Before you roll your eyes and navigate away from this page (navigate -- a word so different in its meaning here as compared to its meaning for people navigating flood waters on boats on the streets of Jakarta), I want you to know that I really want answers to that question above.
What do we, people who control the media and have the power to email/google/youtube/write/take pictures/blog/edit/talk/be heard...all those of us who have Voice...what do we do?
Here's what a friend of mine did when I gasped and informed her about the flooding in Jakarta : she shrugged and made a sympathetic sound. And what did I expect her to do?
Communicating about third world disasters is a particular challenge in today's international reporting. Compassion fatigue has set in, and the old forms of news coverage seem almost dispassionate themselves. We live in a post-tsunami world. Raised in a visual, entertainment-driven world, we're probably waiting for high drama with the high waters. We know the movie's just around the corner.Will we settle for anything less?
So, what should this reporting look like? When I teach "International Affairs Reporting," I push students to think beyond disaster journalism as we have known it. I now pose to you some of the questions I pose to them --
1. Do we "make it relevant" to the American reader? For instance, do we quickly do stories comparing the floods in Jakarta with the floods after Hurricane Katrina? This may bring the story closer to home, but, do we have to care only if it feels like something that could happen/has happened to us?
2. Shall we take the "guilt" out of the pictures? Or should we leave it there?
3. And this, the most important of questions -- what kind of stories have we done about Jakarta recently? Is it really just floods (and, maybe, fear of Indonesia as having the highest number of Muslims in the world) that bring Jakarta to our front pages? I recall the first time Jakarta impacted my consciousness (we spelled it Djakarta then) was in 1994, when the Second Asian and Pacific Ministerial Conference on Women in Development (Jakarta)was held. I was a journalist and I wanted to go to the conference but couldn't. The Jakarta Declaration for the Advancement of Women in Asia and the Pacific was adopted there.
Those were happy times. These aren't. But, I am still left with those questions. My students struggle with them, too. Any answers?
10 comments:
I believe "compassion fatigue" is the problem. The problem is not a lack of reason to empathize and be moved when international troubles are reported on. The problem is there is an overwhelming sense of helplessness. No matter how much money the U.S. sends to Africa, it isn't taking drastic steps in stopping genocide or hunger, or preventing the spread of AIDS. No matter how much money and aid Congress sends to Indonesia and the American South, life isn't improving there. I feel overwhelmed.
I have a man in front of Subway trying to get me to sign something that will apparently stop Hewlett-Packard from using mercury in their factories which will then somehow save the polar bears. Then I hear about starving children in Africa on the TV. Then I learn about America's forgotten poverty in sociology 120. There's so much to be done to fix a broken world, and not enough people, not enough resource, and maybe not enough time, as we now know from a report released this past weekend that global warming is as potent, deadly, and imminent as ever.
Not to say efforts should stop. One life saved is still one life saved. But from media's standpoint and ability to move masses, there's still a feeling of helplessness.
As far as guilt being removed from the pictures. I believe guilt is something that comes from within someone. If they know they are not doing something to better and benefit mankind, then there will be guilt. E.g. a person who doesn't send a check to UNICEF or some world agency to help developing nations, etc. sees a commercial for African children and feels "guilt." Whereas the person who makes trips overseas to partake in the struggle, donates money, prays, cries, whatever, feels there is work to be done.
The problem with us since the hit of the TV/media age is people treat every thing like another episode of National Geographic or much worse, Desperate Housewives.
We tune in, hear about typhoons, see these death tolls, see the struggles ... then ER comes on, a commercial for Snickers comes on, Angelina Jolie with her kids comes on, or Superbowl hoopla in nightly news. It makes us desynthesized. We treat every single thing as yesterday's news.
We are just fed on with daily flash in the pans. We must wholeheartedly admit that TV news does not have the same impact as it did back in the Vietnam era. An era wherein people still have some emotional turmoil over what is occurring. The closest thing that things changed for us was 9/11 but even impact and change for people was not as affected.
Indifference, that's the main problem. Maybe we should ask ourselves when would we even give the aid, only once in a while when a tragic picture is bombarded upon us or maybe BEFORE all these occurs?
Maybe after we give a sigh or an "awww" we should step away from our zones. Being aware and truly capturing what is happening in the world is different from just "navigating" through it as you switch your channel back to regular programming.
As far as making in international issue relevant to an American reader, I would like to think that our citizens care about world issues, without wondering "how does this affect me?". It is naive, however, to pretend that the typical American audience would care much about international stories in and of themselves. Could the average American point to Indonesia on the map? Probably not. Do they care? Questionable. Either way, if a journalist believes the story to be important, they must make it appealing to their audience, or the story is produced in vain. And if localizing it draws people's interest, then that is alright. It is a matter of the ends justifying the means.
Guilt...Well, this comes down to the ethics of the photographer. It is simple: do not fabricate the guilt. I've been in the situation that I had the opportunity portray subjects as victims to create a compelling story, but then looking at the story from another angle, it just was not that simple, and I could not turn it into something like that. But if that guilt is there, then why eliminate it?
For the third question, no, I have not seen Jakarta anywhere lately except for the travel channel. And I plan on making a stop there next time I'm in Southeast Asia.
Would a devastating San Franciscan earthquake in 1998 have made the earthquake in Izmit, Turkey in 1999 a bigger story? Even as a 13 year old I was surprised at how little media coverage the disaster, which took 17,000 lives, received.
Ever since the Soviet Union fell there has been an increase in anti-American sentiment. Now that the world does not need the protection of the United States of America it seems that our mistakes out shine our good deeds; and the ramifications of our shortcomings are alarmingly disproportionate to the actions they stem from.
And at the very same time the United States is becomes increasing unpopular, Americans continue to provide international aide, both public and private. It is my understanding that the United States is giving $55 million to Indonesia to combat corruption and child immunization and gave $405.7 million to Indonesia for the Tsunami relief.
As an American with undivided loyalties and as a citizen of a country who has its own internal issues, I am unapologetic in my lack of concern with third world disasters, particularly when such a disaster strikes a nation that has accepted our good will but given none to little in return.
your writing is smart, unself-indulgent, and very readable. have added a link to your blog from mine.
Thanks, Amruta -- for the compliment and for the link. Your own blog is mind-boggling in its creativity. And your art is moving. Hope to keep seeing you around here.
Thanks, Ben. Yes, I often wonder what ways younger folks might find to make a cause their own and shake things up a little.
Thanks, Amber. I wonder -- how do we make news compelling enough when we tell the "before" stories -- the process, rather than the event?
Thanks, Joey. So, if you felt that way when you were 13, I wonder why the news media might not realize that their future readers are craving better coverage.
Dear anonymous,
I like your comment. It seems to hold the promise of some tips, some strategies, maybe even some successes, on those "internal issues" you mention. Could any of those internal issues have been caused by poor foreign policy, maybe? Or, even by poor foreign coverage? Would be great to hear from you again. By the way, I'm not anti-American. I love America, more than you'd imagine.
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