Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott has asked news outlets to stop sharing visuals of the Baltimore bridge collapse, raising concerns about how to ethically cover traumatic events.
Scott’s comments on CNN followed the collapse of the Francis Scott Key Bridge after a cargo ship collided with the support beams early Tuesday morning. After the accident, images and videos of the crash and aftermath flooded newscasts and social media timelines.
“No one needs to see a possibility of their family member being severely injured, or otherwise, over and over and over again because it’s just traumatizing our community,” Scott said.
Mallory Carra, a USC journalism adjunct professor, said journalists must walk a fine line when covering tragedies like these.
“There are human lives lost in certain videos that we take, and we have to take that into account because it can be very traumatic for families, for victims to relive trauma like that,” she said.
While the responsibility of journalists is to truthfully report what has happened, Carra questioned whether or not it was necessary for viewers to be exposed to video of traumatic events.
“There are many, many psychological studies saying that if you keep playing traumatic events, it will affect people,” Carra said. “I think that’s something that every news outlet has to discuss among themselves to find that fine balance because it’s so, so hard because you need to inform the public.”
Graham Robertson, national Emmy-winning producer for NBC Network News and USC Annenberg professor, said that while he understands Scott’s concerns, he sees sharing video coverage as an obligation to the public.
“It’s kind of our jobs as journalists to be able to show what happened,” Robertson said. “It’s not easy.”
From Robertson’s perspective, news outlets should caution viewers before airing the videos, giving audiences the opportunity to decide whether or not they want to continue watching.
“If you warn your viewer that the video could be upsetting, you don’t get complaints,” Robertson said.
Stacy Scholder, an Emmy award-winning television news producer and USC Professor of Professional Practice of Journalism, said that while there’s value in showing the footage initially, subsequent coverage should consider potential impacts to the community.
“There’s a point after you show it initially, when it’s the breaking news of the day, that I think when news organizations can respect the wishes of community, city leaders, government officials,” she said.
A long-time news producer herself, Scholder compared the bridge collapsing to her personal experience with news coverage of 9/11.
“We decided intentionally — consciously — to stop showing the video of the planes crashing into the buildings because it’s so tragic, and because it’s so horrifying,” Scholder said.
According to Scholder, news coverage should consider the ethical, moral and philosophical implications of what it shows.
“The biggest reason is not necessarily to obey a request, but more to think about the impact that this can have on other people,” she said.
As of Thursday, most mainstream media outlets have continued to show the footage of the Baltimore bridge collapse.