Children. Media. This combination presents a challenging proposition to journalists. Thrown in trauma and matters get really dicey. That is why one news reporter was recently navigating through very choppy waters, when she elected to tell the Tana River tragedy from the perspective of child victims.
Whereas thinking out of the box is often something that should be applauded, using minors to depict a very complex web of deadly violence was, to some extent, pushing the barriers towards intolerable territory.
One kid was actually being quoted saying something close to, 'then they started killing each other.' How, pray tell, is a child expected to accurately process such mentally disturbing scenarios, before even relaying the same to a journalist?
This is where I think, the best interests of the children caught up in the Tana River violence, override whatever novel and noble intentions of the news reporter.
And because children enjoy absolute privacy, then it is in their interest that their identity is protected and their trauma is not exacerbated by undue media exposure, which essentially makes them relive their horrifying experience.
After the news crews pack up and go, these kids have to continue with their life, the misery notwithstanding, and it's really unfair to only look at them as subjects of a good TV report.
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