On 7th April 2011, Wellington de Oliveira, 24, entered his former elementary school in the Realengo suburb of Rio de Janeiro carrying two handguns and opened fire against the pupils. 12 children were killed and more than 20 were injured and the massacre became the first - and worst - of this kind ever witnessed in Brazil.When police appeared at the scene the gunman shot himself dead. Almost two weeks after this bitter incident, little by little the students start to return to school and the media of course are there, following this return closely.
If a comparative research between this brutal incident and other incidents that took place elsewhere, such as in Columbine to name a few, is carried out many interesting insights would be produced and would show how the media coverage of tragedy works. As interesting as a thorough research is the report of a journalist, Mauricio Stycer, who was set to the school to cover the student's return. Instead of reporting the issue itself, he followed Gay Talese's step - who wrote a profile of Frank Sinatra without ever having met him - and reported on what he observed: the awful practise of journalism in tragedy coverages. I have translated his text into English:
Searching for News (and Dramatic Scenes) in Realengo
Municipal School Tasso da Silveira. Tuesday, April 19, 7:50 a.m. in the morning. Near the gate, a TV reporter interviews a student who returns to school for the first time since the massacre of April 7. Accompanied by his mother, the boy seems to be 10 years old and to have very little to say. At the end of the interview, the journalist asks them to walk back 20 meters from the camera so that he can film their arrival. He explains: "You come from there, so when you are closer to the gate, say goodbye and give him a little kiss ". The mother does exactly what he asked.
Sent by UOL News, I spent two days at the gate of Tasso da Silveira [The School]. The children aged 9 returned to school on Monday. On Tuesday, all the rest. I was impressed with the tension and desperation of reporters and TV cameramen. In addition to all the pushing to get ordinary images, I witnessed countless situations like the one described above, in which colleagues acted as "directors" of the scene, directing the interviewees in order to achieve more dramatic and stronger lines.
One of the saddest moments was hearing Renata Rocha dos Reis, mother of the twins Bianca and Brenda. The first died and the second was injured in the attack. Outraged, Renata decided to request the transfer of the girl who survived the massacre. Her outburst to reporters was rather strong. "I could not even take lunch to my daughter upstairs. And stranger can?”
A TV reporter, however, missed the beginning of the interview with Renata and did not record the moment she revealed she had decided to take her daughter out of the school. Nervous, in front of everyone who still continued talking to the mother, the reporter stuck the microphone onto the face of Renata and begged, "Tell me this: 'She cannot bear studying here’. Got it? Tell me".
TV reporters suffer greater pressure when they are summoned to go live for their networks. Holding the school's principal, Luis Marduk, a network reporter was waiting for the moment to interview him live, but the signal did not come. "One minute, one minute," she said. Everyone began getting impatient, until the principal complained."I would like to have a reporter’s watch. It's hell”. To which the journalist responsible for the situation said: "I waited 25 minutes for you, Sir”.
Not everyone at the school gate are a parent or relative of the student. Concentration attracts many curious people which are also interviewed and give opinions about the massacre, about school safety, about whatever. I heard a lady giving the interview. The reporter tried several questions, unable to extract something "strong”. Until she said: "Do you think that the massacre has damaged the image of the neighborhood?"
The Education Secretary, Claudia Costin, asked the journalists to not approach the students. The wish, of course, was not respected. Even worse, I saw one reporter complaining after interviewing students."Two children who do not speak anything. Yielded nothing. "
Hoping to hear effective or dramatic phrases, she did not realise the dialogue she’d just had with a boy."How was this return to school? Was it difficult to review the school? And to meet your friends? How was it? " She asked. And the boy, in a word, said it all: "Cool."
The original text in Portuguese can be read in the link below:
http://mauriciostycer.blogosfera.uol.com.br/2011/04/20/em-busca-da-noticia-e-de-cenas-dramaticas-em-realengo/comment-page-1/#comment-20989
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