Tragedies show power of media spotlight

• Social media and the internet now must be taken into account

A nurse commits suicide after DJs pull a prank on her. Another woman kills herself after a newspaper features her sexual disorder. A photographer captures the last horrifying image of man just before he is killed by a subway train.

These three recent incidents — completely unrelated or connected by their roots in journalism depending on differing opinions — illustrate how the white-hot heat of the media's spotlight can affect people's lives and drive public debate. For several experts, what and how reporters choose to cover lies at the center of the conversation about media ethics and responsibility.

"The media has no control over how people will react to a story but they should be responsible for what they decide to publish and not publish," said Garth Jowett, a professor of communication at the University of Houston. "Everybody wants to maximize readership and viewership and will broadcast stories that will increase viewership but will not enhance the lives of those concerned."

While the details of each incident vary, each shows the impact that being featured in the news can have on peoples' lives whether they consent to it or not. As did some others, Jowett focused on the issue of consent when considering the recent media debacles.

Earlier this week, Australian radio DJs Michael Christian and Mel Greig of 2Day FM called a London hospital pretending to be Queen Elizabeth and Prince Charles, convincing a nurse to transfer the call to Kate Middleton's private nurse. That person then commented on Middleton's condition, a violation of patient confidentiality. The nurse who first answered the call, Jacintha Saldanha, 46, was found dead Friday of an apparent suicide.

The New York Post drew strong criticism recently for publishing a picture of Queens resident Ki-Suck Han seconds before he was fatally struck by a subway train.

Last week, a woman featured for having a sexual disorder that left her constantly aroused killed herself after being featured in a Tampa Bay Times article.

Experts and the managing editor of the Times had varying opinions about the newsworthiness of the pieces.

While the nurse was largely viewed as an unconsenting victim and the DJs as entertainers not journalists, the newsworthiness of theTimes piece and that of the Post created much debate among experts, journalists and social media users.

Mike Wilson, managing editor of the Tampa Bay Times, said the paper had "no regrets" about publishing the story and said grouping the media items together was "silly and not very thoughtful."

Good journalism often deals in sensitive topics and with people in turmoil, he said. He added that the paper postponed publishing the story for a month to give the subject, Gretchen Molannen, time to think before ultimately getting her consent.

"What the radio guys did was a stunt and we don't do stunts," Wilson told USA TODAY. "What the New York Post did was publish a shocking photo that some readers found too much to bear. What we did was carefully tell a meaningful story about a person with a tough medical condition. And we thought that story had the potential to help her and help other people, too."

Jowett and others however questioned the paper's inclusion of phrases such as this: "(Molannen) masturbate(s) for hours for just a few minutes of relief."

"Did they not think about the effect this would have on this poor woman's life?," he said. "Why hold her up to ridicule?"

Jowett also said the nurse was publicly humiliated by the DJs and questioned whether the New York Post thought of the impact their photo would have on the train victim's family and friends.

Lisa Bloom, an attorney and legal analyst for Avvo, an online site for legal advice, says once a person gives consent to a media organization, it's perfectly ethical to publish information about them. She sees the incidents as separate events that all ended tragically. She also backs the Post's decision to publish its photograph.

"I'm surprised at the outcry," Bloom said. "I'm not going to fault a news photographer for taking a photo of a news event that happened right in front of him."

Kelly McBride runs the ethics department at Poynter Institute, which owns the Tampa Bay Times. She supported the paper's story while criticizing the Post's decision, saying the photo had no journalistic purpose.

However, she and other experts agree that as media companies continue to make tough decisions about what to publish, social media and the internet must be taken more and more into account.

"The nature of the internet and social media have magnified the power of the media," McBride said. "Nobody can really control the intensity of the (media) spotlight. It's not like when something starts to go viral you can shut it down."