Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Miscellaneous/2022 June 26

= June 26 =

Selective sensitivity
We now frequently see trigger warnings before TV reports or newspaper articles, advising that some readers/viewers may be distressed by the content to follow. That's probably fine as far as it goes, but there are many stories that have distressing content that never have such warnings: "horror" crashes, football stadium stampedes, avalanches and landslides, gas explosions, school shootings and other mass murders, wars, hijackings, home invasions, pandemic death counts, ever-worsening climate change, rampant inflation and unemployment, the wrong party/candidate getting elected, people behaving extremely badly ... the list is endless. Actually, the media is not happy unless they have a plentiful supply of such bad news stories. The more dramatic and distressing the better, and good video is a must.

So, what qualifies for a trigger warning, and what doesn't? And why?

Is the message that we should just take the un-tagged stories as normal, and not to get too worried or concerned about them, despite all the dramas and horrors they stuff them full of? What is this selective sensitivity really all about?--  Jack of Oz   [pleasantries]  00:28, 26 June 2022 (UTC)


 * I suspect that there is a wide variation in standards between nations and individual broadcasters, but for the BBC, see Trigger warnings: What do they do?. Alansplodge (talk) 09:13, 26 June 2022 (UTC)


 * Complaints to the station and being sued. Sleigh (talk) 10:47, 26 June 2022 (UTC)


 * On American TV, at least, this is usually done ahead of footage that shows what I might call "closeup" violence, especially shootings, stabbings, and so on. --←Baseball Bugs What's up, Doc? carrots→ 13:10, 26 June 2022 (UTC)
 * A text shown before TV programs in America is: Viewer discretion is advised. What does this mean, how does a person know whether it means him or her, and if so, how does one do it? Philvoids (talk) 13:33, 26 June 2022 (UTC)
 * How does one do what? --←Baseball Bugs What's up, Doc? carrots→ 17:07, 26 June 2022 (UTC)
 * Exercise discretion as a viewer, surely. {The poster formerly known as 87.81.230.195} 90.201.73.76 (talk) 18:57, 26 June 2022 (UTC)
 * That seems obvious. But the only way to know for sure is to watch it - and then it's too late. These kinds of disclaimers are indeed vague. HBO, for example, has or used to have more explicit info in its summaries: violence, profanity, nudity, etc. --←Baseball Bugs What's up, Doc? carrots→ 00:19, 27 June 2022 (UTC)
 * You asked "what?", not "how?"
 * As to certainty, that is, as you say, impossible; but a viewer/reader must have some idea of what the item is about, and therefore the likely nature of the distressing content the broadcaster/publisher is warning of. At this point they must employ their discretion – i.e. judgement – to decide the balance of risk to themself against the level of their desire to watch/read the item, based on their own self-knowledge, which the broadcaster/publisher cannot know for every potential viewer/reader.
 * Note that I am not defending this approach, I'm merely trying to explain it. {The poster formerly known as 87.81.230.195} 90.201.73.76 (talk) 10:59, 27 June 2022 (UTC)

Scoreboards of the Atatürk Olympic Stadium in Istanbul
I noticed that when looking at pictures of the empty stadium, only one scoreboard appears in the picture overview. Then, when the stadium is full and during the match, another one appears, making the stadium actually have two large screens. But is one retractable or is it hidden by accident? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 93.41.96.190 (talk) 23:29, 26 June 2022 (UTC)


 * I can find only images of a scoreboard on the south end, like seen here. The way it is held up by trusses looks rather permanent; what with its size, to make such a scoreboard retractable is a non-trivial engineering task, and I can't think of a good reason to make them retractable. But it can also not be "hidden by accident". The video on this page shows nothing possibly hiding a scoreboard on the north end. --Lambiam 08:04, 27 June 2022 (UTC)