Author | Nathan Wright |
"Y'all are out here trying to interview people during their worst times... With me shivering cold and my kids wet, yet you still put that microphone in my face." That quote is from Danielle. She's a single mother of three whose house was flooded by Hurricane Harvey. She makes a very good point in her impassioned interview on CNN. Although she does not say it directly, she provides excellent commentary on victim exploitation. Exploitation by definition is "the action of treating someone unfairly, in order to benefit from their [situation and/or] work." This is what many journalists do to victims of natural disasters and other tragedies. They come in with cameras and microphones, shove them in people's faces, and ask about their situation. Natural disasters and large tragedies are where reporters earn awards. Daytime Emmys are determined by who best covers the story. This applies not just to natural disasters, but to large scale tragedies such as terrorist attacks and plane crashes. For example, after the Paris terror attacks in November 2015, 24 hour news channels moved their operations to Paris, where they broadcasted live every night. From there they interviewed witnesses on the street who had just seen horrible, gruesome scenes. They also interviewed people who had lost close friends and loved ones. Many times these people had tears streaming down their faces. But after all, tragedies get good ratings and win awards. In 2016, NBC won the Edward R. Murrow award for breaking news because of covering the Paris terrorist attacks. It also applies to tragedies on a smaller scale, such as homicides, suicides, or car accidents.
Reporters come in and interview these people when they're grieving and have just lost everything, just to get the story. Many times they do this for their personal gain, to get that promotion to a bigger market or to win that award. But this begs the question, how then should reporters cover tragedies? At what point does a simple report on what has happened become victim exploitation? Is it okay to interview people if you're not in it for personal gain? Breaking news needs to be covered. It's fine for a news company to win an award because they covered the breaking news well. But for reporters to run in with lights, cameras, and microphones and say "tell us about what just happened and how you lost everything" is wrong. These people's lives have been thrown upside down. For the media to come in at the worst of times and ask people to share immediately what happened, without even allowing them to have time to process it, is shameful. Is this culture of victim exploitation in the media going to change any time soon? No. At what point does covering a story become victim exploitation? I don't know. But what I do know is that this needed to be brought up, and Danielle is a hero for doing it in such an open, vulnerable way.