Blog number 1
What is medias role in providing help to those in need? For example, as people die every day in Haiti because of the spread of cholera, what can people learn about it from the news agencies we see today? Does CBC or CNN promote relief efforts by educating the viewers all over the world about the severity and facts of this issue? Or do they undermine and minimize the issue? These are all questions I hope to find answers to by looking at these two agencies networks. I also consider the reliability of these two news agencies, especially CBC, in order to decipher why or why not these agencies would help.
I check in with CNN’s news casts first. CNN first reports the story on October 25th, 2010 with its first article, Toll in Haiti’s cholera outbreak now above 150. Along with the article, a news cast was televised. Images of women and children and other patients lie around clinics and the streets of Haiti. The urgency of care and the importance of this issue is portrayed from day one. At first, the supplies seemed adequate for the spread of the disease but it is spreading faster than they thought. The UN minister of affairs reported that they would insure these supplies were replenished over time. A hundred and fifty people died within the first 48 hours of the cholera epidemic with numbers rising quickly every day.
With the latest article reporting on January 12th, 2011 from CNN, the death toll rose to over three thousand people. CNN provided updates on the death tolls almost every other day. What I like about CNN’s articles on the epidemic is that each journalist has a different angle. For example, you have informative articles about the cholera outbreak and the death tolls. Yet you also have articles from the aid workers point of view, as to why people have not given up on Haiti yet. This would be a personal take on the situation occurring, as the article interviews U.S aid workers in Haiti and asks them questions like why they are there and what they are doing. These articles are applicable to all audiences, including those who care and want to help and whom find comfort in the fact that there are people helping out, as well as those who just want to know what is going on and how many people are dying because of it. In CNN’s case, media is taking a stand in supporting Haiti and CNN values this epidemic as newsworthy. Because of the constant coverage and the range of topics, help can be motivated and inspired from people who are willing and able, even without being directly linked to the horrific events.
Turning to CBC’s coverage on the cholera epidemic I am left confused. As I looked to sort out how often they published news about the cholera epidemic, I expected to find almost as much as CNN published. However, I was sadly mistaken. By typing in Haiti cholera epidemic into the search engine and asked it to sort it by date, the most recent to be published was dated November 25th, 2010. Not only was that a long time ago, and the death tolls have risen by almost double since then, according to CNN’s broadcast, the article itself confused me and also made me laugh! The article was titled, Afghan extension, Harry Potter movie and Haiti election. Could someone please enlighten me on the connection between Afghanistan, Harry Potter and Haiti? I couldn’t figure that one out. I also found it disappointing that not only did CBC not report heavily on the cholera epidemic in Haiti, it also only focused on the political election in Haiti, occurring at the same time as the epidemic. People are dying every day, yet politics takes precedence. This doesn’t make sense to me. Clearly CBC is not doing much to provide Haiti with relief efforts, nor is that a major concern of theirs.
I tried hard to find an article only about the cholera epidemic, but this proved difficult. I did find one titled; Abbotsford nurse helps battle Haiti cholera, as it was published on January 3rd, 2011. Again, the focus was less so on Haiti and more so about this wonderful and local nurse so generously giving her time and effort for the cholera epidemic.
The political focus points to my first question’s answer. All news agencies in Canada are owned and regulated by the Canadian government. (Source) In 1936 the commonwealth of Canada deemed Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) as their Crown Corporation. In a crown corporation cabinet ministers are often the ones who hold shares among the company. The Canadian government therefor decides what the public hears about and thus owns the rights to what news is broadcasted. The Mandate of the Corporation states the following:
“the Corporation should be predominantly and distinctively Canadian; reflect Canada and its regions to national and regional audiences, while service the special needs of those regions; actively contribute to the flow and exchange of cultural expression; be in English and in French; reflect the multicultural and multiracial nature of Canada..” and so on.
This ownership and mandate by the Canadian government gives you a hint as to what Canadian viewers will be reading about. The viewer will probably not get to read too much into the cholera epidemic in Haiti, or those death toll numbers, but you will get to read about the British Columbian who is helping with the disaster. Canadians can therefore take pride in their country and their citizens. Or can we? Are we being sheltered and shielded from what is actually going on in the world because of the power of sensor ship that the Canadian government has over us? Perhaps. I turn my attention to non Canadian news agencies later on in this post in hopes of being more informed about the issues in Haiti. Luckily those are available to Canadians as well.
My initial reaction regarding news coverage on the cholera epidemic, based on CBC’s articles, was that Haiti appeared to be last year’s news. Haiti experienced a devastating earthquake and the whole world tuned in via CNN or BBC or CBC in order to get a glimpse of the action. People seemed to be genuinely concerned and relief was a main focus in 2010. However, that was last year, and it now seems as if no one is trying to do anything about this cholera epidemic. I mean, how many bad things can happen to one country right? People can only do so much.
WRONG. This cholera epidemic shocked me, it made me feel hopeless and sad. More and more people are dying in Haiti every day. Many forms of media seems to be ignoring Haiti currently and lack following up with the epidemic that is still claiming lives every day. Cholera does not just disappear overnight. So what does that tell us about our news agencies and media today? Do they help with world wide disasters in aiding their crisis, or do they hinder the epidemics? News agencies can choose to report that everything is being handled by the UN or other relief workers, giving viewers across the world (especially in the Western hemisphere) comfort that things are being worked out; therefor no need for anyone else to help. They can also choose to ignore the actually issue, like we see with CBC, in order to promote their own interests. People are dying in Haiti, but who really cares? Canadians are not dying, but let us recognize the few figures who do want to help. In a way, I guess that story could inspire others to get off their couch and lend a helping hand. But in another, Canadians can hide behind their pride of their citizens helping out, and continue to tune into the latest Canucks game.
Personally, media has the power to help motive and mediate relief efforts in Haiti and in any crisis around the world. CNN proves this to be true. However, you also see that the motives construed in media agencies, as CBC portrays, can hinder and minimize the actual problem. I think media should be used for the betterment of society, all societies at that, and not become just a business endeavour; but that is probably the cultural anthropologist and humanitarian in me speaking.
References Cited
Askew, Kelly.
2002 Blackwell Readers in Anthropology: The Anthropology of Media. 1-13.
Gourevitch, Philip.
2010 The New Yorker: Alms Dealer. 102-109.
CBC Radio Canada
2011 (1991) Mandate. hhtp://www.cbc.radio-canada.ca/about/mandate.shtml, accessed on February 1st, 2011.
CBC Radio Canada
2011 (2011) History of CBC/Radio-Canada and Canadian Public Broadcasting. http://www.cbc.radio-canada.ca/history/, accessed on February 1st, 2011.
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