Page 4, Thursday, January 20th, 1972, WHITBY FREE PRESS Good News or A STUDY INTO THE IMPACT OF REALISTIC NEWS COVERAGE Bad Taste? -by Ji. Quail The jet plane has made the world what many refer to as the "global village". Improved lightweight cameras and p o r table videotape recorders are now w i t h i n the scope of even the smallest of ne w s p a p e r s, radio and television stations. C o m b i n e these facts and you have news coverage that is instantaneous. AI most as soon as the news happens anyw here in the world, it is possible for a news team to be on the spot with good, accurate coverage. . . Sometimes the coverage is too accurate. With the possibility of such accur- ate news coverage today, a problem of responsibility arises. How far should the news go? Should a news media show ail the news or aI I the details of a particular news event? If not, where should the censor- s h i p begin ? Many news teams, espec- ially in North America, are faced with this problem. How far should the news go? One particular question is whether viewers are more apt to turn to violence af ter see i ng vioience on television. Take Chicago. This city viewed some brutal rioting during a political conven- tion. The convention was covered, nat- urally enough, by television'news teams. The ensuing riots were al so cov- eredbytelevisioncrews. It seemed that a s the television coverage swung from the convention to the riots, the crowds s e e m e d to increase until1 there was a f u I I scale war between demonstrators and the Chicago Pol ice. How many peop- le saw those riots on T. V. in Chicago and decided to drive downtown to either g et in v olved and possibl y beaten and thrown in jail ? Are al the detais necessary. Still further questions. . .\Was it nec- essary to show such detail of the riots ? VOLKSWAGEN FOR IMMEDIATE DELIVERY BRAND NEW '72's FROM $2245.00 LARGE SELECTION OF GOOD RECONDITIONED USED PICKERING CAR CENTRE ITI. Basehu. Rd. AMAX 942-188l TiE WITST FREE PRESS (Voice of the County Town) Hornetown paper of Whitby, .Brooklin, Myrtle and Ashburn. Published every Thursday in and for the people of Whitby. '1Offices - 301Byron St. S. Whitby Mail - Box 206, Whitby Phone - 668-6111 Publisher - W. 'Bill' Durkee Editor - Judy Durkee Editorial Staff - J. Quail Display Advertising - Tony Oomen Classified Advertising - Phyllis Millar Circulation - Barry Schroeder This is where the responsibility of news reporting must be estabi ished. How much news should be shown? News coverage or riots or demon- strations is a tricky proposition. When a television station shows news film or sometimes live coverage'of news such as r i o ts, they show what is happening at the cor e. During the filming it may be that the c amera man could only get pictures of the police subduing demon- strators. Itmightnot have been possible for the camera man to show the demon- strators hurl ing rocks and botties. When the viewer sees the news on television hemight see only the police clubbing the demonstrators who may have injured or even kiiled policemen trying to res- tore law and order. Quite by accident, the viewer may become biased against thepol ice. They may feel the police used unecessary force to restrain the demon- strators. Unfortunately the viewer may become biased against-the police. He no t have seen why the police were re- quired to use as much force as was shown by the news teams. Should the cameras have been back two or three blocks and should the film orlive coverage have been for no more than, say, thirty seconds? The point of news is to tel I peoplewhat is happening. Could it be done in thirty seconds? Lee Harvey Oswald Accuratenews reporting can lead to insurmountable problems such as when Jack Ruby killed Lee Harvey Oswald. L iterally millions of Americans wat- ched the shooting on their television set s and in fact, they all became wit- nesses. How could there be a fair tril ? The news reporting had actually shown the crime from start to finish thus mak- ing a fair trial almost impossible any- where in North America. Newspapers cannot report news w i th s u c h s trong impact To the Editor; I have been proud to call Whitby my town because I have always had the feeling that there was a cer- tain spirit of com- munity awareness that made us a bit di fferent. Tonight, iam ashamed. I am ashamed of our Mayor and every member of our Tow n Council. A c ou p le of months ago, the Whitby Storm Damage Relief Fund was organised and these dedicated people believed that with a bit of effort, money could be raised to as does T. V. be- help out those citizens of Whitby who lost so much dur ing the flood last August. Who showed up at the Wine & Cheese party in the Cen tenn ial Buil ding? Our Chief of Police, Mr. Pilk ington, and our town trea- surer, Mr. Mc- Ewen and hi s wife. 1 .ave. .a# feeling that the Mayor and some of council are iaughing. They really got themsel ves of f of the hook. Organ- ize a committee to do your work for you eh Mayor New- man? Well, at i east you along w i t h some ofour Co uncil members could have shown up. cause the visual impact is always strong- er. While reading a paper it is not pos- sible tohear the strain or the horror in the reporter's voice as one could from listening to the radio. A recording was made of a new s broadcast years ago when a derigible blew up and while lis- te n i n g to the reporter giving his l1ive account of what was happening, the l is- tener could hear the strain in the rep- orter's voice. As the reporter described the scene of bodies fal Iing from the burn- ing d e r i gible he fel t the shock of what was happening and eventually he could oni y utter , "My God, oh my God!"1, be- fore he broke into tears. Hearing such an account, the listen- er can feel empathy with the reporter, and the impact of hearing a reporter breakingdownwhile reporting the news can severly shock him. Shoul d the listener or viewer be shocked in this way? Kent State shooting The tragedy of the Kent State shoot- ing was shown many times on television, perhaps too many. How did the friends andrelativesof the dead feel after wit- n e s s i n g the shooting so many times ? Surely the shock was deepened. The danger of seeing death too many times so factually and realis tically coul d cause people to become insensitive to death . Have we seen the famine and sickness in Biafra so often that we just don't care anymore ? S t r i v ing for greater excel lence in ne w s reporting has meant news teams have go n e closer to the trouble than ever before. Many journalists and re- porters have died in Vietnam while cov- ering the war action. Were those deaths necessary? Is the impact of seeing the a c t ion at the war front worth the risk of death to a reporter? Once again the responsibility is hard to define. Continued on Page 5 i would like to offer my congrat- ulations to all of the people who served on this committee. Iwould s a y , done. ' More power to you in 19721 "a job well Joyce Read, King Street, Whitby. WEDDING INVITATIONS Middleton's BUOK STORE'- 113' DUNDA S ST. W. WH ITBY 668.3492 Make 1972 the year you remember as the time you started that regular, month in, month out habit of regular savings. Money put away from each pay is the road to security and independence. Start saving today at Victoria and Grey. VICTORIAd GREY TRUST COMPANY SINCE 1889 Dundas St. W. Whitby 668-5897 W.R. Curry, Manager r - - READERS W RITE