In the wake of the recent, and multiplying, mass shootings, a debate has emerged over what former Secretary of Homeland Security Jeh Johnson called in several interviews the need for “an Emmet Till moment”. That is, whether the political utility of photographs of physical violence should outweigh any ethical considerations of whether such images should be shown. Three different articles have been linked here: Elizabeth Williamson, “From Sandy Hook to Uvalde: The Violent Images Never Seen”, The New York Times, May 30, 2022; Susie Linfield, “Should We Be Forced to See Exactly What an AR-15 Does to a 10-Year Old?”, The New York Times, May 31, 2022; Jeh Charles Johnson, “It’s Time to Show The Real Horror of Mass Shootings. In Pictures.”, The Washington Post, July 1, 2022. All three of these raise issues of the ethics of journalism and the use of visual imagery; the need for empathy and sensitivity towards the victims of violence and their survivors; the potential political value of using this imagery; the racialized history—and even the racial inequity—of such imagery.

In a clear and well-organized argument of 750-1,000 words, take your own position in this debate and defend it by drawing on these arguments. You can choose to use only one article or you can draw on all three in your essay: either approach will produce a strong essay. Nor do you have to respond to all of the issues each article raises: pick your own point of entry; find what speaks to you and develop an argument from that.

Documentation:

The citation for a newspaper online (Chicago) should be: Author’s last name, first name. “Title of article”. Publisher, date of publication. Accessed date. URL. For example: Williamson, Elizabeth. “From Sandy Hook to Uvalde: The Violent Images Never Seen.” The New York Times, May 30, 2022. Accessed June 25, 2022. https://www.nytimes.com/2022/05/30/us/politics/photos-uvalde.html?searchResultPosition=1

This can be a footnote to your first use of one of these articles in your essay or a Works Cited bibliography at the end of your essay that lists the article(s) Because there are no page numbers in online articles, you should cite carefully and accurately, and make sure that the reader understands who you are referring to. For example, As Williamson points out, “After Sandy Hook, Connecticut passed some of the most stringent gun safety measures in the nation.” It’s not necessary to repeat the footnote or to link the quote to the original article in so short an essay.

Accessing the Articles:

All students can access these articles without a personal account to the New York Times or the Washington Post. If the links included above won't work for you, please follow these instructions from the Library:  Accessing NYT, WaPo, WSJ and Chronicle.