STORY BY NATALIE LARIMER
Recently, there has been a lot of debate on whether or not the media should publish graphic or unsettling images and stories in response to the photo of a young Syrian boy who drowned as a result of the migrant crisis and was laying face down — clearly dead – on the beach.
These images upset many people, leading to a call for higher ethical standards of publications and news stations.
I think that’s crap. We need to be exposed to images like that. If we sugarcoat our newspapers and scribble out any real issues in our world, then what’s the point of having the news at all? I understand that it could trigger people with PTSD or something, but if we run it with a warning and don’t paste it front and center on the page of the newspaper, then I don’t see a problem.
In my journalism lecture a couple days ago, our professor asked us if we knew anything about the migrant crisis in Europe. Nobody had even heard of it. I asked my British friends and they gave me a huge explanation about how it’s affecting the economy and taking so many lives. The fact that I’m just now hearing about it is an indication of how our news is being censored.
When there are issues such as the migrant crisis in Europe, we need to be aware of them. We can’t just live in our little bubble of happiness when people are dying because they’re trying to flee their war-stricken country.
Remember everything that happened in Ferguson? What if we had erased any evidence of Michael Brown’s photo on every news source? Can you imagine how angry people would be? I’m mad just thinking about it.
I hate to break it to you guys, but our world is not a wonderful place filled with perfectly frosted cookies and luscious green meadows. Photos similar to the one of the Syrian boy exist because there are real problems with our world. We should know about them. Ignorance is no way to live. If it disturbs you, then you should do something about it instead of complaining about the picture.
