The fascination with death
2004-07-29 16:47
Cape Town - On Tuesday, News24 asked its users to tell us what they thought about
Johann van Tonder's column, Things you shouldn't see.
The article described the reaction of journalism students to the video of the beheading of American hostage Nick Berg in Iraq.
Some of our users firmly believe that the Berg video is a fake. Some say that "shock therapy" is necessary (no matter how disgusting it is), and that journalism students ought to see such footage in order to prepare for the "real" world. A picture is worth a thousand words. "Only by seeing, will humans believe."
It is time that the public sees what's going on. You can keep your mouth shut and be led to the slaughter or you can stand up (just as Bush has) and say 'to hell with it' we are not going to be witness to senseless killings by fanatical groups. - Edgar Claassen
The rest of our users felt that "showing the video would do more harm than good", that it is not necessary to see such brutality, that they were sorry they saw it and that it was something most cannot handle.
They were in agreement with Johann that there are certain things that people should not see. "Totally dumbstruck," not able to get the images of the beheading out of their minds, News24 detected a huge sense of regret amongst its users who had watched the video.
I watched the Berg killing with horror. Having served in the military during South Africa's township wars, and remembering the killings that took place in Thokoza and Kathlehong in the early 90s, I had always felt removed from death, when seen enough times, one tends to 'switch off' to horror quite quickly. But the Berg killing made me feel dirty, sick and angry. - Grant Howard
Second-hand trauma, and the impact of videos such as the Berg beheading video on the way it alters our perceptions of the world we live in, were other issues addressed by our users.
By wilfully exposing yourself to avoidable brutality/violence you experience "second hand" trauma, something that I experienced acutely while watching the 9/11 scenes. - Johan Leroux
By exposing myself to this horror I too have affected my outlook on the human race considerably. - Leon Bouwer
But there are loopholes
Why, if the majority of our users said they felt deeply saddened, shocked and traumatised that they had in fact watched the video, and regret ever watching it, did they watch it in the first place?
Is it perhaps normal to be fascinated with death?
News24 received requests for the Berg beheading video link even after we had stated that to screen the video would offer no additional shock value. Yet users still wanted to view it. One user wrote in, applauding our decision not to include the link, or the final images in our gallery. But? he said, could we tell him where to find it?
If there is "no need to search the internet for something so horrific", then why do we do it?
It's the same when there is an accident on the highway; everyone stops to look. People are fascinated with other people's misfortune, with trauma, with tragedy that is not their own. Because it makes them feel better, to know that they are not the injured ones. The same goes for watching hangings and executions.
Bloodthirsty viewers
News24 was flooded with e-mails expressing all the reasons why one should not watch the video, yet in our polls 59% of our users said they think the media should show potentially disturbing images to highlight the brutality of war. The rest feel it is pure sensationalism.
The stories surrounding Berg have been the most popular this year on News24. And our beheading gallery generated enormous interest. In fact, the beheading of Nick Berg and the Iraq war has replaced pop and pornography as top search topics over the last month.
The harsh reality of people getting their heads chopped off has become prime viewing.
And the distinction between fact and fiction is very, very blurry.
The internet has also changed the way the media is handled. Rather than being satisified with what one or two websites may offer them, curious users were able to quickly access the video with a simple online search. We're living in world where ordinary people are exercising the right to decide what they should and should not see. Gone are the days of censorship, and age restriction.
With digital cameras, the web and live television cameras, the sanitised world we once lived in is no more.
I am concerned at the "apparent" ease at which television media displays gruesome scenes from war. I think that there should be more self (industry) imposed control on what footage is displayed by the mass media. - Colin Draper
The internet has allowed unparalleled access to information and visuals and if you want it, the net will provide it. With the Berg killing, a new low was reached, mankind lost some part of our collective morality with that broadcast, and in one swoop my liberal tendencies of media and personal freedom to say and see what one wants, were revised. For the terrorists, the effect was massive, for they have truly terrorised the world and we have lost a part of ourselves forever. - Grant Howard.
Although Johann van Tonder has been criticised for showing the Berg video to journalism students, he believes that he would be failing his duties as an educator if he did not show it. "Journalists have an ethical responsibility. If they know early on that there comes a point in journalism where no ethical or moral justification can be used to justify the screening of such images, then they have learnt something very important at the very beginnings of their career, and it is an exercise worth going through," he said.
But, according to UCT lecturer Peter Anderson, the problem is in reconciling the subjective desire with the social practice. At the same time that students learn that it's okay to watch the image (as subjective desire), they learn that it's not okay to pay for it or produce it for social consumption and charge for it (as ethical behaviour), and conflicting emotions arise.
Even after Johann stated clearly that there are things that we shouldn't see, still we receive requests for the link to the video.
I remember doing a search on the internet looking for the video clip of the beheading. I downloaded it. After watching the first two or three seconds of the beheading, I looked away, and only heard the murderers in the background. I'm very sorry I ever downloaded that clip. I think about it every day, even though I didn't go through watching the whole clip, but it's something I will never forget. I'm saddened by it, I cried, I think about it at night and it haunts me. Yet, I haven't deleted it. - Anthea