HEAR ME OUT
Have you ever taken your phone out to film a dramatic or tense moment?
Hear Me Out is a new weekly series where Journal Media staffers give their hottest, coldest and, where appropriate, temperature-bending takes on what we’re all discussing at the water cooler this week.
If you’ve got a spat that needs settling, or you need the input of The Journal’s extended family of agony aunts, uncles, cousins, etc. then be sure to email tips@thejournal.ie with the subject line Hear Me Out, and give us a take that you think the world needs to hear.
IT IS A dilemma that many of us will face in our lifetimes. You’re walking down the street, you see someone in danger — perhaps in a situation where you are more or less powerless to directly intervene — do you pull out your phone and start filming?
To many of us, the idea seems almost unthinkable, and yet to others, it seems almost instinctive. Certainly, the amount of footage reverberating online from scenes such as car crashes, street fights and whatever else would suggest that many people think of it as relatively standard practice to hit the record button when they see drama unfolding in public (drama is a loose umbrella term here; obviously a car crash transcends ‘drama’).
Indeed, this behaviour is so commonplace An Garda Síochána has, in the recent past, had to issue directives to the public discouraging them from taking or sharing video at the site of road traffic collisions.
This topic of discussion was inspired at least in part by the widely circulated footage of a British man who was killed by a tiger at Yorkshire Wildlife Park after ending up in the tiger’s enclosure.
Footage of the tragic incident has appeared on most mainstream social media platforms in the following days, sparking discussions about the ethics of filming such a moment through a smartphone — and the separate, but closely related, phenomenon of such footage being shared to group chats and beyond, before inevitably making its way onto social media and going viral.
Today, The Journal newsroom offers its analysis around this new, evolving and very contentious phenomenon.
Christine:
Totally understandable, in my opinion. I think very few people do it thinking that it will be ‘content’. It’s more to have a record of something extraordinary happening and send it to some pals on WhatsApp. For me, the bridge too far is posting it publicly on social media.
Annika:
I wonder if there’s ever a security element to it, like having a record for insurance purposes or to hold someone culpable/help in some way as a bystander. It seems that, in lots of ways, a phone pointed at someone committing a crime or a violent act is more protective of the witness than having a weapon to defend themselves.
Shane
Presumably, mobile phone videos from bystanders have been the deciding evidence in some prosecutions, or at least in some insurance claims.
Carl:
Is there any argument to be made that the circulation of this kind of material, and how commonplace it is now, somewhat goes hand-in-hand with something like the US’s plan to stage a public execution in December?
Tara:
The link to the public execution plan is interesting; I’m not sure if it’s a straight line. A bystander filming on impulse is not the same as a government deciding to make a death into something to watch, in my opinion. But both do depend on an audience that’s willing to look and that appetite is already old; sure crowds used to turn up for hangings. Phones just make it faster and easier to access; I think there will always be a genre of person who watches that kind of content.
On a personal note, my phone’s back camera broke last year, and it seriously reduced my impulse to take non-selfie photos/videos of anything. I sometimes forget my phone even has a camera function, and it definitely changed the way I react to situations like concerts/happy birthday songs/cute dog moments because the initial instinct to take my phone out and film is completely gone. Not villainising anyone who does do that though; I think it’s a very valid response in a lot of situations.
Christine:
Interesting. I was at a gig last week where barely anyone took their phone at all, and it was a whole different (better) vibe because it felt like everyone was actually present instead of having the experience mediated by a screen.
Tara:
What was the general age group at the gig? I’ve weirdly found that my parents’ generation are obsessed with constantly filming at concerts. Kind of backwards to the general consensus that it’s teenagers filming everything at gigs, though.
Christine:
Oh, I would love to read a study on that. This gig was mainly 30s and 40s I think, so sandwiched in between those two groups. It was a big old-fashioned venue (Royal Albert Hall in London) so it really drew attention any time anyone did take their phone out.
Conor
We’re predisposed to morbid curiosity because when we see danger, such as a car crash, there is an information gap that our brains desire to be filled because it might help us survive. Given that phones have become extensions of our lives, it’s only natural that the same evolutionary trait to learn from danger would extend to recording videos of other people in distress. Ironically, the danger of everyone’s first instinct being to whip out their phone is that there can be situations where it’d be easy for bystanders to intervene and help but nobody does because we’re all recording from 17 different angles.
Emma:
I also think sometimes it removes you from being a person witnessing an awful thing (in which you cannot intervene, like the tiger) in real time, if you’re watching it through your phone. We’re all used to watching horrific things unfold through our phones, but less used to seeing them with our own eyes. Maybe it’s a way of tricking your brain into thinking it’s something that’s already happened?
Conor
Just to echo what others have said, it’s worth separating the act of watching/recording and the act of posting it on social media. One can be explained as an evolutionary phenomenon, the other is just highlighting how social media has poisoned our minds into thinking likes and followers represent something of value.
Mairead:
I’ve been in situations where something crazy/bad was happening and tbh the last thing I thought to do was take out my phone to film. Firstly, it’s usually unexpected and secondly, I don’t wanna record before trying to intervene/get help. The exception for me is when a man does/is about to do something to a woman, because I know how important evidence is there. But still it wouldn’t be my first thought. And I would never post a video of something bad happening to someone online (and would likely not even share it in a WhatsApp group).
Stevie
I’d wager that most people have, at least once, taken out their phones and hit record when they see something extraordinary happening in the real world, whether it’s tragic or a bit odd. When people are watching something horrible unfold, they’re not aware it’s going to be horrible in real time.
And if they share it on WhatsApp, they don’t think that they’re losing control of it, and that it only takes one person – who’s going to be a few degrees detached from it – to post it on social media. Don’t be that person.
If you’ve been debating a topic with your friends, family and coworkers, and you want the matter settled by the Journal Media Galaxy Brain Trust Council of Wisdom™, then email tips@thejournal.ie with the subject line Hear Me Out.