Category Media analysis

A study on how to report on trauma – the tragic story of Christopher Lane

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The random drive-by shooting of Christopher Lane as he was out jogging in Duncan, Oklahoma deeply affected many people, including his American girlfriend Sarah Harper, his parents and his baseball teammates. Most major television networks, radio shows and print and online newspapers chose to cover this story due to the shocking nature of how he was killed and because he was living overseas in the United States, a country notorious for its relaxed gun laws.

Channel 10 U.S. correspondent Lachlan Kennedy’s story began with vision of Christopher’s family and friends huddled together on a baseball field in Melbourne with the voiceover mentioning the fact that he was “half a world away” when he died. This report focused on providing background information on Christopher Lane, portraying him as a talented baseball player and an average Australian male. Mr Kennedy also broadcast many quotes and shots from Christopher’s parents, who were visibly upset at his death and, while it looks like it may be an intrusion of privacy by media, it is likely that they agreed to talk to the media to tell viewers and the community what it is like to lose a beloved son.

There was also many photos of Christopher Lane and his girlfriend Sarah Harper shown throughout this report, but it is not known whether these photos were provided by friends and family or whether the journalist went looking for them through social media.

The journalist did however look through Ms Harper’s Facebook page and is shown scrolling through it and singling out a tribute she had left on there for Christopher. While this was posted on a public social media page so anyone could view it, some viewers might have been a little uncomfortable with seeing it widely broadcasted on a national television news story as many people may think that she should be left alone to grieve in peace.

The report concludes with Mr Kennedy commenting that Christopher was considering a career in real estate that “could have brought him back to Melbourne” and if it did, he may still be alive today.

Mr Kennedy said that covering the press conference of the Chris’ parents was “incredibly powerful. They told not just Australian but world viewers (because this crime has received global coverage) how special Chris was. What kind of young man he was. It sounds cynical, but in my experience, viewers will often switch off, or forget crime stories unless there is an emotional element to capture their attention. Unless they are shown why they should care about this incident. However, emotion should not overshadow facts”.

He also said that speaking with the Lane family was “without question the most difficult part of being a journalist, but asking for comment from the next-of-kin, is also one of the most crucial.  Our stories should explain who the victim is. Why they will be missed, what time of person they were, how the heinous crime will impact their family”. Mr Kennedy has also interviewed Sarah Harper and said it was interesting that “she refused to speak to American media but was willing to talk to us” and that as part of the grieving process she will often retweet or post on Facebook the Australian media coverage of the trial. He also says “I’ve thought about Chris’s death a lot in the past 9 months. He was a young bloke who moved to the USA to pursue his dream of playing professional baseball. In some respects, I’m doing the same, moving here to explore an incredibly journalistic opportunity. The fact he was gunned down, in a very very quiet and peaceful part of America, as he went for a run, is disturbing. The case often crosses my mind when I go for a jog. I wouldn’t characterise my experience as traumatic however. I have interviewed Jennifer Luna, the mother of the accused shooter Chancey, several times. I am torn between my personal anger for what her son allegedly did … and my sympathy for her… the sheer grief and sense of loss she is suffering is evident. Jennifer’s partner and other son passed away last year. Now it’s a possibility she’ll lose Chancey to a life behind bars. She’s a professional carer who has worked hard to provide for her family. My approach is to always be professional, polite, respect her wishes and remember she too is also a victim of this senseless crime”. 

In contrast to the television news reports, Fairfax U.S. correspondent Nick O’Malley focused on writing about the three teenagers who shot and killed Christopher Lane. In particular there was a large focus on how they came to choose him as “our target” and why they shot him, because “they wanted to see someone die”. The offenders are portrayed as a bunch of bored teenagers looking for a thrill and it is the first article to list their names and ages, with one as young as 15 years old. Through the use of an interview with the local police chief, readers get a real sense of their motives for the shooting from his interrogation of the three offenders, where all of them were disrespectful except for one who is described as “unemotional”.

Police chief Danny Ford also describes how he was feeling, saying “I hate it for thegirlfriend, I hate it for the parents, being so far away,” and also admitted that although he was not shocked by the crime (due to his job), the whole town was. This showed how a traumatic incident can affect not only the family, but also a small town. Mr O’Malley also included quotes from Ms Harper, to describe how she was feeling about her partner’s “senseless” death, a word used in many other reports to describe this incident. Many people affected by this crime also posted condolence messages on Facebook, including Ms Harper showing that social media can be another outlet to express grief when they are not ready to speak directly with the media. Readers also get a sense of what the parents of the teenagers was feeling, with two of them describing their sons as “innocent” even though they had confessed to the crime. This shows that they too are affected by the incident and are potentially in denial about the shocking nature of their son’s crimes.

Radio stations instead chose to interview some of the closest people to the victim and the perpetrators. Neil Mitchell from 3AW spoke to Ms Harper, beginning the interview by gently offering his condolences to her. Mr Mitchell uses this gentle tone throughout the interview and it is obvious that he chooses his questions carefully, most likely because the matter is still very raw and he does not want to upset her. Ms Harper herself did not talk very much and clearly was trying to process the news. While some might argue she should not have been disturbed for an interview so soon after her partner’s death, it does sound as though she wanted to talk, even if only to say thank you to the Australian public for their support. Ms Harper also said “it was a real shock to everybody,” when speaking of the reaction of the town of Duncan, a small town which had a low crime rate. Mr Mitchell also used the opportunity to showcase the differences in gun laws between the United States and Australia and even suggested that if Christopher had graduated from college there and returned home, then he may not have been killed. He ended the interview by asking if there is anything he could do to help. However it was clear that all Ms Harper needed was time and space from the media to grieve.

The media does have to be careful when reporting on traumatic incidents such as a shooting for fear of upsetting or intruding on the affected families or printing details about the person who committed the crime and affecting their upcoming trial.

In the case of the Christopher Lane shooting, it seems as though the media were quite respectful and were therefore able to get access to the family. There were some minor aspects of the reports which some people might have been uncomfortable with. In particular the publishing of the names, photos and ages of the offenders, given that they are all under 18. However, given that according to the district attorney they are to be tried as adults it would be seen as acceptable that their details were published. The other aspect is journalists combing through social media of the family which is a contentious issue as it could be seen as an invasion of privacy.

However, Facebook is a public domain on the internet so it could be argued that the media did nothing wrong. From this incident, as a journalist it is important to always remember that although you may have dealt with reporting traumatic stories on a regular basis, for the people you approach it is not ordinary.

In the Christopher Lane case, a whole town can be heavily affected by not only by the incident, but by how to choose to report it so the need to respect privacy and to above all be compassionate is paramount in all forms of trauma reporting.

Mr Kennedy in particular believes that: “Don’t be afraid to talk about what you’ve experienced. What you’ve seen and what you’ve heard. And don’t hesitate to say NO if you feel a particular assignment will cause emotional harm. Also, be mindful of the stress and trauma your interview talent may be experiencing. I feel our job is to get the facts, not bait people. And you’ll probably be able to sleep better.”

Analysis of media coverage of Luke Batty

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The recent death of Luke Batty at the hands of his father Greg Anderson has thrust the issue of family violence into the media. Although the coverage of this story was very intense and made the headlines nationally, the way various media outlets chose to report on the aftermath of this incident was quite varied whether it was on television, print/online or radio.

The Channel 7 report began with interviews with Luke’s schoolmates as well as showing footage of the oval where he died which appears to be no longer a place for playing sport, but a place to grieve and pay tribute to the “sports loving 11 year old who died at cricket practice”. There is also footage of Luke’s “grieving mother” Rosie Batty attending the shrine. This report quickly shifts from one of sadness towards blaming and focusing on the shortcomings of the police, along with showing clips from a press conference with Chief Commissioner Ken Lay. Journalist Chris Maher also says that Victoria Police “is asking itself some tough questions”. The story concludes on a softer tone with Rosie Batty admitting that “the police do the best they can, they are under-resourced”.

In comparison the Channel 9 report begins in almost the same way with footage of Luke’s friends marching around the oval and focuses on Rosie Batty attending the oval and with almost the exact same quotes from her as the Channel 7 report. Reporter Alexis Daish then becomes very critical of Victoria Police which is highlighted by not only the abrupt tone of her voice, but also by listing the previous incidents (accompanied with an computerised image of a police record) where Luke’s father had been arrested. The report concludes with one final attack on the police by commenting that “just 16 days before he brutally murdered his own son, police had the opportunity to arrest him, but didn’t”, along with footage of her standing outside the Frankston Magistrates’ Court, perhaps to convey that if he had been arrested, then he would have attended this court and potentially been put in jail and Luke would still be alive. Daish admitted that this was a “horrific story and one of the hardest I’ve had to do”.

The Channel 10, ABC Victoria and SBS reports seem to take a slightly different approach. While all three do mention the issues with Victoria Police’s system, they are much less scathing in the language they use with the word “glitch” used to describe the issue with their I.T. system. Channel 10’s story seemed to be more sympathetic to the issues that Luke’s father had even commenting that “Greg’s mental health had been deteriorating”, something that no other news report chose to mention.

In comparison ABC chose to describe Mr Anderson as someone who “terrorised his family for the past 10 years” thus depicting him as a monster. They also spoke to the Child Safety Commissioner which no other news station did, aside from the SBS who spoke to Save the Children Australia which makes both reports more about from family violence. Interestingly, all five news reports show either photos or video footage of Luke (perhaps intended to show how young and innocent he was) while not one photo is shown of Greg Anderson.

The print and online articles on this story seem to focus on one of three areas – Luke himself, his mother Rosie or the shortcomings of Victoria Police. The Age article by Nick Toscano preferred to focus on Luke and in particular on how much he loved sport and that “he loved bananas” symbolised by the balloons his classmates released in their tribute to him. Toscano said: “The reason that story didn’t have anything about the arrest warrants and police’s admission of error was because I had already covered that angle that morning for online”. He also said that if he was reporting for a different medium (such as radio or television) “the report would have prominently included police comments on warrants, which was the strongest news angle of the day. Broadcast reports are generally all-encompassing and condensed package reports that would include a number of different voices. That’s usually the same in print but for big stories like this we can flesh things out, if the editors choose, and run a package of news stories and colour pieces together across a page”.

The Herald Sun also heavily criticised Victoria Police, listing the dates of each of Greg Anderson’s offences. Interestingly it appears very little was done to attempt to arrest Mr Anderson during a period of nine months, which is perhaps best explained by Rosie Batty’s comment in the Channel 7 report that the police are under-resourced. In comparison another story in this newspaper takes a completely different approach, instead focussing on Rosie Batty and her “bravery” highlighted by using two connotations of the word “brave” in the first sentence of the article. Reporter Andrew Rule ignored the press conference and focused on the history of the family, perhaps to allow readers to further understand why Ms Batty chose to live close to Luke’s father.

The Australian also chose to focus on the history of the family and Rosie Batty. However this report is set out as a soft news, rather than a hard news story. Journalist Chip Le Grand chose to also examine the relationship between Luke and his father, with many quotes from Rosie confirming that “no one loved Luke more than Greg” and believing that it was not premeditated murder. Ms Batty is also described as “an average single mum”, to further highlight how this could happen to anyone.

Crikey chose to publish a brief opinion piece comparing the media coverage between the Herald Sun and The Age. In particular it was critical of both papers implying that Ms Batty needs privacy from the media, not to have a seven page spread in the paper reminding her of what she has lost. The publication also believed that both newspapers missed the point of this incident, domestic violence and challenges them to write an article with this intention with “if there’s any role for Melbourne’s tabloids over the days and weeks ahead in this tragedy, perhaps they could take up the baton”.

Radio chose a slightly different approach and instead focused on interviewing the key people involved in this issue.

The ABC had a phone interview with Chief Commissioner Ken Lay conducted by Dr Rebecca Huntley. This interview had a particular focus on the I.T. issues within the Victoria Police computer system and whether this could have been prevented if there was better funding to support the system. Commissioner Lay does admit “we have had troubles with our I.T. system for a decade or so” and does not back away from criticism that Victoria Police failed to upgrade their computer system. However he implies that it was a government funding issue and that “Government have made some investment available to us” to improve the system. Interestingly though when asked whether the fault in the computer system would have changed the outcome of the case, Commissioner Lay responds with, “I don’t think so”, implying that as Mr Anderson was difficult to track down, the outcome would have been the same. However Commissioner Lay ultimately admits that it’s “very hard to argue” that they let Luke down.

3AW instead chose to interview Rosie Batty (which was conducted by Neil Mitchell) and chose to highlight the prevalence of family violence, which Ms Batty states occurs in “one in three” families, showcasing how common it is in society. It becomes clear that Rosie sounds very tired and frustrated with dealing with the system when it comes to reporting the instances of violence, admitting it is “exhausting and unrelenting” insinuating that something needs to change in the system. She also admits that the “matter is raw” and that the reason she has spoken out was to hopefully become a voice for change. What is intriguing is that the interview focuses on what can be done to improve the system and Rosie is used as the face and voice in the hope of achieving this change.

Each of these reports seemed to focus on a particular aspect of this incident. The television reports seemed to be highly critical of Victoria Police with very little focus on Greg Anderson. What was most interesting is that the print medium seemed to spend more time examining Luke’s father, possibly because every television report showed photos and footage of Luke. The radio interviews seemed to be more supportive of Victoria Police despite the shortcomings in their system and appeared to ask what can be done to prevent family violence. In conclusion while each medium seemed to choose a different angle to report on this tragedy, the main message of each story was to highlight the prevalence of family violence and to ensure that this never happens again.