Ch.3 "New Norms & Emotion": Pictures of Pain

"Emmett Till- Part 2,Civil Right Movement History Documentary" Video

 

            In this chapter from Image & Ethics in the Digital Age, Jessica M. Fishman argues how the news ethically depict corpses and death for the public eye. By investigating a variety of published and non-published photographs featuring the funeral of one of the murdered students in the Colombine High School shooting, Fisherman highlights the various ways the news can cover death for non-entertainment purposes. For example, she mentions how each picture is rated based upon its "shock-level" or the degree to which it shocks the viewer with the harsh realities of mortality, through the spacing of other objects in the frame and the close-up angle/placement of the actual corpse. But when you think about it, these factors in rating a picture of a corpse as ethical and non-ethical can be quite subjective, depending on the perspective of the person rating the photo. And yes, this idea of censoring images of death and cruelty on the news is still necessary, since content can in some way "incite a phantasym take on meaning, and excercise an effect" (67). So there rises the issues of what defines the public interest and what images can or cannot directly influence the viewer psychologically and politically?

           But I like to add that there are some implications in only exhibiting photos that best suit this so-called public interest. The video above features some disturbing photos of Emmett Till's tragic death in 1954 Mississippi. A photo that stuck out the most to me and had the highest 'shock-level' was the clear, close-up of Till's corpse in his casket. Here, his face is highly unidentifiable from all the bumps and bruises, which in turn makes him to forever be remembered as a victim of hate violence and racism. As mentioned in FMS 85B, Till's mother had an open casket for his funeral so that the media can widely publicize and shred light on the dark reality of racism in the South. Consequently, Emmett Till's murder encouraged many Americans to stand up against hate crime for the sake of African-American Civil Rights. So unlike now, the nature of death and human cruelty back then was a hot topic widely broadcasted for the sake of educating the public about 'taboo' social/racial relations so that all can have some idea of what's happening. So how might this tragic photo of Emmett Till's corpse be any different from photos of commentary media? And does censorship transforms the media to be a non-democratic sphere where certain info/images is more valued than others?