Staring At Indira Swann And The Ecuador Bus Victims
INDIRA Swann is dead. Indira Swann was killed in a bus crash in Ecuador, alongside four friends: Rebecca Logie (“Inspiring”), Emily Sandler (“Bubbly”), “Sarah Howard “(Caring”) and Lizzie Pincock (“Amazing”).
The Mail has the girls’ profiles. The Mirror leads with a picture of Indira (“Poignant”) and the “LAST EMAIL” she sent home to her parents.
Says the message: “Thanks for being so great and giving me the opportunity to do this. But also for giving me such a lovely home that nothing could stop me wanting to come back.”
The Mirror looks at the “heartbroken parents”. It’s emotive stuff. But Mail readers get not one but six pictures of Louise and Gregory Swann wracked with grief.
We are invited to stare at them. Look at their pain. We are gawping at them, responding to an invitation to stare.
We look. But in doing so we learn nothing of the Swanns. Better, perhaps, if the Mail placed a mirror alongside the shots and asked readers to look at it and think about what such voyeurism says about them.
Posted: 15th, April 2008 | In: Tabloids Comments (5) | TrackBack | Permalink
