Pursuing my trade of journalism, I have spent a career practising detachment: hanging my opinions and feelings on the newsroom coat rack, grasping both sides of the story and bearing witness to tragedies – war, murder, suicide, automobile fatalities – without losing perspective.
Social media challenges that impartiality because when family is affected, the emotional response is much stronger.
The Greater Toronto Area is a big place – 6.4 million souls – and Yonge Street is the longest street in Canada – running 86 kilometres from Lake Ontario to Lake Simcoe.
But the two-kilometre stretch between Finch and Sheppard avenues where, on April 23, Alex Minassian allegedly mowed down 24 pedestrians, killing 10 and injuring 14, happens to be where one of my grandnieces goes for bubble tea and to Shoppers Drug Mart.
She and her cousin, also one of my grandnieces, are students and live in the immediate area, a neighbourhood that I have driven through the many times.
I was relieved when, within hours of the tragedy, my two grandnieces posted on Facebook that they were safe. Sadly, Facebook has created a checkoff posting for this because it is too often necessary in North America where mass killings occur more often than once a month.
News reporters and photographers are first responders to these types of incidents. These are public events, as frustrating or distasteful as that is to some.
One of the standard journalistic actions is to cover the street shrines that are created at the sites of these incidents – photos, flowers, candles, notes.
Another is to attend, photograph and report on the public vigils.
Reporters, videographers and photographers also go to the victims' funerals. The media is so pervasive that it necessitates management that preserves family privacy and the dignity of the occasion.
The most practical journalistic response to large-scale tragedies is that the news media carries information about the outpouring of financial giving to aid survivors and victims’ families.
Like the Facebook checkoff, editors and news directors have developed a playbook for these incidents.
Part of the playbook is following the social media coverage and participation that makes these events personal.
Social media makes the news personal by allowing us to participate in events, whether by reaching for our chequebooks or checking on the safety of our family members.
Frank Dabbs is a veteran business and political journalist and author.
