A boring assignment in Ankara

johannielscom said:
So you substituted your TV with YouTube and you did the exact same thing but of course it's totally different and that gets you the right to tell others how naive they are.

Sure.

Anyway, back to the original question and the land of the sane: I've never been in the same position but I suspect you get to work since it's a) what's required and b) keeps you sane and composed in the eye of personal danger.

As an assignment, I've shot the funeral of a 1.5 years old girl who died suddenly (cradle death) and her parents asked me to shoot it all. At the graveside, the whole family lost it.
It wasn't until that night when I was scoring the images that the emotions of the day hit me personally.
That's the closest I've been to a situation like that of the ambassador being gunned down.

No matter what, it's good to have been able to see the images and I applaud the photographer for continuing to work the scene in the face of violence, no matter what helped him do that.
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I first saw the Ankara incident on the television and I thought it looked fake and said nothing, but my wife mentioned it after watching the same news video that I did and I had to admit to her that the same thought had crossed my mind.

Now I find out that many other people across the world who saw the same Ankara video on the news on TV had the same reaction.

Social media whether it is Facebook or YouTube or other websites is how people these days share their opinion, nothing out of the ordinary there, it still is a form of communication.
 
markwatts said:
And no one ever landed on the moon.

A man lost his life, shot in the back by a coward. Show some respect!

Do you seriously think he is enjoying a Winter break on the edge of the Black Sea?
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You know the dead man personally then?

I know, he was a friend of a second cousin once removed that was married to a lady who sold timeshare rentals in Málaga Spain who was told he died for real by the taxidermist across the street near the bus depot.

Why of course !

actually .. Shame on you !:eek:

You have to try better than that cliched nonsense.
 
Funny discussion about a news phtos that is already forgotten because the news event it shows, is already forgotten. That asassination had no political impact at all. Most german websites I visited that day didn't show that photo or only showed a cropped version with the perpetrator only.
 
raid said:
I agree with Tom; the assassination of one ambassador is not major news.
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Not in Germany at least, if a truck drives onto a Christmas market on the same day.
I bet Russian RFF members would have considered the event major news.

It's all a matter of context and importance in national media. But to consider that a sign that mainstream media are untrustworthy and the news faked is delusional...
 
Bill Pierce said:
This may be of interest.

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/25/u...161227&nl=morning-briefing&nlid=74663182&te=1
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That is an eye opening news article Mr Pierce, thank you for the hyperlink to it.
The last paragraph of that write-up struck a chord with me:

"The market in these divided times is undeniably ripe. “We now live in this fragmented media world where you can block people you disagree with. You can only be exposed to stories that make you feel good about what you want to believe,” Mr. Ziegler, the radio host, said. “Unfortunately, the truth is unpopular a lot. And a good fairy tale beats a harsh truth every time.”

It makes me wonder if all this is just another created on purpose"division creating device" that is foisted on the public? As if we have not got enough created divisions (and labels) already within our society today.
 
xayraa33 said:
Interesting trend going on:

"Facebook's Safety Check Just Got Fooled By Fake News"

https://www.yahoo.com/news/facebooks-safety-check-just-got-174150503.html
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More like "Algorithms Gone Wild!": http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-38448140 It started as a literally accurate (but over-hyped) report of an "explosion in Bangkok" (firecrackers tossed at a government building) made by a "trusted third party," after which FB's algorithm kicked in and pulled up a stale BBC clip about an actual bombing from a local (Thai) website, which gave the whole thing the imprimatur of "Breaking News!" reported by the BBC.

The reassuring bit in the Yahoo blurb is its assertion that 1/3 of people get their news from Facebook - a month ago, it was 43 percent.
 
The problem with convincing conspiracy theorists otherwise is that, to them, lack of evidence is proof of a cover-up, further reinforcing the original conspiracy.
 
Bill Pierce said:
I think folks do the job that they are trained to do, almost regardless of profession. ( I remember photographing a surgeon operating on his own child with steely calm and sobbing afterwards.) Anybody who photographs in areas of any kind possible conflict is going to occasionally face totally unexpected violence. You’re not afraid because you don’t expect anything to happen. When it does happen, you operate on reflex. If you are a photographer, you push the button. There’s very little thinking or courage involved. And most of the time, when you start to think again, the threat has disappated.

“I stared into the face of danger and did not flinch,” is a pretty effective party line, but not really what happens. Most of the time it’s over before you have a chance to think. Courage is when you have time to think and don’t back out. Most often that’s when you get on an airplane to fly into an area of conflict. Sadly it’s not the only time.
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In the military we used to say that you do what you train to do. Under stress we often revert to training without thinking. If you train yourself to react a certain way in smaller events, one can easily transition up to more traumatic events and react without even thinking about danger or revulsion.

emraphoto said:
i remember crossing into Northern Syria in 2012 with no premonition of how crazy things would get, and how quickly it would happen. the very first night i spent on the Syrian side of the border we were shelled for 4 hours straight. taking photographs was the only thing i could do to avoid losing my marbles on the first night. actually, photographing was the only thing that helped me keep from complete meltdown the whole time i was there. to call it courage would be as far from the truth as one could get.
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You describe what many people do in stressful and fearful situations. They take up a crutch. It may be to take up a weapon a go sort of berserk not thinking of any danger. It may be to do ones job as best one can, concentrating on doing it the best one can, simply to give purpose to being in a fearful situation.

When we wish to put labels on such actions, we often use words such as bravery or courage. If you don't feel you were, that is your call.
 
I hope this thread is back on the rails again. The original situation and Bill's example reminded me of Gene Smith's Country Doctor essay. Smith was as capable as anyone of operating without apparent distraction in a dangerous environment (shooting back while walking behind advancing tanks?) yet he could see the effects of stress in others.
 
oftheherd said:
In the military we used to say that you do what you train to do. Under stress we often revert to training without thinking. If you train yourself to react a certain way in smaller events, one can easily transition up to more traumatic events and react without even thinking about danger or revulsion.



You describe what many people do in stressful and fearful situations. They take up a crutch. It may be to take up a weapon a go sort of berserk not thinking of any danger. It may be to do ones job as best one can, concentrating on doing it the best one can, simply to give purpose to being in a fearful situation.

When we wish to put labels on such actions, we often use words such as bravery or courage. If you don't feel you were, that is your call.
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Absolutely. I'm not sure if crutch is the word but it's damn close. Getting down to work, when the you know what hits the fan, keeps the mind from straying into panic mode. Panic mode in combat means one endangers themselves and others.

I shy away from the word courage as mind altering fear seems more accurate. That doesn't usually set in until after things are largely over and one can process what just happened.
 
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