OUR Facebook audience did not take kindly to our Wednesday posting of a photo showing paramedics working on a motorcycle crash victim on Rimutaka Hill Rd, who later died. He wasn't visible in the photo, but it was clear from the image that emergency service were performing CPR. The outrage on Facebook far outweighed the positive comments received.
We removed the photo after 12 hours - but there's some details I would like to confront the public with, to reflect on.
Generally, our new Facebook "likes" average about five a day. That means five people a day click "Like'; for our page, and get our updates on their Facebook pages and can make comments.
On the day of the photo, we received an unprecedented 53 likes, meaning our page now has over 6000 likes. Despite threats to "unlike" us, on that day, only two did. Everyone else kept looking and commenting.
Generally, a story rarely breaks 1000 views. This time, over 7000 people viewed the photo. They declared their disgust, their outrage and their dismay ... and they looked, and looked and looked.
When we removed the photo, and told people about it, nearly 3000 viewed our comment. When we ran the actual story on Facebook (with a photo of a rescue helicopter), 1700 viewed it.
As a consequence, the Wairarapa Times-Age Facebook page was the most "liked" of all the regional papers that week.
We are a newspaper that is very close to its community, and as such I listen with respect when the community says something has gone too far. But I also noted the comments from those who said the image made them realise, powerfully, how careful you have to be on our roads, and the Rimutaka Hill Rd in particular. That photo confronted people with the realisation that death is not a sanitised, behind-the-scenes affair, with emergency services performing miracles on a stretcher bed with clean sheets. Death on our roads is real. If you looked at our photo, for the 12-hour period it was viewable, I hope you reflect on the fact your family would like you to arrive home safely each night, and for Christmas. If that photo shocked you, then at the very least I hope you slow down. For me, I hope the memory of that picture will save your life.