Description of cut flesh and body parts. Comment written by Ms. Sugcang.

Photo by Peter Hendrie. Traditional Tattoo around a Man’s Navel Savaii Island Western Samoa Samoa. Lonely Planet collection. Used here for  educational, non-commercial purposes, free service by blog-use of image provided by and from www.allposters.com Lonely Planet collection

       Gratuitous. Written by  Ms. Sucgang, student #19’s fourth post. Edited by blog admin

             quote “Last March 6, an article about a 19-year-old boy’s supposed suicide by Zaida delos Reyes-Palanca was found in the top stories section of the website of the Journal group of publications, Journal online.

             Quote “The article’s lead, in an attempt to be eye-catching, used gory descriptions of the boy’s death that are not really necessary to the story. The article described it as “[he] let blood spurt from his slit throat to his  __________ (this was a lurid, wordy  description of the appearance of the  sex organ, the reporter simply meant  “engorged”  or “swollen”, and that’s how i would  have reworded/ re-phrased it  if i  were editing. More concise! But the reporter went to town with it;  deleted  for this blog   – blog admin). Seconds earlier, the teener was believed to have tried to decapitate himself. He failed, leaving his neck bones and flesh exposed, like a _______ (this is a  description of the  cut flesh,  comparing  it to fish; you get the picture, i deleted it for this blog  – blog admin) . As his vision blurred, the bleeding victim supposedly ________ (this was a slang word for “cut off”   which i deleted  – blog admin)  his sex organ then slashed his left wrist.’

             Quote “The expanded Philippine Journalist’s Code of ethics states that one should avoid language that might be insensitive and the blogger’s code of ethics also says that content posted online should show good taste and treat sources as subjects deserving of respect especially if there is tragedy involved. Apart from that, this story should not have been in the top stories section because it sensationalizes the death of a boy whose (death) cause is yet to be known.” Closed-quote