The power of pictures

[Guest]

The news channels seem hell-bent on replaying the mobile footage of Gaddafi's final moments every few minutes. I find this distressing and voyeuristic. Which got me thinking about all those iconic photographs that seem to distill the horror in a single image. Some will surely remember that photograph of the Belgian man being shot in Biafra, that naked, napalmed girl fleeing for her life in Vietnam and that image of a man falling headfirst from the twin towers. They're all shocking in their own way - and oddly necessary - but I find film of such events disturbing in a very different way. Am i just being perverse here?

[kernelbogey]

I don't have tv but I had the same reaction to the pictures of Gadaffi dead or dying on the front pages of several newspapers. The words that he is dead would surely be enough for most readers - though I think newsmen see it differently. Television lives by images of course so they would see it from that point of view.

[Petrushka]

The news channels seem hell-bent on replaying the mobile footage of Gaddafi's final moments every few minutes. I find this distressing and voyeuristic. Which got me thinking about all those iconic photographs that seem to distill the horror in a single image. Some will surely remember that photograph of the Belgian man being shot in Biafra, that naked, napalmed girl fleeing for her life in Vietnam and that image of a man falling headfirst from the twin towers. They're all shocking in their own way - and oddly necessary - but I find film of such events disturbing in a very different way. Am i just being perverse here?

Not perverse at all. My reaction is the same. I also find the Zapruder film of the Kennedy assassination every bit as disturbing. This endless repetition by the news channels is something we just did not have in those days and people seem desensitised to such images now by this repetition. And that is more disturbing still.

[salymap]

Mahlerei is quite right to be disturbed by the pictures shown these days. I no longer buy newspapers or read about the recent events. Another dictator will doubtless soon be in the headlines, evil knows no limits. Surely it must be a bad influence on the young who have a problem to differentiate between their computer games and reality. Just my views of course.

[kernelbogey]

Mark Lawson expresses a similar view in the Guardian - which ran the picture on its front page and on the home page of its website yesterday - here is his piece (not the picture):

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/oct/21/muammar-gaddafi-death-images-media?INTCMP=SRCH

I wrote to the Guardian's Reader's Editor to express my view.

[mercia]

Instead of watching the news, can I heartily recommend listening to Radio 3 (though not between 6:30am and 12 noon, obviously).

[Sydney Grew]

Mahlerei is quite right to be disturbed by the pictures shown these days. I no longer buy newspapers or read about the recent events. Another dictator will doubtless soon be in the headlines, evil knows no limits. Surely it must be a bad influence on the young who have a problem to differentiate between their computer games and reality. Just my views of course.

I quite agree.