By Gifty Amofa
Accra, Oct. 17, GNA – Matthew Taylor, a consultant for the World Health Organization (WHO), has said that journalists can encourage victim-blaming for road crashes in their reporting if they are not careful.
Mr Taylor said that by making small changes to their writing style, journalists can reduce the risk of readers blaming crash victims.
He spoke of instances where crash victims have been blamed for wearing dark clothing at night, underscoring that certain sentence structures can encourage the perception of victim-blaming.
He said that such narratives downplay the real causes of road crashes, which claim thousands of lives and cause countless serious injuries, particularly among individuals in their productive years.
Mr. Taylor was addressing Ghanaian journalists during the WHO-Science Africa Road Safety Reporting Training Refresher Webinar held on Thursday, October 17, 2024.
Mr Taylor stated that fatal road crashes are preventable and should not be seen as inevitable, noting that deaths are often wrongly viewed as a consequence of development.
“Should we blame victims for crossing a busy road if there is no bridge or no proper crossing?” he asked, adding that referencing other crashes can help set an accurate context in stories on road crashes.
He called on journalists to be mindful of such practices.
To make a significant impact, Mr. Taylor urged journalists to incorporate human elements into their stories, such as interviewing community members, family, friends, and experts. This approach can help educate the audience, raise awareness, and ultimately influence decision-making.
He also urged journalist to dig deeper into the causes of road crashes and look at things like the quality of infrastructure, whether footpaths are there, and laws and regulations on speeding.
This focus, he argued, could help save more lives than simply focusing on the people directly involved in crashes.
Mr. Daniel Otunge, Science Africa Project Lead, also spoke on the importance of solution journalism, stating that news reports should aim to address identified solutions related to road crashes.
GNA