrum, people would do better to ignore them, and not waste their time and energy in responding to them.
Chang Yueh-han is an adjunct assistant professor in Shih Hsin University’s department of journalism.
Translated by Lin Lee-kai
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