With Hurricane
Sandy wreaking havoc on the east coast of the United States, two areas of ‘Watchdog
Journalism’ that intrigued me were the American value of reestablishing order
and the journalism and politics question whether or not journalist should
advocate or help the victims of tragedies.
Media are swimming with examples of how journalists are either standing
by or taking part in restoring order back to the decimated Atlantic Coast.
The headline for Tuesday,
October 30, 2012’s issue of The New York
Times reads “STORM PICKS UP SPEED AND DISRUPTS MILLIONS OF LIVES” (http://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/30/us/hurricane-sandy-churns-up-east-coast.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0
). The use of the word “disrupts” especially
illustrates their point of order being disrupted. The next day the headline read “AFTER THE
DEVASTATION, A DAUNTING RECOVERY” (http://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/31/us/hurricane-sandy-barrels-region-leaving-battered-path.html?pagewanted=all
). Already many headlines on websites
such as Yahoo! are focusing on restoring order in the east. One headline reads “Storm-hit region faces
daunting road ahead” with a ‘heartbreaking’ hotlink to the following article
telling of New Jersey’s devastation among other east coast cities (http://news.yahoo.com/airports-stock-exchange-reopen-nj-devastated-142715604--finance.html
). The article also focuses on the fact
that airports and the stock exchange are once again reopened—a sign of order
amidst the devastation of Hurricane Sandy.
Another article focuses on officials restoring the transportation
systems back to order (http://www.ibtimes.com/hurricane-sandy-nyc-workers-assess-damage-begin-restoring-subway-bus-services-856342
). Indeed, Americans are intent on
restoring order after disaster, illustrating a more optimistic view of the
future.
This relates to another area of
question: should journalists get involved?
Or rather, “Is it possible to be an objective journalist?” As all this devastation takes place, sometimes
in local journalists’ own home towns or states, is it always possible to remain
completely objective?
The following images (links provided) were taken
following the wake of the storm. It is
quite possible that perhaps the photojournalists could have helped the victim
within the picture, but by taking the picture they are remaining more objective
than anything: just acting as a stander-by, snapping photos and moving onto the
next affected area.
We do not know what these
journalists were thinking, doing or experiencing at the time these photos were taken. From this viewpoint, however, they appear
rather objective—silently snapping pictures of people surveying the damage of
their own homes. Perhaps, however, these
photojournalists were witnessing their own neighbors, real people, crying over
the remains of their own homes, memories, and ruined lives. These are current examples of journalists
dancing around the difficult question of whether or not to remain objective
among such emotionally difficult situations like Hurricane Sandy—and if so,
how exactly do they do it?
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