Ethics in Disaster Reporting

We’ll discuss ethics next week, and ahead of that discussion, please watch these television news stories from the past couple of weeks. Hurricane Harvey has brought some extraordinary television reporting, along with a myriad of ethical issues, as reporters came into contact with people suffering what was undoubtedly the greatest trauma of their lives. The live interview below with CNN’s Rosa Flores went viral.

In another piece of coverage from CNN, a man was filmed as he broke down on the phone to his father, and the camera just continued to roll. For the sake of comparison, have a look at the two different edits of this footage.

Several news reporters also ended up reporting on their own flooding, including an entire tv station that continued working as the flood waters rose. Their reporter also ended up saving a man who was trapped in the cab of his truck.

In another case, a CNN reporter talked us through the process of helping rescue an elderly couple. “I’m going to put the mike down,” he says, as he grabs the frail man and pulls him into the boat.

But some journalists have been arguing that disaster coverage is among the purest forms of public service journalism, and that journalists were unfairly blamed no matter what they did. And to end with some video work in a new format which I think is very striking, please look at this Washpost feature. It looks quite different on laptop or mobile, but I think it’s well done.