After reading the article “Disaster Photos: Newsworthy or Irresponsible?” I started to think
of what I would do in an emergency situation. Do I flee or do I document? The
authors of the article argue whether it is dangerous for individuals to take
cellphone pictures during emergency situations. Authors Memmott, Levin, and
Livadas used the photos taken by the plane crash survivor Eddie Ho as an
example. Ho was a passenger on Air France flight 358 when it crashed, landing
in Toronto in 2005. While exiting the wreck, he was able to snap many photos of
other fleeing passengers from inside and outside of the wreckage. Although his
photos were used by many media outlets while reporting on the incident the
question still remains, is it worth the risk to snap a few photos during
emergency situations? I say “no.”
In this day and age almost everyone has a cellphone camera
on them at all times. People are encouraged by social media sites to chronicle
their lives almost hourly in the forms of pictures, tweets, and hashtags. The article raises a very good point, how
safe is it for a person to be more concerned about catching footage of an
emergency situation rather than trying to save their own lives. Personally, I
believe this trend is incredibly irresponsible. There have been many times I
have seen survivor footage and thought to myself, “stop filming and get out of
there,” as the camera person just stands there and makes sounds of concern.
Often times these individuals could be in the way and cause their selves harm
by focusing on getting the picture(s), instead of heading for safety. They can
also stall emergency personnel from responding to the real threat because they
are in the way trying to film. Johnathan
Klein president of CNN calls this behavior, “that primordial urge to record ones’
history.” I call it mans’ desire to have an “I was there” proof video.
Photojournalism and reporting should be left up to the professional news crews
and amateur cellphone photographers should keep their distance.
~Lady Tiffany
Mark Memmot, Alan Levin, and Greg Livadas present the
current issues in the media and the news in their article “Disaster Photos:
Newsworthy or Irresponsible?” The article sheds some light over the issues of stopping
during a disaster to take photos. Today, it is common for just about everyone
to have a camera. They are embedded within phones and even music devices such
as mp3 players. Photos taken by survivors have been helpful in the past to
document historical moments and have been helpful in investigating causes.
Although photos from survivors have been helpful and amusing, media
broadcasters are taking it too far. People are putting their own lives at risk
for the sake of getting the perfect photo and for covering breaking news live.
Helen Muir, professor at Cranfield University states, “In most crash cases, the
average person has two minutes from the first spark to conditions not being
survivable in the cabin.” Two minutes is only an estimated amount of time and
it is unexpected for a person to put their own life at risk for the sake of a
photo. Just because cameras are widely assessable does not mean that everyone
or anyone should risk it all for the history of one photo.
Cameras are a part of our current culture in America. The
advancement of technology is always moving towards the next best thing. A new
technological feature being used today is the use of cameras on traffic lights.
This new camera device captures pictures for those who do not adhere to traffic
laws. This new feature is interesting because the camera is able to capture an
image clearly, accurately, and within seconds. Stopping during tragic moments
to take a picture puts everyone at risk for survival, especially when we
already have technology implemented for the sake of capturing moments that the
average person cannot catch on their own. Dying simply does not satisfy the
importance of catching disastrous moments by photo.
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