By Austin Maho, Ph.D.
08034004204
Nothing captures the social role of a journalist than the celebrated and unfortunate end of Kevin Carter.
Kevin Carter was a photojournalist who was a recipient of the prestigious Pulitzer Prize for his photograph depicting the 1993 famine in Sudan
Carter shot the iconic image of a severely malnourished child, crawling on the ground from what seems hunger and exhaustion, while a big bald vulture lurked closely, ominously waiting for the child to take his last breath so it can pick what remains of his carcass.
Carter sold the picture to The New York Times. The photograph first appeared on 26 March 1993 and eventually syndicated worldwide.
The imagery the photograph conjured was so poignant, that thousands of inquiries poured into The New York Times office demanding to know what eventually happened to the poor child.
Did the child succumbed to death and eventually ripped apart by the vulture?
Did he receive help?
What assistant did Carter offer after taking the picture?
Did he moved on to other shots and left the child to his fate?
These were some of the disturbing questions Carter had to contend with all through his short but eventful life.
Some accounts have it that Carter was traumatized and disturbed that he didn’t do enough to help the poor child.
In July 1994, Carter committed suicide!
Portions of Carter’s suicide note read:
“I’m really, really sorry. The pain of life overrides the joy to the point that joy does not exist… I am haunted by the vivid memories of killings & corpses & anger & pain … of starving or wounded children, of trigger-happy madmen”
Evidently, Carter was traumatized by the events he had had to cover in the cause of his career but was seemingly helpless in doing anything about the pervasive hunger, death, and destruction all around him.
In the face of the incredible tragedy that was playing out before him, what was his choice? Throw away his camera and become directly involved with the subjects he was covering? Or remain detached, do his job and allow his story and photography do the rest by drawing global attention to the immense horror and famine that was then playing out in Sudan. Evidence suggests he chose the latter option and that option became the bane of his life.
The tragic life of Kevin Carter has since raised serious questions as to the social role of a journalist and the danger and trauma they suffer in the cause of their profession.
Are journalists bystanders to the events happening around them? At what point should they get involved and begin to air a personal opinion or offer help to the subject of their coverage probably in defense of their core beliefs and what they deemed as morally right?
We have to remember that Journalists are human beings too, who are active participants in the society, by their vantage position they have access to more inside information than the average “joe”. Daily they are confronted with ethical questions about their roles in society beyond just reporting the news from a detached point of view.
They struggle in part because their most decent impulses are often at odds with the business of journalism and the “objective” journalistic ideals imparted to them in school and the structural confinement of the newsroom and the editorial direction charted by the owner of the medium.
Irrespective of these concerns, Journalists it must be emphasised are bound by the journalistic codes of objectivity, non-intervention, and detachment.
Part of the burden we have to bear as journalists are to insulate ourselves from the story or subject we cover. Whether we like it or not we have to remain stunned and impassionate within the convention of journalistic ethics.
We must maintain the discipline to stand aloof from what we cover as this is the only way to assure readers and audiences of fairness, neutrality, and objectivity, for as Maxwell McCombs notes, “the dominant stance of journalism is professional detachment” that eschews any role other than “observation”.
We must remain neutral arbiters to retain our credibility as true watchdog of society. We are bound to report what happened regardless of what happened or who it happened to. Just as in the Kevin Carter case, he captured what happened dispassionately irrespective of the associated tragedy of the event.
We should resist the natural tendency to take sides or show bias and guide against subjectiveness.
Journalistic codes of objectivity, non-intervention, and detachment are necessary ingredients in building and sustaining the trust that ought to exist between the newsroom and the consumer of the news product. But the question of how we have fared as journalists in upholding these time tested ethical codes is a different ball game altogether.
Journalists in recent times have thrown ethics to the dogs and have become shamelessly and brazenly partisan. In our climes, the convoluted political environment has not helped matters.
We now have journalists of a different faith. Some profess APC and others profess PDP without making any pretense on where they stand on national debate and allowing it to affect their editorial judgment. Neutrality and detachment have been thrown out the window. We no longer have journalists but party men disguised as journalists.
The effect is that the public is being misled by what the media is feeding them. The neutral arbiter of truth has become the oracle of the oppressive political apparatus, lending its voice and giving a stamp of legitimacy and validity to the malfeasance of the ruling elite. The watchdog has become a lap dog and when it occasionally barks it is for the wrong reasons.
It is no surprise that trust in the media and journalists is at an all-time low. Often to call yourself a journalist is to attract opprobrium!
Journalists habitually take what politicians and their handlers say at face value, writing what they hear without ensuring that the fact checks out. They look for winners and losers at the expense of nuance.
They strive to give the appearance of even-handedness by creating a false balance between two sides that do not deserve equal weight or treatment. They elevate politics, polls, and personality over substance and measured analysis.
They discountenance objectivity and detachment and are immersed in the politics of Buhari and Atiku. And by the way many are in the payroll of politicians.
The news is scandalously slanted in favour of the highest bidder. Journalists frequently fly like geese in formation. They engage in herd mentality— one “lead” and others follow. And they delight in spotlighting the screw-up, the mistake, or the gaffe, which might be entertaining to readers but sheds no light on the underlying issues that could make democracy and the task of building a better nation easier and better.
A major factor responsible for bad journalism in Nigeria is that virtually all the media establishments in the country are not running as businesses in the true sense of business. They remain as a mere appendage of the owners. This is a major weakness of media institutions in Nigeria and responsible for the attendant ethical problems besetting the industry. Add this to the fact that nearly all mainstream media outlets in the country are owned by politicians or politically exposed persons, it is easy to see why good journalism is on the decline and most journalist cannot detach themselves from the interest of owners.
However, it is not all doom for the profession. There are journalists doing reporting that is clear-eyed, fearless, and grounded in an honest and detached evaluation of facts and working hard to move the national discourse forward and enrich our democratic values. They are patriots not subsumed by the politics of APC or PDP.
They are the true watchdogs and guardians of our nation. They are true professionals but a dying breed, working under impossible circumstances and at great cost to their personal lives and comfort.
They are the Kevin Carters, who through personal sacrifice and professional commitment can change the cause of a nation, capture the imagination of the people to take action through informed choices, for indeed the pen is mightier than the sword just as a picture can tell a thousand tale.
