News Staging: Is it always bad?
What is news staging? Well, one might think it is "Fake News" that President Trump has made famous, but news staging has been going on way before he made this a famous tag line.
News staging is when reporters literally use props or have people do scripted interviews to make a story more dramatic. We see this a lot during times of natural disasters, as if they are not dramatic enough.
Louisiana Senator Mary Landrieu reported to Wikinews that President Bush staged a photo opportunity at the breached levees. They basically removed equipment from the scene to show how desperate the situation was and how much help the city of New Orleans needed. Political experts have looked the other way in situations like this because the purpose was to gain more federal financial aid for the stricken area. This article also gives a brief description of news staging in Biloxi, MS that consisted of a food distribution point being put up and taken down to be used in a Presidential photo opportunity. While the underlying purpose was to get more assistance, news staging is not an ethical practice because it deceives people.
Allegations of news staging during Hurricane Katrina
This article about devastating flooding in Thailand describes a reporter, Tibor Krausz, calling out other news reports for news staging and falsifying information. Ethics Article Tibor was surprised to see how the neighborhoods were trying to continue on with their normal lives even though the water was about knee deep. The street vendors were selling food and the kids were playing in the water. He then saw news teams staging Thai citizens on the top of sandbags and reporting that the area was so flooded that citizens were having to make life or death decisions on how to escape the waters, even though the waters were really only about knee deep. After the news footage was shot, the Thai citizens jumped into the knee deep water without hesitation and were on their way. Tibor questioned the news crew and they implied that this was common behavior.
News staging is when reporters literally use props or have people do scripted interviews to make a story more dramatic. We see this a lot during times of natural disasters, as if they are not dramatic enough.
Louisiana Senator Mary Landrieu reported to Wikinews that President Bush staged a photo opportunity at the breached levees. They basically removed equipment from the scene to show how desperate the situation was and how much help the city of New Orleans needed. Political experts have looked the other way in situations like this because the purpose was to gain more federal financial aid for the stricken area. This article also gives a brief description of news staging in Biloxi, MS that consisted of a food distribution point being put up and taken down to be used in a Presidential photo opportunity. While the underlying purpose was to get more assistance, news staging is not an ethical practice because it deceives people.
Allegations of news staging during Hurricane Katrina
This article about devastating flooding in Thailand describes a reporter, Tibor Krausz, calling out other news reports for news staging and falsifying information. Ethics Article Tibor was surprised to see how the neighborhoods were trying to continue on with their normal lives even though the water was about knee deep. The street vendors were selling food and the kids were playing in the water. He then saw news teams staging Thai citizens on the top of sandbags and reporting that the area was so flooded that citizens were having to make life or death decisions on how to escape the waters, even though the waters were really only about knee deep. After the news footage was shot, the Thai citizens jumped into the knee deep water without hesitation and were on their way. Tibor questioned the news crew and they implied that this was common behavior.
Brian Williams, anchor of NBC nightly news, was suspended from NBC for staging news. He was suspended for exaggerating the war stories he was covering in Iraq in 2003. During his six month suspension, NBC found that he has embellished on several other stories he had reported on over the years. Williams apologized to the American public and blamed his ego for getting in the way. Williams made the public second guess the validity of National news that was given by such a well-respected news reporter. Brian Williams Apologizes
The below You Tube video is a funny example of news staging. The goal of course was to keep the journalist out of harms way, but as she was in her canoe reporting on the dangers of the flooded streets, two guys walked between her and the camera. This was being broadcast live on the Today Show.
I still believe news staging is ethically wrong. The reporter should have disclosed that for safety reasons, they were filming in shallow water.
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