As a magazines major, I often am asked why news media portray so much violence and mayhem from around the world.

Why graphic pictures of dead and horribly mangled children in Haiti? Why interviews with sobbing survivors of shootings at a University in Alabama?

My answer: to get the public’s attention and inform people of what matters.

BINOWSKI

A newspaper’s first job is to guide public discourse. The highly respected Associated Press Managing Editors states in its code of ethics, “The newspaper should serve as a constructive critic of all segments of society. It should reasonably reflect, in staffing and coverage, its diverse constituencies. It should vigorously expose wrongdoing, duplicity or misuse of power, public or private. Editorially, it should advocate needed reform and innovation in the public interest.”

By prominently displaying highly contentious articles and provocative pictures, editors and publishers are trying to tell their readers what they believe is important, what they believe needs to be discussed in depth.

For example, an article entitled “Pot users are not police’s focus” was published on the front page of The Red & Black on April 20 to guide student discussion on a hotly debated issue on campus.

Many editors put such pictures and stories in the spotlight for two reasons. Not only do these shocking pictures and compelling stories showcase important issues, they also attract people to the paper. Writers and editors work hard to make the news powerful, gripping and stimulating to the masses so that people will pick up the paper and continue to read it in its entirety. After all, what good does it do to publish informative news stories if no one even picks up the paper?

In 2006, two researchers for the Poynter Institute, a resource for journalists, conducted the first study of newspapers which recorded people’s eye movements as they read the paper. The study found that people are the most attracted to dominant photos and illustrations. As a result, many editors use shocking and controversial pictures for their dominant photos and illustrations.

On April 20 The Red & Black placed a heartwarming picture of a University baseball player crouching down to cheer on a disabled athlete in the dominant position of the front page. While this image cannot necessarily be compared to devastating pictures of burning buildings in Haiti or gravely injured students after a wild shootout, it does demonstrate how moving and influential a simple and uplifting picture can be from an event occurring in our own community.

Some pictures and stories such as this one also inherently attract more readers than other stories. Editors try to use this to their advantage. Once their readers are hooked into buying their paper for their unique, effective and touching stories, they can then read other important stories on the page on issues such as the national debt or tax increases.

Some may say that it is unethical or deceptive for papers to sensationalize certain stories in this way — and, sometimes, when the reporting is inaccurate, it definitely is — but many times, news outlets publicize their big stories in an attempt to fulfill their ethical obligation to the people — to inform them of the important issues and guide their attention.

People must know about the issues that are a threat or a danger to our society and must learn to take pleasure in discovering these events going on around them. As journalists, that is what we endlessly strive to obtain, as we cautiously walk the tight rope between informing the public and entertaining them.

— Brittany Binowski is a senior from Conyers majoring in magazines, and is the recruitment editor for The Red & Black