The position and the role of a
journalist on the spot after an
unexpected disaster
Dr Bertil Galland, Writer and
Historian, Buxy, France
critical event there is the arrival
of hundreds of journalists, TV
crews etc. This crowd of rival
reporters contributes to the
chaotic pattern of the scene.
What of the apparent privilege, to
be the man “on the spot”?
the real situation. The victims,
the human drama, the combined
reports of the police, firemen,
medical attendants and other first
responder groups all add to the
confusion.
What is the driving force, to
express by words, pictures or
filmed sequences what is
happening?
decided to send a reporter or a
team.
It costs money to the
media. The Newsroom expects
an immediate result and the
Newsroom very quickly after the
event decides in a rough way
what it was all about. They know
better!
couple of hours he must send his
story and while rhetoric might
cover the blank spots it is quite
impossible in such short space of
time to give a balanced account
of the facts.
know. But collectively a certain
feeling of what happened takes
shape very quickly and it might
be false. It requires a strong
character
to
resist
an
interpretation of the facts backed
by a majority of the media crowd.
has taken place, the ethnic or
social context, the political
background etc is not in an
advantageous position.
Every
“attempt to explain” is depriving
his story of its dramatic
dimension and will be misjudged
by the Newsroom - a story beside
the event is a bad story.
Background can come later.
precious time of the reporter. He
is anxious to have missed the
latest official reports (and this
becomes part of Pressure No1).
Meanwhile he does not have
enough hours for the legwork
required to meet all kinds of
people in a position to testify, and
also understand the scene of the
violence and measure the extent
of the impact.
agency
reports
and
TV
broadcasts, and they think –
actually they are adamant - that
they know. The reporter on the
spot has to adopt at least in part
the vision of the Newsroom,
because he was not in a position
to follow all the news. The
Newsroom puts in the titles!
accent on the human side of the
disaster. The failures of the
rescue after Hurricane Katrina
were progressively discovered. If
on the contrary, a reporter on the
spot discovers that the disaster is
limited (some streets away daily
life goes on undisturbed) he, and
particularly the TV team, are
professionally required to avoid
such an image. The assignment
TV
teams
follow
its
requirements, and the Newsroom
follows the emotions of the
public. The terrorists know that.
They speculate on the enlarging
power of the media, adapting
their tactics, aims and methods in
this perspective.
the gathering of information and
the media are very prone to the
well known psychology of the
crowd. The reporters themselves
are assembled in a crowd, with a
group psychology.
with this focus into the collective
conscience of humanity.
All
photographers strive to take, in
all those violent events, “the
picture that tells the whole story”.
These are rare. The media are
submerged by the “expected”
pictures according to the pattern
of preconceived set-ups and
misinterpretations and even shot
cover the Press Conferences and
ignore what was not mentioned;
what happened in the area
beyond the disaster; in the family
of the victims and of the
terrorists. In any event there is a
huge grey zone that escapes
totally the attention of the press.
A recent example is Iran. There
were very few pictures and