Clark Hoyt Face To Face With Tragedy Analysis

Journalists are more than often praised, honored, or congratulated for their work; however, they also find themselves, at times, being criticized for some of their images. Journalists publish many different genres of stories throughout their career, so which ones are the ones that spark criticism, and is this criticism valid? Quite obviously it’s the stories that include violent images or some sort of malicious act of crime. In order to develop their stories, journalists make their way to the scene of the event and capture many photographs. In their publishing they include many images, depicting dead bodies or gruesome scenes. These are the images that cause the outrage from a portion of the public, with the belief that these people should …show more content…
I, on the contrary to the people that are against these images, approve of the publication of such images. It’s important for these images to be published because in doing so they make people feel sympathetic and encourage them to donate money to the victims.
The first article I read was written by Clark Hoyt, titled “Face to Face with Tragedy.” Hoyt, an American journalist, explores the different effects that these powerful images convey and the journalist’s reasons for publishing them. First, he examined the negative responses from the public, quoting Randy Stebbins for saying, “the numerous photographs printed in the Times showing the dead strewn about the streets of Port-au-Prince are unnecessary, unethical, unkind and inhumane” (Stebbins 2). Following this stance, Hoyt explains that some people, like Mary Louise Thomas, are actually grateful for the images, even though they are …show more content…
The last earthquake to hit Haiti occurred in 1842, killing approximately 5,000 people, while the more recent 2010 earthquake took the lives of over 200,000 people. When the 2010 earthquake hit Haiti some news outlets arrived before much medical staff. The event served as a shining opportunity for the media to respond in a groundbreaking way, but instead people became exposed to images that were “much less humane” (Celeste 4). Celeste described the media coverage of the earthquake as being filled with “videos of dead bodies, including children and the elderly” (Celeste 4) and instead of focusing on the true problem, helping the surviving victims, most news coverage focused on the negative, such as poverty, poor, and crime rate of the country. ¬ “In the most disgusting moment in broadcast history” (Celeste 7), as Celeste describes it, Pat Robertson said that Haiti had it coming because of its “deal with the devil” (Robertson 7). Robertson described Haiti as being a religion-less country; therefore, as a form of punishment for lacking religion Haiti was struck by the earthquake; however, in reality Haiti is a heavily Christian