BID TO HALT NEWSPAPER GALLERY OF GORE
A group of Thai academics is petitioning leading Thai newspaper publishers to halt their almost daily use of graphic images on front pages.
Earlier this year I blogged about this, and how the top-selling newspapers including market-leading Thai Rath doesn't hold back when it comes to publishing images of car crashes.
Yubol Benjarongkij, dean of the communication arts department at Chulalongkorn University said: "I won’t say we’ll be successful, the publishers think these picture make big sales. It’s hard to change that belief."
She's right. It will be hard to convince publishers to change what appears to be a successful model. I always remember the "If it bleeds, it leads" anecdote from my time in the U.K. Bad news and crime on the front page generally means good sales for any publication.
4 comments:
Pat over at Global Post just covered the same topic:
http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/thailand/090511/thailands-front-page-horror-show
I'm always amazed when dealing with Thai newspapers how easy it is to get bloody pictures.
High resolution, you see every piece of flesh most clearly.
There were - still are? - own magazines dedicated to the issue.
So by the same token, will posting that photo boost visitors to your blog? :P
I understand there are many varied reasons (the disturbing nature of image, the rights of the deceased, the potential colouring of a jury's opinion in any resulting criminal proceedings etc) why the display of such graphic images is to put it lightly, unnecessary.
However, coming from Australia where the human element is removed from such graphic depictions of death and violencce, I can see a potential value in the shocking nature of some images.
I have seen countless news reports of road deaths over the years and the absence of any imagery of the human casualty of such incidents has, I feel, a sanitising effect on the report, to the detriment of road safety.
All things considered, I would prefer not to be confronted with such graphic imagery but I just wanted to note that there might be some situations whereby its publication could serve some public good.
Actually, this same pic was posted back in February to illustrate the point for readers of my blog outside Thailand. When I first came here I was shocked how graphic some of the published images are, and as a former press photographer these would never be published in the UK.
I hadn't seen that Global Post story prior to posting .. although it does use one of the same quotes and goes into more details .. if anyone wants to take a look.
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