Challenger and the Media

"f86sabre" (f86sabre) 01/28/2019 at 21:59 • Filed to: Spacelopnik

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I struggle with the media’s need to use the image of the Challenger exploding  as  the key image when remembering the event. Showing the instant where seven people died, or who’s fates where sealed, as the dominant image in reporting on the anniversary seems repugnant. We don’t normally show images of people getting hit by busses or other types of fatal accidents front and center. I think there are better ways to remember the crew and their spacecraft. Just my $0.02.

Berang > f86sabre 01/28/2019 at 22:07

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Because for people who were alive, when it happened, that’s what they remember.

facw > f86sabre 01/28/2019 at 22:13

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It’s definitely a little weird, but I think it’s the combination of a powerful image, with the fact it isn’t graphic, even if you know those people are doomed.

facw > Berang 01/28/2019 at 22:16

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It’s true, but the standard shot is bit more than what we have for other events. 9/11 retrospectives might show the towers or the Pentagon burning, but they generally aren’t showing the impacts or the towers collapsing or people leaping to their deaths to avoid the fire.

wafflesnfalafel > f86sabre 01/28/2019 at 22:18

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I remember my jr high biology teacher stopping class and telling us. He handled it really well - taking risk is a good thing, but sometimes it just doesn’t turn out the way you want it to. It h ad to be especially tough on teachers at the time with McAuliffe on board.  

ttyymmnn > f86sabre 01/28/2019 at 22:25

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I’ve got that story coming up in TDIAH, and I led with the official portrait of the crew. NASA also has a crew photo on their picture page. Unfortunately, the majority of the public would never recognize the crew, certainly don’t know their names , and wouldn’t be able to tell Challenger from Columbia . The shot of the explosion, with the SRBs corkscrewing away, is all that most people remember. I’ll leave this here.

The crew of STS-51-L: (front row) Pilot Michael J. Smith, Shuttle Commander Francis Scobee, Mission Specialist Ronald McNair; (back row) Mission Specialist Ellison Onizuka, Payload Specialist and teacher Christa McAuliffe, Payload Specialist Gregory Jarvis, Mission Specialist Judith Resnik. (NASA)

Berang > facw 01/28/2019 at 22:33

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They actually do usually show those things.

Chuckles > facw 01/28/2019 at 22:35

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I imagine that the coverage would be a bit different if it had happened in 2019 instead of 1986. 

f86sabre > Berang 01/28/2019 at 22:36

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I was alive and I remember it.  I’m also not thrilled with seeing the airliners go in from 9/11. They are basically showing an execution with those shots. 

Berang > f86sabre 01/28/2019 at 22:38

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Well, not showing it doesn’t make them less dead. So I’m not really sure what you’re getting at.

If you think it is ghoulish to show an image of something that actually happened, I’m not sure what to tell you. I don’t think anybody is choosing those images because it makes them feel cool.

Nothing > f86sabre 01/28/2019 at 22:40

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I remember that day. I actually stayed home from school that day, sick. I watched the launch. I remember it being a big deal because of the school teacher, Christa MacAuliffe, being onboard. Such a terrible tragedy.

Wacko > Berang 01/28/2019 at 22:41

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As a kid who watched it live on tv at school, that’s what I remember.

Chuckles > f86sabre 01/28/2019 at 22:44

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I agree with you. I was less than 4 weeks old when the Challenger disaster happened, and yet I’ve seen that disaster enough times on the news that I can practically see it in my mind. Another one that comes to mind is the Hindenburg. Pretty much any coverage of that event now is just video of the crash. Is it because it was so long ago that people don’t care? I don’t know.

Patrick Nichols > ttyymmnn 01/28/2019 at 22:55

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As a kid who went through the NH public school system (with a mom who was a teacher to boot), I could definitely recognize McAuliffe. And as a fifth grader at the time I still remember Columbia pretty vividly. I agree that I’m probably an outlier among my age group though, given the state of history curriculum.

facw > ttyymmnn 01/28/2019 at 23:05

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Which is a fine picture to go with. I’m not sure using the iconic Challenger is much different than using Pearl Harbor photo you used for your TD IAH piece though:

It seems very likely someone (and possibly a lot of someones) died from that torpedo hit. I don’t think it’s wrong to use that photo (or others of Pearl Harbor ablaze), but I do think it’s something to be approached with sensitivity.

WilliamsSW > f86sabre 01/28/2019 at 23:05

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I’m with you - I think it’s easy for many people to look at that and not exactly comprehend what’s happening in that photo- because it’s impossible ( and horrific) to understand. I look at photos like that and can’t help think about those people, and their last moments . And it must be painful for their loved ones to see.

That said, news media will use the most graphic thing they can get away with. In most cases, like plane crashes, the photos they get aren’t quite at that moment.

In some cases, though, there is value in bringing shock to the public , to galvanize them to action. There’s a famous photo from the Our Lady of Angels fire, which happened in 1958, of a fireman carrying the body of a 10 year old boy out of the school - images like that helped solidify public support for fixing some of the stupidity that was in building codes across the country at that time. Don’t think that applies to the Challenger, really, though.

Chariotoflove > f86sabre 01/28/2019 at 23:08

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I think it depends on what you want to remember.  I’d prefer to remember the courageous and talented people who embarked on that mission and celebrate them.  Watching the explosion over and over seems like cheap emotionalism to me.

interstate366, now In The Industry > Chuckles 01/28/2019 at 23:13

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I was supposed to be born on the day it happened. I ended up being born 10 days later.

WRXforScience > f86sabre 01/28/2019 at 23:19

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The crew was most likely alive but unconscious until they hit the water, so from breakup to death there was nearly 4min. I’m not sure if that makes it better or worse.

Berang > Wacko 01/28/2019 at 23:39

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Yeah, I mean, there’s not really any going back on that footage now.

RacinBob > f86sabre 01/29/2019 at 00:00

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I think the same thing. I am at a certain age where gun camera films etc, fatal race crashes etc are just not a thing to celebrate. 

RallyWrench > f86sabre 01/29/2019 at 00:44

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I can agree with this. I was 6 when it blew up and my class watched the launch on a little TV that was wheeled in. Things got awfully quiet, it’s burned in my brain. To me, there are few more heroic moments in the history of human accomplishment then when the shuttles lifted off, just raw unrestrained power, fire, speed, and optimism with a few brave souls on top, on a mission to “slip the surly bonds of Earth.” Perhaps i t’d be more fitting to reflect thay story with a picture of Challenger intact. I’m imagining a few seconds after liftoff, just clear of the gantry, clawing its way skyward in full fury.

Full of the sound of the Gran Fury, signifying nothing. > f86sabre 01/29/2019 at 03:10

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In my case, the images that come to mind when I think of Challenger are encapsulated in the above pictures and are a little more personal. Indirectly there is also an automotive tie-in, FWIW.

This is the Hughes Space and Communications assembly facility, now owned by Boeing,  where payload specialist Greg Jarvis and I both worked, although not at the same time; I was still in college when the Challenger incident occurred. Greg was an engineer at this facility, whereas I worked in satellite ground systems. My office was down the road a bit, but occasionally I would be at the factory, in my lab coat and hair net/cover , looking like those people surrounding the bird.  

The facility actually started as a Nash/Kelvinator/AMC factory, hence why it’s called Nash Street,  and was just down the street from where Shelby American built the Cobra; apparently the roads in the area were unofficially used as a test track for Shelby.

After the Challenger incident one of the internal roads at that facility was named ‘Greg Jarvis Way’ in his honor; I don’t have, nor can I find, an image of the sign, but perhaps I’ll grab one the next time I’m back in SoCal. I would always think of Challenger and be reminded of the risks involved in human space flight whenever I’d pass through this area.

ttyymmnn > facw 01/29/2019 at 09:47

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I understand exactly what you are saying, but, for reasons that I can’t quite articulate clearly , I think it’s different. Or at least it feels different. I think part of the difference is that we can’t put names and faces with the men on board that battleship like we can with the Challenger crew. In the day of modern media, they were in our living rooms leading up to the launch, and so much was made about Christa McA uliffe. With the Pearl Harbor photo, we also have the distance of nearly 80 years between today and December 7, 1941. Also, Pearl Harbor was also not a singular tragedy. Posting a picture of USS Arizona wouldn’t convey the same sense. In a way, the aerial photo of the attack goes farther in explaining the scope of the attack.

Captain of the Enterprise > f86sabre 01/29/2019 at 18:49

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I think it would be better to highlight the individuals and their lives than the explosion. They’re people not an event.