In: Psychology
Currently, taking pictures or any type of video recording in the United States Supreme Court is not allowed. Discuss your thoughts and perspectives about allowing cameras in the United States Supreme Court during their hearings. What are the pros and cons about allowing cameras in the Court? Do you support putting cameras in the Court? Why or why not?
It is a fact that digital media has become a huge part of our lives. People are constantly updated about current happenings, news and other events by looking at articles, pictures and videos on the internet. It helps them stay connected and up to date about everything that is happening around them.
However, the Supreme Court system in the United States prohibits people from taking pictures and videos inside the premises of the Court. Although people nowadays are so habituated to having access to pictures and videos of hot news and news in general, Supreme Court hearings are one of the very few events that the public cannot get a first hand view of. Whenever a sensational hearing is scheduled to take place, or a high profile case in involved, people's curiosity is at peaks to know the details, inside facts and the overall judgement.
In my opinion they expect to know all this information because they are used to being fed such details about other types news, for example - Road accidents, Celebrity updates etc. It is not new for a person these days to receive notifications about each and every event that is currently in the news - be it hard news or soft news. It becomes a topic of discussion and people like to stay updated about happenings like Supreme Court hearings due to various reasons such as personal interest, to make general conversations about it, to have an opinion about it etc. Therefore it is only the curiosity of people to feel like wanting to know the visual experience and the inside story of what happens during a Supreme Court hearing.
With regards to cameras being allowed inside the Supreme Court has clear disadvantages and advantages. Firstly, it is an extreme serious issue that is going on inside the premises and it is wrong to sensationalise news like that. There is always a risk of media distorting the news to gain public following. If the distorted news spreads, there will be a lot of rumour surrounding the issue, which in most cases is absolutely unnecessary and can be easily avoided. Therefore, for this reason it is not that big of an issue for the Supreme Court to not have cameras.
On the other hand, assuming that there is access for the public to stay updated On Supreme Court hearings, an advantage can be that people can get transparency of news given that they don't fall prey to the news channels and other people trying to sensationalise the news. Another advantage can be that genuinely interested people who like to follow what is happening will have a source to do so and it may help them in gaining perspective about the situation.
To conclude, there are pros and cons to allowing cameras inside Supreme Court. However, it is always better for a system like that to maintain their protocol and rules and not alter or break them just for public interest.