"It didn't take long, however, for a second video to come across people's feeds - one with a much closer view of Kirk. This video was disturbingly graphic. Deeply unsettling. And it came without warning so that by the time a user realized what they were watching, they'd already been exposed to the horrific reality of what happened. Even those not looking for the video could have - and likely did - easily come across it."
"The New York Times' Sheera Frenkel and Kate Conger reported that from the time Kirk was shot to the time that he was pronounced dead two hours later, videos on X of him being shot had more than 11 million views. The two reporters added that, "The graphic footage, which showed Mr. Kirk's neck wound in high resolution, had also spread to Instagram, Threads, YouTube and Telegram, where they amassed millions of views and were repackaged with graphics and old footage of Mr. Kirk.""
"Many sought out the videos purposefully, but many others saw them accidentally. It seemed almost all exposure occurred on social media. As far as I can tell, no major news outlet showed the unedited second video. In fact, most of them stopped short of the actual moment Kirk was shot, and all of the ones I saw came with a "graphic content" warning."
Cellphone footage captured the moment Charlie Kirk was shot, including a distant clip and a closer, disturbingly graphic video that showed his neck wound in high resolution. The graphic clips spread rapidly across X, Instagram, Threads, YouTube and Telegram, amassing millions of views and being repackaged with graphics and old footage. Many users sought the videos deliberately, while many others encountered them accidentally and without warning. Most major news outlets avoided showing the unedited close video, stopping short of the shooting and applying graphic-content warnings. Historically, news organizations exercised gatekeeping over explicit violent imagery; social platforms have reduced that filtering, increasing user exposure.
Read at Poynter
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