WHEN I was young, whenever I watched a movie or television show that was bound to have some bad content, my dad would say: "Now, you know this isn't real, right? It's all fake." And that unreality has not changed. I have no issue with video games and movies that depict death and violence; these can be responsibly regarded as the fictions that they are. But what has changed is the way real death is reported and received in the modern world.
In case you have not heard, a man in Ohio killed himself last week after releasing dozens of exotic animals into the community of Muskingum County. The story dominated the news for a time, accompanied by graphic pictures of piles of dead animals killed by local officials. I could go into detail about this event, but it was the story's media coverage that brought back to me the much larger issue of how death is shown in the news and elsewhere.
These images of slaughtered animals are by no means the worst example of what national television stations have done in terms of reporting death. In Britain, a series on BBC called "Inside the Human Body" broadcast live an old man's dying breath. This was done in the name of science and with the permission of the family. Death, however, is something that should be kept in fictional television shows and movies alone. And when the dying is real, it should be an event only intruded upon by family members and close friends, not the eager-eyed public.
The death of Osama Bin Laden added a new facet to this modern morbidity. Across the major cities and colleges of our nation, celebrations of the terrorist leader's demise erupted featuring crowd-surfing and flag-waving. Like many people, I was waiting eagerly for the day when this evil man would be brought to justice, and I am glad he will never again be able to do harm. This does not mean, however, that it was right for people to gather in the streets and revel in the loss of a human life. Although Bin Laden's death meant a lot to many different people, it was something that should have been kept on a personal level rather than paraded through the streets.
There was a similar response to the recent death of Colonel Muammar al-Qadhafi. Although the celebrations took place mainly in Libya, that did not stop U.S. news stations from showing disturbing images of the dictator after he had been shot in the head. Now, it is one thing to report on the death of a terrorist leader or oppressive dictator, or any person on the planet, for that matter. After all, obituaries are part of the news. But these stories need not, and should not, be accompanied needlessly by graphic images or violent video clips. Such accompaniments are the media's method to raise ratings while viewers gawk at blood-stained faces.
Would stories like Colonel Qadhafi's be as sensational without these images?
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