For this week’s final blog task we were asked to conduct a short interview that may aid us in the next assignment, which involves doing research on a particular subject with surveys and interviews. My group chose to research the ways in which culture can impact on reporting on war and terrorism. Due to time restrictions I decided to interview my brother, who is a high school student in year 10 to see what sort of answers he would formulate, based on the types of war reporting that he’s been exposed to.
Aiyana: When you see graphic news stories on war and terrorism, how do you react?
Zac: I feel like our generation has been exposed to many images like this for some time now, particularly since the rise of ISIS and the terror they’ve caused with numerous beheadings and attacks. For me personally, I’m no longer shocked by these images of suffering and terror because I’ve been exposed to violent PS4 games and what not so I don’t get upset or feel sick, I do however feel a sense of gratitude that I’m fortunate enough to have been born in Australia where this is not the norm.
A: Do you think we’ve become increasingly desensitsed to images of war and terrorism?
Z: In a sense yes, we’re shown war documentaries in History class, we watch violent movies and images of terror and war are all over the Internet. The graphic footage shown is becoming more and more available to us because of the internet and war journalists are pushing the envelope in terms of how much graphic material they publish as shock tactics.
A: Did you watch the video of James Foley’s execution? How did you respond to the different reports and articles on this event?
Z: I chose not to watch it because I’m sure it would’ve haunted me for some time but some of my friends did and I’m not sure how I feel about that. I thought it was pretty rough how the photo of his last moments with a knife against his throat was splashed across newspapers around the world I thought that was really tacky and disrespectful towards his family’s wishes to not publish the photos.
A: How do you see these types of reporting changing or evolving in the future? Do you think anything will change?
Z: I don’t think it’ll get any better, if anything I think journalists will start to find ways of getting more up close views of war and conflict, risking their lives even more than they already do in order to get the stories and stay ahead of the pack.
Whilst this was quite a brief interview, I feel like these questions can be integrated into our own research questions for the next assignment.
Aiyana Levin 