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Over the decades, ever since the
growing popularity of the computer, or more specifically the implementation of
Internet, the media landscape has undergone massive changes. One of the most
important developments in relationship with regards to media content and the
internet is the increasing role of the consumer. As Folker Hanusch puts it in
his article Representing Death in the
Online Age: "The average person with an Internet connection can now be a
journalist."[1] It is no
longer merely the media that monopolizes the content. Today consumers largely
dictate what is shown and what gets traction. Next to that consumers produce a
large amount of the content. In disastrous or crisis situations, citizen
journalism (so the production of content by citizens) has become an important
player in the media coverage during or after these situations.[2] Hunusch’s
article focuses on the way death is present in the public sphere and how the
role of the Internet has affected the way it is represented. This blogpost will
use Nightcrawler to analyze the
media’s fascination with violence and death. Also, we will focus on real-life
examples of the representation of death in the media nowadays.
A recent example on the depiction of
death in the media can be found with the shooting of two journalists in
Virginia, on August 26, 2015.[3] The
shooter filmed his act of violence and posted it to his Facebook page before
killing himself. While most mainstream media outlets didn’t publish the entire
video, many of them showed screenshots and mentioned it,[4]
which made their audience aware of its existence. Those who were curious could
actively search for the video online, while the media outlets could leave the
responsibility letting people see such violent footage to the audience.[5] We can see
here that, even though the media tries to control the degree of violence that
is shown publicly, the Internet cannot be controlled and can thus show a larger
degree of violence to a bigger audience, as the Internet is a global
phenomenon.[6]
The display of graphic images online has little to no boundaries, as long as the consumer seeks hard enough. While established media websites may still censor graphic content, other digital platforms often show the uncensored images. What is the reason for this? Do people want the opportunity to witness such an event themselves? Or is watching executions or other violent deaths just another form of thrill seeking by the online audiences, causing it to have a large viewership? Probably a little bit of everything. As put in the movie Nightcrawler: "If it bleeds, it leads."
The narrative of Nightcrawler is based on the real-life
story of the Raishbrook brothers. They are ‘stringers’. A
stringer is someone who listens to police reports and goes to violent scenes in
order to record them, mostly for local news broadcasts. Nightcrawler follows a stringer named Louis Bloom, played by Jake Gyllenhaal. Louis
becomes a stringer after witnessing an accident on a highway, and meeting a
stringer who records the event. Here he is told: "If it bleeds, it leads," or:
the more violent a scene the more people want to watch it. Because people want
to watch these violent images, they become commodities.[7]
Nightcrawler thus works on two
levels. On the one hand it gives audiences the violence they are seemingly
craving,[8] while at
the same time giving insight into why news media provide their audience with
images of violence, and how that process works.
 |
| Raishbrook Brothers |
It is
interesting to note that the more violent or shocking a scene is, the more
Bloom gets paid for them. The movie follows Bloom as "he blurs the line between observer and participant to
become the star of his own story."[9] He is also
risking his own life while chasing news reports.
In an interview with ABC News’ Nightline about the movie, Jake Gyllenhaal
interestingly describes his character as follows: "He’s part of a generation of
people looking for jobs in a world where jobs are redefining themselves."[10] Even
though his character takes on the job out of pure necessity, he eventually
becomes extremely good at it and is not afraid to even break the law to obtain
the best footage possible. Nowadays, stringers have even more competition to
cope with, since almost everybody has a mobile phone with camera and the
possibility to spread the images they film on the internet. Even though the
quality of those images is less professional than those of professional
stringers, "the Internet is challenging the mainstream media’s control over
images, because many news organizations use the work of citizens as journalists
as well."[11] These
images are often offered to media platforms for free, which gives the
professionals competition that may be deemed unfair. Some news outlets actively
ask citizens to send them anything that they deem newsworthy.[12]
What is it that attracts people to
look at this kind of footage? David Trend gives several examples in his article
‘But We Can Understand It: Beyond Polemics in the Media Violence debate’. Even
though he mainly focuses on publishing and video games, there are several
similarities with the viewing of violent scenes on television and Internet as
well. One of them is the fact that "as with online pornography, the internet
allows people to view hate materials in the privacy of their homes."[13]
Do we really like to see other
humans in immense pain or agony? Not necessarily, because we "take pleasure in
media violence because it is no longer real," and media is presented in such an
aesthetic way that it may even become something beautiful.[14]
The two examples that were given above show that there is only a thin line
between what is real and what is not real anymore. It is very difficult for the
established media, or governments, to have control over all the graphic images
of death that are widely spread on the Internet. They function less as
intermediaries, which shows that ‘Internet has eliminated distance in the
reporting of news of death.[15] What Nightcrawler shows us, that, in order
for news platforms to stay relative, they need to engage in showing graphic
content to a certain extent, even if the content is still censored. If they
would refrain from showing this kind of footage, they are often easily
classified as offering incomplete coverage, which hurts their credibility.
Consumers of news can then decide for themselves if they want to see the
uncensored version online. Of course this opens up a different, complicated
discussion on whether or not established media should censor the truthfulness
that these graphic uncensored images show.
Regardless, consumers of graphic
images easily forget they are looking at images of other human beings. It’s
easy to distantiate ourselves from an image, which is an interesting dynamic,
since the Internet brings us closer to the violence, but at the same time
removes us from it since we no longer easily shocked. It is only when a crisis
hits close to home we realize the awfulness of graphic depictions of disaster.
It is thus so very important that we do not lose the thing that differentiates
us from the technologies that enable these graphic stories, namely human
compassion. We must remember this in our craving of violence.
Should established media inform their audience about the existence
of explicit material of an event, or neglect that information altogether?
Works Cited
Hanusch,
Folkert. “Representing Death in the Online Age.” In Representing Death in the News: Journalism, Media and Mortality.
Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2010.
Trend,
David. “But We Can Understand It: Beyond Polemics in the Media Violence
Debate.” In The Myth of Media Violence: A Critical Introduction.
Oxford: Blackwell Publishing, 2007.
Lewis,
Paul. “ Virginia TV journalists shot dead on air in attack staged by former
colleague.” The Guardian. August 26, 2015. Accessed November 5,
2015, http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/aug/virginia-gunman-kills- reporter-cameraman.
Wheatstone,
Richard. “Virginia Shooter films himself gunning down TV reporter - then posts
horrific footage on Facebook.” The Mirror. August 27, 2015. Accessed November 5, 2015, http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/world-news/virginia-shooter-films-himself-gunning-6325156.
“Nightcrawler.”
Imbd.com. 2014, http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2872718/.
Pitts,
Bryon. “How a Coyote and Real-Life News Stringer Helped Jake Gyllenhaal Prepare
for‘Nightcrawler’ Role." Abcnews.com. October 27, 2010. Accessed November 5, 2015, http://abcnews.go.com/Entertainment/coyote-real-life-news-stringer-helped-jake-gyllenhaal/story?id=26487325.
Saikat
Basu. “Top 7 News Outlets that Accept Your Newsworthy Pictures and Videos.” makeuseof.com.
March 17, 2014. Accessed November 15,
2015, http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/top-7-tv-news-outlets-accept-newsworthy-pictures-videos/.
[1] Folker Hanusch, “Representing Death in the Online
Age,” in Representing Death in the News:
Journalism, Media and Mortality (Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2010),
147.
[2] Ibid, 148.
[3] Paul Lewis, “ Virginia TV journalists shot dead on
air in attack staged by former colleague,” The
Guardian, August 26, 2015, accessed November 5, 2015, http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/aug/26/virginia-gunman-kills-reporter-cameraman.
[4] Richard Wheatstone, “Virginia Shooter films himself
gunning down TV reporter - then posts horrific footage on Facebook,” The Mirror, August 27, 2015, accessed
November 5, 2015, http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/world-news/virginia-shooter-films-himself-gunning-6325156.
[5] Folker Hanusch, “Representing Death in the Online
Age,” 149.
[6] Ibid.
[7] Folker Hanusch, “Representing Death in the Online
Age,” 118.
[8] David Trend, “But We Can Understand It: Beyond
Polemics in the Media Violence Debate,” in The
Myth of Media Violence: A Critical Introduction. (Oxford: Blackwell
Publishing, 2007), 117.
[9]
“Nightcrawler,” imbd.com, 2014, http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2872718/.
[10] Bryon Pitts, “How a Coyote and Real-Life News
Stringer Helped Jake Gyllenhaal Prepare for ‘Nightcrawler’ Role,” abcnews.com, October 27, 2010, accessed
November 5, 2015,
http://abcnews.go.com/Entertainment/coyote-real-life-news-stringer-helped-jake-gyllenhaal/story?id=26487325.
[11] Folker Hanusch, “Representing Death in the Online
Age,” 152.
[12] Saikat Basu, “Top 7 News Outlets that Accept Your
Newsworthy Pictures and Videos,” makeuseof.com,
March 17, 2014, accessed November 15, 2015, http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/top-7-tv-news-outlets-accept-newsworthy-pictures-videos/.
[13] David Trend, “But We Can Understand It: Beyond
Polemics in the Media Violence Debate,” 116.
[14] Ibid, 117.
[15] Folker Hanusch, “Representing Death in the Online
Age,” 149.
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