Moya Hilliam discusses modern media as the primary source that protects the greater public from ignorance about global events, in her blog “Playing the Blame Game”. She also points out that nowadays, with all of the different media resources, it is important to assess the different possible biases present. During the Haiti cholera epidemic, Nepalese peacekeepers working with the UN were blamed for contaminating water sources and starting the crisis. These reports about improper sewage systems sparked riots in Haiti. The media, at first dismissed these riots as relating to the unstable political situation in Haiti. As the riots became increasingly severe, and health officials began to examine the situation in depth, the media switched its focus to blaming the UN. It began to accuse the media for dismissing the claims that they could have been responsible for the crisis.
What should be taken from Moya’s blog is that the media is fickle, and willing to adopt whatever position seems most popular. This thought that Moya raised to my attention worries and scares me and makes me doubt what I actually watch on the news. The news always seemed like a valuable and trustworthy source for global information, but that I realise is a naive claim. So how do we find the truth in the stories that are relayed back to us from around the world?
In the article, The Sociology of News , Michael Schudson discusses social sciences contribution to how we interpret the news. Sociologists like to point out that journalism can construct a viewer’s reality, and thus have to be looked at critically in order to gain a valid sense of what is truth and what is fiction. He points out journalists do not go out of their way to create fictitious news stories; rather what they write about is actually their own reality. Whether it is an accurate depiction is up for the audience to decide. The issue with this is what else can we base our opinion on? The chances of the viewer going to these foreign countries, especially those who have a cholera epidemic, are slim to none. So we are forced to review and interpret the stories that are given to us by the agencies. Unfortunately, in news, Schudson states that news is something someone creates. A journalist wants to create a controversial and new story that has not yet been published, because that is what is going to attract viewers and effect ratings. Moya has pointed out that the journalist’s creation may simply switch sides time after time in order to avoid admitting they produced misleading information. Thus, the journalist creates the news as they see fit and leaves the viewer to deal with it.
Looking at another student’s blog, which raises different questions about the media, Kakie Wong states the media has the power to bring much attention to a crisis in times of need in her blog “Images”. She describes that the worldwide media was quick to cover the earthquake in Haiti and as a result shed much light, and money, on the situation. However as new international disasters arose, such as the British Petroleum oil spill, the media took the emphasis off Haiti, and caused the situation to fall out of the public eye and into disrepair.
Thus, looking at Kakie’s blog, one can find the media, is in part to blame for the current cholera epidemic. By not drawing attention to the problem at hand, how else is anyone going to find out about it? It appears Haiti is last year’s news. Kakie made me realize how much power the media has. Not only do they control the power to write the stories we hear, they control the power to not write stories that we will never hear. This is almost as bad as hearing misinterpreted information. Penelope Ploughman points out the hierarchal power news agencies have in her article, Disasters, the Media and Social Structures. Like Kakie, Ploughman points out that the news agencies “determine the salience of issues” (1997, 119). She also discusses how our news agencies are one of the only sources we have to access global issues. Thus, if a news agency chooses to overlook some topics, there is nothing viewers can do about it.
This is why classes like the Anthropology of Media are important, in order to draw our attention to global issues and current events. If classes or other institutions do not help educate people about current events, who will? I have learned that we cannot solely rely on news agencies through both of these blogs.
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