18th Jan 2010
EDEC 262- Blog 3
Blog 3- Coverage and a Critical Lens
The devastation of the earthquake in Haiti will continue to have profound and challenging ramifications for the people of the island and the various diaspora around the world for years to come. The earthquake has killed untold thousands of people, destroyed lives, and badly crippled an already struggling infrastructure. The damage is nearly incalculable.
We turn this week to the coverage of Haiti as we attempt to make sense of this event as Canadians. This is not to trivialize the horrors of the event, which are undeniable, nor is it to unjustly or narcissistically turn the focus on to those of us in comfortable North America, but it is to consider how media coverage has constructed our understanding of the event and how that has influenced our response.
Spend some time this week watching news coverage of the earthquake and consider some of the “critical lens” that Dr. Steinberg talked about this week in class. Who is talking in the various stories? Who isn’t speaking? What kind of text is the station using to describe the event? What kind of music is being employed? What is the nature of the stories? (statistics, personal narrative, etc.) What kinds of pictures are employed? What is the nationality of those who are the subjects of the story?
Think about the issues of race, class, and gender in your response. How is this event being presented to Canadians and what kind of response is it attempting to elicit?
Curious about the mention of a newscast in class about adoption from Haiti, I watched four Canadian newscasts (CBC and CTV) on the topic. I was shocked to see that the focus of all four newscasts was placed on the Canadian parents stuck in Canada waiting to know about the children they are in the process of adopting and not on the peril of the children in Haiti. One newscast even opened with the phrase, “Canadians in the process of adopting children from Haiti are now caught up in a nightmare” CBC.ca. Canadians are meant to be seen as the victims.
By no means do I intend to trivialize the sorrow and concern of the parents awaiting news about their children in Haiti or their eventual arrival. I am merely confused as to why the emphasis in the newscasts is placed on ‘the poor Canadian parents’ and not on the Haitian children who are really the ones in peril. The aim of these newscasts seems to be to make a connection between Canadians, through sorrow. Through these newscasts, Canadians become the center in an essentially Haitian Narrative. Perhaps it’s the media’s attempt to make Canadians relate to the Haitian people in crisis, perhaps its representative of the egocentricity of a dominant culture in Canada.
It’s ironic that in a time of despair, many people take the time to point the finger and criticise. Something that caught my attention while watching various newscast about this tragedy on CBC and on CTV was the fact that the US has been criticized for giving priority to planes that are bringing in troops to Haiti for the city to keep things safe due to the chaos that is growing. I neither agree nor disagree with this but I find that the importance should be on rescuing and helping people, not pointing the finger.
I found it interesting while watching CTV that the coverage was mostly of the tragedy itself, often with a Canadian or missionary discussing their take on the turn of events, while images of dead bodies were shown in the background. Whereas the one coverage I watched on CBC was mostly of a Canadian newscaster on location whom monopolized the short segment, with a few images from Haiti.
On CBC tonight, the first thing reported was that 14 Canadians are dead, and in all 200,000. The first story presented on the national news tonight was of Canadians attempting to find loved ones in Haiti. Many Canadians cannot bring loved ones home, since they have to apply for the paperwork here in Canada, not in Haiti. The interviews with Haitians are very short, and often with man and women who have family here in Canada.
I agree with Diana, that it is sad to see the egocentricity of a dominant Canadian culture. Though it has been exactly one week of this disaster, I still do not feel that I really understand entirely the impact of it, other than the Canadian side of things. It is sad to see that we often do not get the broader spectrum of things.
*the second word should be unfortunate, not ironic
I have been watching various newscasts about this event since the day it happened and I have been struck by many startling discoveries. The first of which is the visual and auditory techniques used by the newscasts. The main channels I have watched have been CNN, CTV and Global. These newscasts all share the techniques which are meant to strike a cord within ourselves. The first technique is to use depressing or intense music, representing the critical nature of this broadcast. On top of the emotional music, we see horrifying pictures of dead bodies, collapsed buildings, as well as bloody and maimed humans. One of the most used techinque, however, is they all seem to focus more on women and children, or a collective amount of injured or dead, rather than on the males of this tragedy. During the broadcasts horrific words are flashed all over the screen (hell, death toll reaches…, nightmare). These are used to show the gravity of the situation as well emotional feeling towards this earthquake incident.
One thing I noticed about the interviews is that most of the people speaking are people not in the tragedy but are rather officials with relief programs, the Canadian or American officials, or the Newscasters themselves. If the Haitian people are interviewed, the voice clips are mainly broadcasted where they could have the most impact or severity for that interview. Rarely do we hear full length sentences, let alone full length interviews from the Haitian population. Two of the longest interviews I have seen have been with a Canadian family who does not know if they shall be recieving their Haitian baby due to the loss of paperwork, or students from British Columbia who were in Haiti at the time.
From the interview with the Canadian family who was going to adopt, there have been more and more stories about refuges and orphans possibly being brought to Canada and how it will impact OUR culture and society. There is very little reference to how removing these people will impact or alter the Haitian society. It is obvious that, due to selective and filtered newsfeed, we are being only shown one side of the situation and it is really clouding the severity of the situation itself.
It is funny that you have decided to change the topic to look at what happen to Haiti because i wanted to talk about this event this week. I totally agree with Rebekah and Diana. The media well CTV and CBC focus a lot more on what is happening to the Canadian than what is actually happening to the haitians.
However, i am francophone and i watched the TVA news and i find it a little bit different than the CTV ones. TVA interview families in Quebec that have relatives in Haiti and ask them if they had news from them or if they know what is happening over there. They also have a website where the Haitian community can send a picture of their relatives to help them to find these people. On Friday the Quebecois artist are doing a show to rise money to give to the Haitian. So even, if TVA also focus on Canadian i find it interesting that they have the approach with the Haitian community of Montreal.
I don’t know if you have looked at the recent news but there was another earthquake this morning in Haiti! They need help! I hope the media will focus more on them now!
I also agree with Rebekah because I, myself, feel that I am not nearly educated enough about this tragedy to fully understand it. Of course, I am sensitive to those who were affected and I think that is, in part, because I was educated and brought up in a certain way. However, never having witnessed or experienced an earthquake, it is shocking and incomprehensible to me that an earthquake could do that much damage. You realize that there are many things about life outside of our own homes that we have generally no idea about.
One thing that really upset me was the comments that were being left on the youtube videos I was looking at. I thought I had no idea, but the people commenting on there clearly have NO idea. They were leaving comments such as: “F- Haiti” and “Help Harlem, where it’s really needed”. Do you think it is the fear of something outside of our dominant culture that causes some people to be so heartless and ignorant? I wonder if those people were well informed about the living conditions of others, perhaps their opinions would change? I’m not saying this is completely the media’s fault, some people will never try to understand, but if the media focused on reality instead of simply retelling their version of reality, I think it would have a much greater impact on society.
For example, I watched two different videos: one was a well-dressed American man talking about how the earthquake has impacted Haiti’s domestic front as well as the main areas of the city, while standing so far away from the damage that we could not realistically see any of it. We cannot even see people who live there where he is standing, but simply the tops of buildings. In the background we hear helicopters, almost as if he purposely stood there to prove that they are doing something about it.
The other video was a nurse tending to a young boy’s swelling face as a woman is screaming loudly in the background. You see people being carried out on stretchers who have been badly wounded. The video was not focused on the nurse telling of her sadness as she is helping them, in fact, we do not even know what the nurse looks like, but it is focused on the Haitian people being affected firsthand. I think we can all detect which video is more effective in depicting reality in this case.
I agree with Karine that the Canadian anglo TV network coverage of the events in Haiti tends to be more focussed on local connections than what is happening on the ground in Haiti. One CBC news broadcast that I watched had as its subject the relief efforts initiated by the South Asian community in B.C. The reporter filmed members of a Sikh temple who were gathering funds in support of Haitian earthquake victims. From a critical media perspective I found this choice of “subject” interesting because it portrayed South Asians (specifically Sikhs) in a very positive light. The mainstream North American media controlled by persons from the dominant culture will often portray people wearing religious headwear (such as turbans) in a negative light, perhaps wittingly or unwittingly drawing comparisons with Osama Bin Laden’s public image. In any event it was interesting to see the CBC reporter focus on a particular ethnic community in what might be regarded as a “minorities helping minorities” segment.
Another news report that I watched was a CTV report that discussed how technology has really impacted coverage of the Haitian earthquake and relief efforts. The report identified how social networking sites like YouTube and Facebook have broadcast images and video of cellphone footage direct from Haiti. From a critical media perspective these sites could in someways be viewed as democratizing the mainstream media by eliminating their monopoly of images and footage and their filtering lenses (though facebook and youtube do have certain content restrictions related to broadcasts). The CTV report also talked about how skype and twitter were effective means of communicating with disaster zones in order to coordinate relief efforts or to give/receive news. So it was interesting that one media form was reporting on other alternative media forms.
I agree with all of the above comments. Having your house, your life, or even your children taken away is something so horrible it is hard to imagine. The people in Haiti who were affected by this earthquake have nothing left, exept for fighting for their lives. Many have lost loved ones, and some are trying to escape and move where their families are, but how could they since they don’t have their papers? Although I will never fully understand the pain these people are going through, I can still somewhat understand since my close family was involved in the earthquake in Italy last April. Still today, they are feeling small tremors, and remain traumatized by not only having everything everything removed from them, but also the fear of it happening again.
While watching and reading the news, I must agree with everyone that they do cover how canadian families are affected. Of course they are important and have feelings too, but nothing compares to the feelings that the Haitians are feeling. I have read in the Gazette a quite big story on how a Canadian woman went to Haiti to get her mother (her two sisters died). Since her mother lost her papers in the rubble, the government won’t let her bring her mother to Canada. This particular story was told and retold, and seems to be quite the topic for the time being.
I don’t understand why this story needs to be told so many times. What we should be focusing on is on Haiti and what is being done there. Little do people know that after big earthquakes come small tremors. It is without a doubt that they are still feeling shakes, but no one hears about this. (At least I don’t). Karine is right, we should help them!
Since I heard about the tragic event that occurred in Haiti, I’ve been trying to keep up to date with what the news has to say about the situation. Like most bloggers had stated, it’s astounding how CTV and CBC news mainly focused on the Canadians that were killed in Haiti and policy issues concerning foreign adoption. Amongst all the suffering and hell that the people are currently going through, it seems that the interests of Canadian news broadcasters lie with the orphaned kids in Haiti and how they will be integrated into our society.
What really got to me after viewing all these news reports was that many of the children being found in Haiti are not necessarily considered orphans. Their parents might be alive, but just separated from them and if the parents were killed, they may have other family members that can take care of them. The news seems to be neglecting these issues and is rushing to take these kids to other countries for adoption instead. It seems to be very apparent that the news is solely concerned with how this will affect our culture and they overlook how this may impact their society. It seems that Canadian interests override the interests of the Haitian people.
Today, CBC news had reported that Haiti was hit by a powerful aftershock. They briefly mention the damage that was created by this aftershock along with the reaction of the Haitian people. To wrap up the report, they conclude by stating that “the Canadian Embassy was damaged in the aftershock, but no officials were injured.” It becomes very clear that the news is doing everything in its power to connect the lives of Canadians to the Haitians that are suffering from this devastating event.
Living in residence, watching TV is a part of my daily routine, but when I turned on the TV this week, every news station had coverage of the devastation in Haiti. However, what I found to be extremely interesting was the type of coverage that they had when I examined it a bit closer. If I had just thought about it, I would have assumed that the majority of the coverage would be interviews with people who have been directly affected by this tragedy.
However, when I watched the coverage, I realized that much of the coverage, both on CNN and CTV, is focused on the reporters, or the good that some people are doing in Haiti. For example, of the videos on CNN.com, most feature Dr. Sanjay Gupta, and the amazing work that he has done in Haiti. Yes, he has been immeasurably helpful, and is helping anybody and everybody affected by this tragedy, however I personally believe that the coverage should be focused on the effects of the earthquake, and how we at home can help in any way possible. I am definitely not denouncing the work that doctors and volunteers from all over the world have done, as without them, there would be more tragedy and heartbreak in Haiti than there is now, but I also feel that they could and should be congratulated and recognized at a more appropriate time.
Having said that, there were also some videos that focused solely on the effects of the earthquake on Haitians, and I feel that these videos were the most informing and realistic. There were few interviews with Haitians, as opposed to Canadian or American news reporters, but the short interviews that were conducted and aired were the ones that I felt showed the most realistically what is really happening in the wake of the earthquake.
I too agree with what everyone has said. I have watched many news stories on the earthquake in Haiti and I have noticed many of the same things that have been mentioned. One topic that I have seen featured on many news stories on Global, CTV and CBC is the Canadian families who are in the process of adopting children from Haiti and are now uncertain about what is going to happen to their adoptions. I have watched the news everyday since the earthquake hit, and I don’t think that there has been a day where there hasn’t been a story about Canadians and their adoption troubles. I am not saying that this is not sad, because it is, but I think that the focus needs to be put more on how the quake has affected the Haitians and on how help is going to reach them.
Within a couple days of the quake, news teams were covering some of the search and rescue teams who were searching for survivors beneath the buildings. The one thing that I noticed is that the news on Canadian stations was been focusing a lot on the search and rescue that is taking place at the Hotel Montana, which was popular with a lot of Western tourists. I know that there are Canadians that were staying there and I do want to know if there have been people that have been found, but for quite a few days, the stations tended to just concentrate on that building and we didn’t really get to see much of the other search and rescues that were occurring throughout Haiti. We weren’t really getting a clear picture of how the Haitians were dealing with what had just happened. We know that it is bad, but the Hotel Montana does not represent all of Haiti.
I am not saying that the news stations have not been featuring Haitians, because they have. They are showing images of the devastation that the earthquake has caused and how the Haitians are coping. There are now more images of search and rescues that are happening within Haiti. There was just a story today where two children were pulled from a building alive after over a week of being under the debris. This is a happy story amongst the tragedy, but now I think that more emphasis needs to be put on how the Haitians are going to cope with the aftermath of the earthquake and how the help that is coming in from different countries is going to reach them.
Golden Globes
Although I am choosing a different topic for this blog, it is closely related the blogs that you are all writing. The Golden Globes took place on Sunday night and there was a lot of focus on Haiti. Many stars on the Red Carpet spoke about how their thoughts were with the people of Haiti. There was also mention of George Clooney’s planned fundraiser. Many stars have agreed to appear on the broadcast to help raise money for relief. Throughout the show, there were stars who asked people to donate whatever they could to the cause. I also heard that many of the stars have auctioned off their wardrobe from the awards show and the money raised will go to the Haiti relief.
Although stars are benefiting from lending their names to the cause, praise and additional exposure for example, the main issue is that they are encouraging other people to help out. Celebrities are idolized and they are using their presence for a good cause. It was nice to see that the celebrities were still concerned for the people of Haiti during a celebration.
Overall, I think that it is great that celebrities are using their exposure to help others in need. Some are also giving large amounts of money from their own pockets which will undoubtedly help.
When I have a chance to watch television, I have to admit that the first thing I turn on is rarely the news. Today, I watched CBC News: The National where I noticed an effort to include many connections to Canada, as others have said, in order to help us understand to the chaos that we cannot fathom. I was horrified to see the images that were flashing in front of me, but I appreciate the fact that we need to physically SEE the suffering in order to realize the magnitude of this event, and even then it is difficult to feel anything other than an overwhelming sense of empathy.
They interviewed 2 Montreal doctors who were helping out in a Port-Au-Prince makeshift clinic, as well as several Canadian journalists. The words “Disaster in Haiti”, in bold, broken script were ever present, and the music was typical “horrible event” news music. What caught my attention about how these stories were being presented, was that there was a huge emphasis on the fact that the West is not doing enough to help out. I actually felt so guilty after watching that I went to donate to Doctors Without Borders! I realize that the news was focusing more on how governments, especially the US, are mismanaging the money for relief efforts, but I felt really horrible all the same. I don’t necessarily think this is a bad thing however; if everyone gives what they can afford, it will make a difference. Seeing these images and seeing what relief workers are going through makes you realize just how fortunate you really are. I was actually impressed with the coverage on The National, as it was pretty subjective and erring less on the depressing, this-is-what-is-happening-but-you-can’t-do-anything-about-it side, which I find happens in many American news programs.
Since news broke about the terrible earthquake in Haiti, I, like many others, have been following the coverage on the various news broadcasting stations on a regular basis. Every news station has had full coverage of the destruction and damage in Haiti, of which they have documented the tragic story of devastation through the use of various images, sad music and reporters documenting Haiti’s destruction first hand.
While watching the coverage this past week, I came to the realization that most of the focus has been on the Canadians that affected by the tragic event. Like many others who have stated above, the concentration on most of the Canadian new broadcasts has been focused around more ‘at home’ news. For example, when I woke this morning, I flipped through various news stations (CNN, CTV, etc.) to take a look at what was being reported. On Canada AM (CTV) this morning, the first top story was of course related to the Haiti earthquake, yet the news report told a story about the search for 14 Canadians who are in the process of being rescued from a fallen hotel building. Now, I understand as Canadians we usually want to hear about new stories that are closer to home, yet I feel in an instance such as the one in Haiti, the news and reporting should focus on how the Haitians have been affected by the earthquake and what is actually being done to aid and rebuild.
Also, while watching CNN this morning, I noticed one news story in particular focused around a U.S Navy ship that is being used as a medical base for which the severe and injured cases are being flown to receive medical attention. The story itself was interesting, yet there was this underlying tone being illustrated of how the United States are the only one putting forth such an effort. Basically, the newscasters threw a small, yet very noticeable jab, which came across as an American station touting their own horn. Then again, if you follow CNN on a regular basis, you can usually expect such actions… They are the station with the “best political team” in the world afterall! With the crisis taking place in Haiti, I just wish there was more focus placed on the Haitian population and how they have been affected.
I’ve been lately watching the coverage on the disaster in Haiti and I have to say its just awful what happened. And for the fact they got another aftershock just a magnitude under the first one just hurts us even more.
I’ve seen this in many news channels and characterize this as a catastrophical event. It’s nearly the same coverage as the 9/11 incident. Of course you have the mourning music, the graphic pictures and various TV personalities flying in the scene to get full coverage. I’m seeing on various new channels, such as CTV, CNN, Fox News, and the popularity is spreading mad, like wildfire.
It’s really funny that the Haitians are never interviewed, it’s always the reporters doing most of the coverage. When I watch it, I want to know how they are feeling. I want to hear it from their point of view, not some broadcaster making some assumptions.
David above me, noted that candians are becoming more aware of the news coverage because they are the own people and now are starting to become compassionate towards the other people.
For myself I don’t care about race, class, gender. Haiti is possibly one of the poorest countries, and they need our help. I think its quite remarkable, that US and Canada are doing their best efforts to lend them a helping hand. I’ve even seen on Larry King Live on CNN, that celebrities like Ashley Judd and Jeff Probst (host on Survivor) have raised more than $800,000. So my hats off to them.
In conclusion, it’s nice that the news is giving us full coverage making us aware that they need the help, and making efforts to alleviate the haitians, but they neglect one important aspect… Words spoken from the Haitians themselves!!
Golden Globes …Stars lending their voice to the cause.
Yesterday Wyclef Jean was on Oprah with his home video of eye whiteness accounts about that is “really” happening in Haiti. He wanted to let everyone know that what we are seeing on the news is just a small amount of what is really going on over there, and that the news is only giving us one side of the story. The devastation is wider than just Port-au Prince, where new cures are located and nothing is happening fast enough. Supplies have been sent but there is no distribution system in place so the supplies are sitting at the airport helping no one.
He came back to the USA to help with the “Hope for Haiti” telethon that is being hosted this Friday to raise the much needed finds and then will be going back to Haiti on Saturday to try and help come up with a distribution system for the people to get the water and food that they so desperately need.
It was interesting / touching to hear what he had seen. Oprah’s team has also put together a brief history about the country letting people know more about where these people have come from and where they as a country where headed. Opening the eyes of many people that may not have known much about the country other that its location / proximity to Dominican Republic that is often seen as the place with the nice white sandy beaches and the happy vacationers.
I think it is nice to hear that many big names are helping in any way that they can.
This didn’t make it into my blog.
Grammy-Award winning musician, producer and social entrepreneur Wyclef Jean was born and raised until the age of 8 in Haiti. Over the past couple years he has put together a foundation called Yéle Haiti. Through Yéle Haiti, Wyclef uses music, sports and the media to reinforce projects that are making a difference in education, health, environment and community development. In practical terms this translates to over 3,000 new jobs, close to 7,000 children being put in school, more than 8,000 people a month receiving food and approximately 2,000 young people a month learning about HIV/AIDS prevention. Among the many who have responded to Wyclef’s invitation to help are thousands of individuals like you, celebrities like Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt, as well as NGOs, world leaders and corporations (http://yele.org/mission/)
During the earthquake Wyclef Jean lost the school that he had put together through the foundation and has had no contact with the students and teachers that were in the building.
After reading many of my classmates’ entries, I noticed that the channels that were mainly discussed were CNN, CBC and CTV. I watched CNN, and the story was entitled ‘QUAKE SURVIVOR FOUND’ on January 19th, 7 days after the first earthquake. They showed the lady being taken out of the rubble. For about 2 minutes, there was emphasis on one specific case. They showed her injuries (broken femur, and others). The story cut suddenly, and the news moved on to some political news – GOP WINS U.S. SENATE RACE. This title was followed by a celebration of Scott Brown’s supporters. Screams of pain and suffering were quickly changed to cheers such as ‘Go Scott Go’. I think the transition was perhaps not very smooth and cold.
On the other hand, I watched a coverage of the Haiti tragedy on a French channel (LCN). The reporters had a much more humane approach than CNN. They were actually going around, talking to people, including doctor’s from Quebec. There was less emphasis on music, and giving the story a title, but more focus on what is really going on in Haiti. Who is there to help, what is missing, what should be done, etc.
Following this cry for help from ‘white’ doctors, another story was told. This one was about a nurse who hadn’t seen her mother in years. When her mother phoned her a few days after the earthquake, she was able to come to Canada to be with her daughter. What I found most interesting about this story, was not only the warm feeling of seeing a mother and daughter reunite after such a tragedy, but mainly it was the fact that the mother asked her daughter (living in Canada) if she had heard about the earthquake in Haiti. This was a clear example of the innocence, and vulnerability of the Haiti community. They depend on humanitarian aid. This woman was not even sure that a country like Canada had been informed of this natural disaster.
Overall, not that I enjoy watching this type of coverage (I couldn’t stand more than ten minutes), but I preferred getting both sides’ perspective on the French channel – the victims and the people there to help. Perhaps there are good ones in English too, but the ones I have watched always happened to be oddly presented in my point of view.
CHILDREN AND THE MEDIA – interesting study
Share and Kellner state in chapter 1 of our textbook that “The twenty-first century is a media saturated, technologically dependent, and globally connected world” (Page 3). I agree with this statement but I was very shocked to find out just how true this is with respect to today’s youth. On CTV news last night there was a report about the “modern child and modern media”. According to a study done in 2004, youth spent on average an hour a day consuming media but a recent study that survyed kids from age 8 to 18 found that they spend on average 7.5 hours a day consuming media. The report said that this meant all children did when they were not in school was consume media! The study said that the only thing youth do more than consume media is sleep! I found this really goes to show just how dependant the younger members of society are on media, with an IPOD, cellphone and laptop seemingly standard for most teens today. I believe these facts provide a reason why teaching media literacy is so important in schools today. But does this also mean more dramatic shifts in the way we teach? Sure SMARTBOARDS and computers can be used to infuse technology into the classroom but does more need to be done?
Like many of you, I am struck by the Canadian focus in news coverage in Haiti. Although, I agree that this tragedy struck many Canadians in Haiti and families in Canada searching for loved ones, it seems the news is focusing on too much Canada when Haitians are living through a horrific period. People whose homes have been flattened and livelihoods destroyed. People who are holding out hope of finding their loved ones alive while struggling to get food and water. More of the focus should be put on what can be done to help people in Haiti.
Like Amy Batley, I noticed that there was a lot of coverage on the news for Canadian families who were supposed to adopt a Haitian but because of the unfortunate events, adoptions are either being postponed. Was I the only one to think to myself: “Who cares?!” Of course, it is extremely sad that these families are not able to adopt their future children but honestly, is this the most devastating part of this disaster? I think not. What about all the Haitians that died? What about all the broken families? What about all the people that are still missing even after a whole week has gone by? The questions could go on and on but my point is that although it is sad that Canadian families are not able to adopt children right now, there are much more horrible things that are going on.
Another thing that I noticed and someone actually brought this up in class is that there are barely any news reports with Haitians in them. This is mindboggling to me! I watched many news reports from different stations; therefore, I do not remember exactly what reports I watched from what station, but most of the time, whenever we saw Haitians, they were usually in the background while reporters from Canada or the United States were talking. Or sometimes we could see pictures on the screen and these pictures would usually show very poor Haitians, most of the time either crying or physically hurt. And of course there would be a very sad music playing while these photos were shown. Also, most of the time, if the Haitians actually spoke, it was only a few words, almost giving the impression that there were not able to produce anything longer. Did anyone else find this?
Hopefully, no matter what news coverage they show on television; whether it is Canadian narratives or pictures of Haitians, the public will realize that Haiti is in desperate need of help and that if we all pitched in a little bit we could really make a difference.
Watching the CNN coverage of the devastation of the earthquake in Haiti I came across an interesting report entitled “Six days under the rubble: Extraordinary story of survival”. The story was about a husband who never gave up hope of finding his wife beneath the rubble. The man never left the site where he assumed his wife might still be. Every time a part of the ground would be cleared he would rush over and see if he saw any sign of life. On the sixth day he finally heard a noise and recognized his wife’s voice. It was truly a miracle that they were able to find her alive.
During this report the male reporter does most of the talking. He narrates this man’s personal story of hope in finding his wife. On the sixth day the reporter is actually reporting live when they locate his wife. There is no sad music playing in the background it is just live images of workers trying to clear the ground. Obviously, this story has a happy ending but I found the reporter was stressing the importance on the Americans as heroes. For example, the man in the story spoke very well English because you could hear him in the background asking if anyone had seen a sign of life. The reporter was condescending because he would translate what the man was saying as if the audience was not able to understand him. The reporter doesn’t even interview this man in knowing and trying to understand the pain he is suffering. However, when the woman is finally saved there is great emphasis on explaining how the Los Angeles fire department was able to save a person after such a lengthy period of time. The reporter then chooses to interview the firemen questioning how they felt after saving a life. I would have preferred seeing the man’s expression and hearing the happiness in his voice. Another part of the story that I did not approve was the fact that since the taping was live the reporter actually placed a microphone in a small opening where the woman was still buried under all that rubble. He immediately began questioning her and asking how she was feeling. I don’t understand how you could think of questioning a person after everything she has been through. I am sure the woman would have rather heard her husband’s voice so maybe he would be able to give her moral support while the firemen worked to free her. The reporter ends the story by saying that this was a remarkable rescue however; the media continues to instil fear by explaining her survival was the exception in an area of too many deaths. The media then ends with images of people who were not so lucky and were not able to survive this devastating event.
I don’t know about any you but I’m going to go ahead and say that I’m all Haiti-ed out! I’ve had enough; every time I open the television I witness one more broadcasting company trying to drag me into their soap opera. Now, don’t get me wrong; what happened in Haiti is a tragedy and it is for that reason that I’m so disturbed by the media coverage surrounding it. The impression I am getting from watching the news is that it’s not about Haiti anymore but instead it’s all about the ratings. CBS showed us coverage of the horrific images of all the dead bodies scattered on the ground. I’ve become afraid to even look at the news in fear that I would see another dismembered body. I understand it’s the reality of the situation and I’m not trying to sound inhumane because it does pull at my heart strings. But what infuriates me is that broadcasting companies are competing with each other and dragging our feelings into it (like puppet masters) just for the ratings and not because of Haiti. It’s all about which television station could show the most shocking scenes, which can have the best tragic life story etc… I think it’s time for the media to start focusing on human suffering and not on their ratings.
I couldn’t agree more with all the comments above. It’s a shame that I don’t get to watch the news as much as I should, but with all the talk that has been going around everywhere, it’s pretty hard to miss what has happened in Haiti.
Global, CTV and other major Canadian news stations have been spending the past week capturing footage all around Canada to see what citizens have to say. After watching certain recaps on Haiti, I was quick to realize that there was a heavy focus on mainly how this tragic incident is affecting the lives of Canadian citizens. Some even worried that their adopted children from Haiti would not be able to come to Canada. Is that really something to worry about after what has happened? Our main concern should not be how any of this is affecting us at all, but instead we should be working together as a country to help the individuals in need. Stefania states that, “people in Haiti have nothing left, except for their lives.” There’s nothing more painful than having everything you ever loved stripped away from your very sight and not being able to do anything about it. The feeling is unbearable just thinking about what would happen if a catastrophic event like Haiti, would hit Montreal. Would others react like us? We should all be thankful that we have shelter and food without any of these major disasters.
The devastating earthquake that cleared Haiti of hope was only the beginning. Up to a week later, aftershocks have still been happening and with the damage already done, it can only get worse for the Haitians. I too, alongside with Tanya, saw the local news station CBC conclude their aftershock report stating that, “the Canadian embassy was damaged in the aftershock, but no officials were injured.” Honestly, that shows to the nation that we still are thinking about how this is affecting ourselves and not the Haitians. Haiti needs help and we should be the ones to give it.
In response to Diana Samaan’s and among other’s responses that news broadcasts have victimized Canadians, I have noticed not only are they victimizing Canadians in the earthquake, they are also doing it online. As I signed out of my hotmail account the other day, there was an article about missing Canadians. It is astounding how many articles there are not only about Haiti but about the good things the Canadian government wants to do for Haiti (Canada wants lead in Haiti reconstruction, Canadian mayors promise to help rebuild Haiti, etc.). It feels as if Canada is using this as an opportunity to promote itself as a helper and doer of good. Personally, I am not a fan of watching the news because I find it only offers a limited perspective. I much prefer facts and pictures. Boston.com offers this section called The Big Picture, and their slogan is “news stories in photographs” (http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2010/01/earthquake_in_haiti.html) which I find absolutely amazing–pictures with captions of what happened. Like they say, a picture is worth a thousand words. Needless to say, I’m sure some pictures were employed to really get to people–I’ve seen countless pictures of mass graves and corpses lying underneath a bunch of collapsed rubble. It’s almost as if these pictures were shown to make you feel sorry but grateful at the same time because YOU were not caught in it. See, the disturbing thing about it too is that the pictures of mass graves have dead Haitians lying in them, and surely enough, if something like this did happen in Canada or the USA, they would never display these kind of graphic images for the public to witness. It’s almost as if there’s the notion of the lesser developed country that needs to be shown. Not to mention various pictures of circumstantial looters floating around–it kind of sends out a very chaotic message.
News broadcasts tend to play up everything so dramatically, names get thrown in, like celebrities who have made considerable donations. Just the fact that there are blogs that are keeping track of what celebrities are donating to the catastrophe tells you how superficial the help and broadcast of the incident has become (http://roc4life.com/profiles/blogs/top-10-celebrity-donations-to).
Like Nathalie and many other students have stated… The adoptions of Haitian children for Canadians is being over-emphasized on ALL Canadian news channels. Needless to say, this IS an important issue that will be affecting Canadians sooner or later, however, it is necessary to focus on what is happening NOW in Haiti; the lack of food, water, medical utilities, the searches still going on, the loss of loved ones, and much more. The Canadian reporters are getting all the attention and us as viewers are only seeing quick flashes of what is really going on in Haiti.
However, I was somewhat impressed by the 11pm news on CTV last night. The reportage began with the Canadian news reporter following a large truck filled with bags and barrels of food and how all the Haitians were running after the truck to steal the contents. This gave us real footage of what was going on in the community and how food is a basic necessity for us, however, the Haitians are content with whatever they can get. The included a short clip of a Haitian man that got a bad of rice saying “with food we can do anything”. Unfortunately, only the “lucky and/or strong ones were able to get something to feed themselves and their family.
At the end of the reportage, they interviewed a surgeon from Ontario(obviously had to be Canadian to have more than 5 seconds to speak) showing the viewers around a “triage” location where all the Haitians were being ranked to receive medical assistance. The main focus was on the massive amount of Haitian amputees that were amputated without tranquilizers because it had to be done fast to reduce the chance of infection. As the cameras brought us through the improvised clinic we could see the suffering, the wounds being covered with bandages, nurses changes the bandages of amputees, and the pain with the screaming of the patients. This footage really got to me because it was crude- as the reality is right now in Haiti. There was also emphasis on the fact that most Haitians were not complaining: “they were simply happy to be alive”.The reporter made a point at the end of the report ” this earthquake created a whole new generation of amputees”.
This last point is something to think of… how will Haiti cope with all these amputees?
MuchMusic is a popular music station amongst Canadian teenagers. This week, MuchMusic dedicated an entire hour to Haiti called, “Muchtalks: Haiti”. I instantly thought this was a wonderful idea to inform and educate teenagers across Canada about the disaster of Haiti.
As an opening to the show a quick and brief summary of Haiti’s situation was explained. From there, the viewer was taken back to the MuchMusic headquarters, where our hosts for the next hour, Devon Soltendieck (MuchMusic VJ) and Craig Kielburger (Co-founder of “Free the Children”) would be discussing the tragic events of Haiti. As the hosts began to introduce themselves and mentioned what viewers can expect for the next hour, a tone of “serious” music was played softly in background as if saying, “hey, we are talking about a serious topic here – take us seriously”. The music eventually became annoying with its four repetitive beats. In the background, the audience stood around the hosts with serious looks on their face – expect when the camera zoomed in on their face – where the girls quickly smiled and tossed their hair back.
Devon first mentions the several celebrities that they will be talking to and then secondly, mentions the upcoming interviews with the people of Haiti. Through out the hour, Keilburger constantly mentions how he has literally just returned from Haiti and how his involvement has affected him. I get it, you’re the co-founder of the “Free the Children” organization, but how many times do you have to inform the audience of your return from Haiti?
I don’t know if this is a little out there – but at the bottom of the screen, MuchMusic was providing viewers with information of where they could donate money. It crossed my mind that the viewers are most likely teenagers who probably are not even Visa or Mastercard holders. Therefore, several of their options to donate money are immediately crossed due to this restriction.
It was very clear who was hosting the show and who was involved. After every clip and discussion, a big sign would appear: MUCHTALKS HAITI. Is it really necessary to advertise the name of the show every two seconds?
Ben Mulroney from etalk was at Muchmusic to discuss a special broad casting of three news networks coming together to support Haiti. What caught my attention, was the Ben Mulroney was holding etalk’s microphone instead of MuchMusic’s.
Overall, they spent more time interviewing Canadians who where in Haiti at the time of the earthquake and discussing their reactions and views of the disaster. Like my peers have already mentioned, I would have expected that more time be dedicated to the people of Haiti.
Although, this broadcasting was intended for a good cause, the way it was presented I couldn’t help but think how MuchMusic along with other networks are taking advantage of the situation to promote themselves in order to “look good”.
This week I watched an interview on LCN titled, “Une nouvelle vie pour la famille Valerie”. A Haitian family of 7 was being interviewed. The father was working in Montreal at the time of the earthquake. His 5 sons and wife were back in Haiti when it happened. So the audience found out that the father came back to Haiti to fortunately find his family still alive. This story, which was quite touching, shocked me because during most of the interview, the father was talking! I think it would have been more interesting to hear what the 5 children had to say about their experience during the earthquake. The wife had a few words, but not nearly as much as the father did. The interviewer seemed very enthusiastic and it was odd to see because the family is going through so much right now. They left Haiti to live here in Montreal. The interviewer was making jokes with the children and trying to make them laugh. It seemed as though the 5 children were really trying to force their smiles.
Before this I saw another story on LCN, though I forget the title. Newscasters were talking about the Haitians receiving boxes of food and water. We saw footage of the army giving out these packages to eager Haitians. They seemed a bit happier to the get food and water, but it was still very hard to read their emotions. They still looked distressed at the same time. I think the story was directed to us Canadians to feel sympathy, and motivation to donate. I think they really wanted the audience to see that even though the Haitians are getting some supplies, it’s still not enough. It made me feel as though we should be appreciating what we have, and even those who aren’t as well off as others, should still try to donate. It was shocking to see that there was no footage covering any comments that the Haitians had to say. We only saw them receive their packages, but did not get to hear anything they had to say at all.
Like a lot of other students have said, I too noticed that the adoption of Haitian children was being over-emphasized. I think they are focusing on the wrong problem at the moment. Though the adoption of these children is an issue, like Amy said, it is necessary to focus what is happening now in Haiti. I think it’s quite selfish what the media is doing, they are only paying attention to the Canadian families who are adopting. What is more important is the Haitian families and what they need to survive.
I have watched coverage of this tragedy on many networks at many different times, and as many have already mentioned, I was surprised by the emphasis on Canadians. While the Canadians may have a direct link to us (as Canadians), to many of us, these Canadians are strangers. They therefore don’t have any personal link to us, just like the Haitians. Therefore, I don’t see why we should put a greater emphasis on Canadians strangers than we do on Haitian strangers. The Haitians were directly affected by this disaster and they have lost their possessions, their homes, and their loved ones, yet we concentrate on those who were simply passing by. We focus on those who, if they have survived, can hop back on a plane and return to their still standing homes and their families.
At another point, I was watching CTV news and they were asking people on the street whether Canada was doing enough to help in Haiti and I was shocked by one of the answers I heard. One man said that we need to help the poor people here before we help others. I couldn’t believe what I had heard. These people had just gone through an unimaginable disasters, in which many were left stranded and many more were killed and this man thought that our poor people were more important. I thought that his comment was very selfish, and while I understand that some of “our” people need help, the people of Haiti are DEPENDING on our help…it is a matter of life and death.
Now the coverages seem to be focusing on the chaos that is occuring in Port-au-Prince as people are beginning to steal and become violent. They seem to forget to mention how these people have been without food, water and shelter for over a week and that this behaviour is normal in this type of situation. I find that they are making them out to be savages, however, anyone is this type of situation would act simarly. Desperate needs calls for desperate measures. They also seem to be focusing on children which is making people very sympathetic towards the people of Haiti. They are also taking about child traficking and I think that this is horrible. To be taking advantage of such a tragic event and traficking children; putting them through more trauma in their young lives is awfull and I really hope that they can get better control over this.
On the other hand, I am very happy to see all the people who have come together to help Haiti by donating money. It is in times like these that we forget about the countries and the boundaries as the whole world becomes one with the common goal to help.
So there is no question that the media attention (CBC, CTV) is focused on the Canadian perspective of the tragic events in Haiti. However, without wanting to sound ignorant, I would like to ask: what is so wrong about doing this? CBC and CTV are both Canadian broadcasters whose main viewers are either Canadian or people who live in Canada. No matter what the media decides to portray, all of us in Canada who have not set foot in Haiti since the earthquake, actually have absolutely no idea of what it feels like to be in Haiti. Even if the broadcasters interviewed Haitians or played live footage of the events in Haiti on a 24 hour basis, we would still not be part of the brutal reality. If I watch a clip on the media about a Haitian amputee, I feel shocked and outraged about the unfairness of the world while viewing it, but once I turn off the TV, I, like the millions of lucky Canadians, will be going to bed and snuggling up in my nice cozy blankets. If the Canadian media is finding ways to get the Canadian population to take interest in the horrific tragedy, I see this is a good thing because Haiti needs all the help and attention it can get.
After our discussion during class about the role of dominant culture in society and how each individual must empower themselves by recognizing their place within this culturally defined social construct, I wondered how this would apply to the news reports about the devastation in Haiti. Who are the news reports really appealing to? Does it make them less valid if they try and appeal to this dominant culture? Or have the media recognized their own place within the dominant culture and see it as a necessary evil in order to maintain a loyal viewership? Is recognizing these biases and embedded messages enough?
If we accept first that for the Western world the dominant culture is Caucasian, male, protestant, middle class, English speaking , educated and heterosexual it is not difficult to see the how the news caters to this demographic.
I chose the BBC World News report with Matt Fry and CNN’s report with Anderson Cooper as my subjects of study. They were both national news reports with similar social standings for the UK and US. I tried to make some sense of the role of dominant culture in the news by breaking down the messages into the aforementioned categories as I saw fit.
Caucasian/ Male: Both presenters were male and Caucasian. I recognize that this could be due in part to the reports that I selected, but I think it is worth noting.
Educated: Both CNN and BBC report made reference to the US Geological Survey and interviewed a representative with scientific knowledge of natural disasters. This allusion to experts seemed to give the report more authenticity as it appealed to an educated source to give advice and a perspective on the events in Haiti. We are lead to believe that this expert who was thousands of miles away from the event would somehow have more insight or add more credibility to the stories of an individual who had just experienced it.
Heterosexual: Anderson Cooper urged viewers to “ hug [their] husbands, wives, children and loved ones and be happy that they are not in Haiti tonight”. This statement again appeals to the traditional family unit and is only partially inclusive when it references loved ones who may not fit the traditional convention.
Protestant: Again Anderson Cooper urged viewers to pray for those who are suffering. The BBC report had sounds clips with Hilary Clinton who said her prayers were with the Island of Haiti.
Middle class: Both reports made it clear that viewers could be active participants in the recovery of the island even though many would never be able to go there physically. The reports encouraged us to consider our own economic advantages and give back to those who are less fortunate; a privilege of the middle class.
The benefits of news however are undeniable. It increases our global awareness of other lifestyles. It gives us a sense of connection with humanity. It encourages us to be global citizens and donate money and resources to those who are less fortunate. I want to point out that I am not saying it is wrong to donate money or feel motivated to help others. Indeed, without this type of help and acts of kindness the world would not be able to function.
However, it is the methods used to appeal to the public that make me more nervous. Just as Share mentioned in chapter 2, the media uses codes and conventions (denotation of words) to make the audience feel a certain way. Both reports made mention to the fact that Haiti is a country “stricken by poverty” and that it is now “left in ruins”. Anderson Cooper referenced random “acts of heroism” as inspiration to us all. Finally, the BBC report used the banner “Haiti’s Hell” as the breaking story. The language used by both presenters heightened the emotion.
Also the news reports seemed to recognize that the audience is not passive like again Share said in chapter 2. The reports provided many emotional routes into the story. Including appealing the Americans to feel a connection with the situation by referencing how many Americans were currently in Haiti.
I am wondering if the media were more objective if it would be as effective or watched? Is it even possible? Or is it biased by its very nature for now and for always?
Is recognition of the media’s bias really enough? Shouldn’t we try and change it?
I am left with more questions than answers.
Reading everybody’s responses to the media coverage on Haiti, as well as the segments that I have watched on TV this past week, I have noticed that there are definitely a few common themes in what these news stations are covering. Firstly, as Amy mentioned, I have also seen a couple of segments where CTV has shown Haitians in massive brawls who are fighting over food supplies. These segments have almost always shown the brawls themselves for a few seconds, and then immediately switching to Canadian relief workers commentating on the situation (I did not see any Haitians speaking). As a response to Christine and many others concerning the victimization of Canadians, I could not agree more with their statements. I was watching a commentary on CTV at noon today, where they spent a considerable amount of time focusing on prospective (white) Quebec parents speaking from Haiti about their current struggles with adoption. Although I could imagine that they are dealing with a difficult time right now, I was a bit upset that the news coverage took up so much time focusing on these parents’ situations about where their files stand and “how frustrated they are with the bureaucracy out there”, when there are surely more pressing matters with the Haitians’ struggle with survival right now.
I watched a couple of segments on CNN as well, where many focused on how much America is doing to help Haiti right now. As one segment read, “Saving lives in Haiti: Vital role of US search and rescue teams”, a ten-minute interview took place between the newscaster and two American male rescue workers in Port-au-Prince, which exclusively focused on the “amazing feeling they get from helping people” and their “immense sense of pride they get when people (Haitians) cheer them on when helping others”. Interestingly enough, some of the only other clips they showed throughout the interview were of Haitians applauding American rescue workers when saving people from collapsed buildings and cheering “USA USA”. Like Alice mentioned, I have truly begun to question whether objective media coverage would ever be possible, as well as effective.. Do people really realize how biased the media actually is?
I am disturbed by the media’s coverage of the catastrophe in Haiti. I am forced to pose the following questions: “What kind of world do we live in? Who are we answering to? What are we waiting for? Is our world governed solely by corrupt governments? Is this a cruel way of letting the theory of “Natural Selection” dictate Haiti’s people’s fate? Why aren’t we doing anything to help these poor people?
I listened to CJAD’s Tommy Schnurmacher interview a reporter for Global who is in Haiti. The reporter said that the aid workers had not landed yet. He asked the people suffering if they had seen any help yet, and their reply was that yes, they had seen the helicopters fly over but they would not land. They could see the ships anchored close to shore, but no one managed to make it to shore yet.
The reporter spoke of the people having no food or water and that they needed help urgently. In the same breath, Mr. Schnurmacher asked the reporter how supplies managed to reach the “media” staying in the hotel, and his answer was that thankfully the military was able to deliver them… Am I the only one who finds this completely disgusting? The military is able to manage delivering supplies to the media stationed in hotels, yet they cannot deliver supplies to the people dying on the streets…
I listened to another report on Thursday morning, a reporter for the Montreal Gazette is stationed in Haiti. She experienced the after shock and was completely shaken by it. She recounted the horrific situation in Haiti with emotion . She talked of the people having absolutely NOTHING yet. She was begging for help. Dan Laxer of CJAD was tried to direct the report to the aid workers and Canadians in Haiti… The reporter spoke of women giving birth, doctors having no supplies, her assessment was truthful and honest. As difficult as it was to listen to, I respected her for being honest and telling the truth.
Last class, Mrs. Steinberg opened my eyes to the media and its’ involvement on protecting the dominant culture. I was much more critical of the interviews this week and actually turned off the one mentioned above with Tommy Schnurmacher after listening for a couple of minutes. I found it horrible that people are dying in the streets and the military can still deliver to the media!!!
I am disturbed by the media’s coverage of the catastrophe in Haiti. I am forced to pose the following questions: “What kind of world do we live in? Who are we answering to? What are we waiting for? Is our world governed solely by corrupt governments? Is this a cruel way of letting the theory of “Natural Selection” dictate Haiti’s people’s fate? Why aren’t we doing anything to help these poor people?
I listened to CJAD’s Tommy Schnurmacher interview a reporter for Global who is in Haiti. The reporter said that the aid workers had not landed yet. He asked the people suffering if they had seen any help yet, and their reply was that yes, they had seen the helicopters fly over but they would not land. They could see the ships anchored close to shore, but no one managed to make it to shore yet.
The reporter spoke of the people having no food or water and that they needed help urgently. In the same breath, Mr. Schnurmacher asked the reporter how supplies managed to reach the “media” staying in the hotel, and his answer was that thankfully the military was able to deliver them… Am I the only one who finds this completely disgusting? The military is able to manage delivering supplies to the media stationed in hotels, yet they cannot deliver supplies to the people dying on the streets…
I listened to another report on Thursday morning, a reporter for the Montreal Gazette is stationed in Haiti. She experienced the after shock and was completely shaken by it. She recounted the horrific situation in Haiti with emotion . She talked of the people having absolutely NOTHING yet. She was begging for help. Dan Laxer of CJAD was tried to direct the report to the aid workers and Canadians in Haiti… The reporter spoke of women giving birth, doctors having no supplies, her assessment was truthful and honest. As difficult as it was to listen to, I respected her for being honest and telling the truth.
Last class, Mrs. Steinberg opened my eyes to the media and its’ involvement on protecting the dominant culture. I was much more critical of the interviews this week and actually turned off the one mentioned above with Tommy Schnurmacher after listening for a couple of minutes. I found it horrible that people are dying in the streets and the military can still deliver to the media!!!
It has now been over a week since this terrible natural disaster rocked Haiti. When it first happened, I felt kind of removed from the situation. I sort of felt like this was something that happened in a far away country, and there wasn’t much I could do. However, my feelings have totally changed. I never knew that such an enormous amout of Haitian immigrants reside in Quebec. Besides the fact that we have a responisbility on a humaitarian level, we as Quebecers should have a great emotional connection, because Haitian are our neighbours, classmates and teachers. There are two situations that made me reflect on this attrocity. The first is the conversation I had with one of my Haitian classmates. She had to wait over five days before she was able to reach her father and learn that he was ok. The second situation was when the after-shock hit two days ago. I was sitting at my friend’s house eating a nice dinner and then the news came on. We all stopped eating and began discussing how lucky we are to have food to eat, and have our health and live in a safe place. oadcasted. There are certain reports depicting the Haitians as being ungrateful and impatient. Basically these stories contain interviews with certain Haitians whom are complaining about the lack of help from Canada, and they are stating that the government should allow people to immigrate or come over as refugees. What upsets me about these excerpts is the fact that the newscasrs have edited these stories in such a way as to try and make all Haitaians looks as though they are unsympathetic and ungrateful-and I am positive that this is not the case. It also seems as though they are making the situation out to be anti-canadian, which again I am sure is not the case. The interviews were most likely taken out of context and edited in a way to make the interviews match what they newscast was trying to depict or prove.
I like the fact that the newcasts are including stories from here as well. I just finished watching today’s CBC news and they did a story about an elementary school that is raising awareness and money for Haiti. I think that this is a wonderful teaching opportunity. I just would like to see more actual coverage from Haiti and be able to see what is going on there and how much progress is being made. I feel like the only first-hand information I receive is through the pictures sporadically placed in the introduction to the newcasts. It is this sort of war-style propaganda that is replacing interactions with the specific population that this catastrophe has affected. As stated in class and many of the other blogs, alot of the media coverage is focused on interviews with aide workers, military members or people who escaped. Although this information is important, I have yet to see one full interview with a Haitian that is still in Haiti. I was watching CNN the other day, and they spent about 5 minutes interviewing a Florida woman who was found alive after being buried alive for 5 days, and then interviewed the military personnel who found her for about 30 minutes. Don’t get me wrong, while it is important and interesting to hear about these miracles, I also think it is important to capture what is really going at ground level. I was briefly watching a Muchmusic special broadcast on Haiti. I felt like most of the time the representatives of each organization spent alot of time talking about their respective organizations and what they are doing there, but it is hard to make the connection between what we are being told, and what is actually occuring.
I was watching CNN the other night, when they were boradcasting the concert for Haiti. There were plenty of singers and celebrities present. At first I was inclined to say….”oh here we go…” But then I took a second to reflect. At first glance, I thought that this was just an opportunity to make money and gain pubilcity. Although these artisits are out and about and marketing their names, they are the same people who can help, both financially and in the way that they are able to get the word out to all sorts of people who might otherwise not be as personally touched. Having celebritites support such causes is a great way to get the word out there. I guess in a certain ways, it is a backwards way of raising money and awareness, but in this case media exploitation of celebrities actually benefits those who need the help most desperatley.
Before this week’s class, I had watched several news casts on the earthquake in Haiti. After class, I continued tuning in, only this time, from a “critical” point of view. It is amazing how my perception of what the media is trying to portray has suddenly changed.
I have realized, as the majority of us already have, that the media is trying to make Canadians the center of this unfortunate event. Similar to Diana and Rebekah’s responses, I am shocked to notice that many of the major headlines regarding this disaster are related to how Canadians are being affected (i.e. parents awaiting adoption or the number of Canadian deaths). I would like to stress that I am most definitely not trying to deny the pain and suffering of the Canadian mourning families or awaiting parents, I am simply confused as to why there isn’t a bigger focus on what is happening it Haiti itself. On a different standpoint, I could understand that perhaps it is the medias way to involve Canadians in what is happening and have them relate to the Haitian people, but I still do not think their approach of doing so is the right one.
The more reports I watch, the more I get the feeling that the media is putting together a “montage” of the disaster that has happened in Haiti. “The living among the dead” is a title that has been flashing in and out of my head since I saw it on a headline in the news last week. I feel that the titles of the reports, the very somber music being played in the background, and the highly graphic images are all being showed as a way grab our attention rather than to inform us on what is really happening. I understand that it is by using all of this that we tend to pay more attention to these horrifying situations, HOWEVER, I also find it very disrespectful for the people of Haiti for if I were fighting for my life, the last thing I would want are hundreds of video cameras taking footage or a picture of myself or of my family.
As mentioned in class this week, and in many other blogs, the interviews taking place on CNN and CBC are mainly focused on outside help and perspectives when we are all aware that the majority of people in Haiti can speak English and or French very well and are likely to have messages they would want to share with the rest of the world. I found it quite aggravating that the one time I saw a reporter trying to speak with a woman from the Haitian community (on CNN), the only thing the news reporter kept repeating is “ I do not understand what this women is trying to say, but I wish I could”.
I also found it quite interesting to note the different approaches the French and English media have taken in regards to the same situation, as Karine mentioned in her blog. Hopefully all stations will begin focusing on the URGENT priorities of this very unfortunate situation.
INFORMATION PRIVACY:
Facebook, Twitter, Skype, Myspace, MSN (MicroSoft Network); those are just other terms for saying bye bye privacy! In a generation of electronics, it’s easy to set your privacy free. Like many others, I do have a Facebook account and I chat online using MSN. As for privacy, unless a hacker hacks in, I think I’m overall protected. Not too long ago, I was listening to Energie 94.3 and the announcer asked for people to call in and talk about their Facebook and the lack of privacy it has, and I was the one to call! I told him that I wasn’t worried about anyone spying on me since its private. You cannot see my pictures, you cannot see anything about me; the only thing you can do is add me as a friend or send me a message. If I don’t know you, I won’t add you. He then asked what about work. What if my boss catches my drunk moments on Facebook, and I truthfully responded by stating that my boss knows I have a private life and when I come to work, I’m to be punctual and sober.
However, not everyone thinks like me. A girl I know has over 2,500 friends. I highly doubt she knows them all. She’s the type of girl to add and accept good looking guys who want to have fun. Now I understand the dangers of having no privacy. You show people what you do by posting pictures or updating your status and you expect people to respect you afterwards?
Like I mentioned, I use Facebook, but nowhere will you find where I live, unless it’s sent to someone by inbox, you won’t know my family background, other than I have my brother as a friend. Using cyber communication sites is just a matter of common sense. Those sites are not safe for young teenagers who don’t really know what predators are really capable of. If you don’t want to have a stalker meet you at Tim Horton’s well then don’t add “Joe Bloe” and don’t update your status to ‘going to Tim Horton’s with Jess for 9!” By doing so, you just dig yourself a hole.
While watching various broadcasts about this tragic event I noticed quite a few of startling things. I find that all the newscasts I have seen are using similar techniques. As expected they all use depressing music which draws in the audience, and causes a sense of despair and seriousness. Secondly, this depressing music is accompanied with shocking and disturbing photos. These photos are of dead bodies, suffering children, destroyed buildings, and bloody individuals. I think that these newscasts seem to have a main focus on women and children, and the tragedy of the whole situation. These newscasts pulled at my heart strings. I work at a convenient store so I have also been paying attention to the newspapers lately. Every time I work, the front pages of all the newspapers are plastered with horrifying images and striking words. I was reading an article the other day about how the Caribbean cruise line offers to their passengers an afternoon at a beach which is on the coast of Haiti. They want to continue to do so even after this tremendous disaster. I do not think this is right, I believe that Haiti needs time to recover and heal as a country. The cruise line was defending there case because they pay Haiti so that they can use their beach, so in there defence they are saying it would aid them in their healing process, and the reconstruction of their country. However, I believe that the cruise line has ulterior motives. I think that the media should spend more time focusing on the urgent needs that Haiti needs right now, instead of trying to make us fear this event or putting the focus on Canadians. I honestly think that what I have watched and read about has made me fear the situation more than anything. I feel like the viewer should see more coverage of what is actually going on in Haiti, and not just horrific images strewn across the television screen. I want to be informed of what is going on, however I also do not want to be shocked and disgusted. It is just like any other tragic event covered by the media, it is going to be the main focus for 2-3 weeks, and then it disappears and most individuals forget about it. However, Haiti needs our help for more than 2-3 weeks. I think if the media portrayed this event in a more efficient and appropriate manner, the severity of the event would be taken more seriously.
ACTUAL POST… I accidentally posted the non-corrected version by accident lol
While watching various broadcasts about this tragic event I noticed quite a few startling things. I find that all the newscasts I have seen are using similar techniques. As expected they all use depressing music, which draws in the audience, and causes a sense of despair. Secondly, this depressing music is accompanied with shocking and disturbing photos. These photos are of dead bodies, suffering children, destroyed buildings, and bloody individuals. I think that these newscasts also seem to have a main focus on women and children, and the tragic outcomes of the whole situation. These newscasts pulled at my heart strings, and ultimately made me feel sad.
I work at a convenient store so I have also been paying attention to the newspapers lately. Every time I work, the front pages of all the newspapers are plastered with horrifying images and striking words. I was reading an article the other day about how the Caribbean cruise line offers their passengers an afternoon at a beach which is on the coast of Haiti. They want to continue to do so even after this tremendous disaster. I do not think this is right, I believe that Haiti needs time to recover and heal as a country. The cruise line was defending there case because they pay Haiti so that they can use their beach, so in there defence they are saying it would aid them in their healing process, and the reconstruction of their country. However, I believe that the cruise line has ulterior motives. Also, personally, if I was a victim of this event I would not want strange individuals prancing around on my beaches as I suffer.
I think that the media should spend more time focusing on the urgent needs that Haiti needs right now, instead of trying to make us fear this event or putting the focus on Canadians. I honestly think that what I have watched and read about has made me fear the situation more than anything. I feel like the viewer should see more coverage of what is actually going on in Haiti, and not just horrific images strewn across the television screen. I want to be informed of what is going on, however I also do not want to be shocked and disgusted. It is just like any other tragic event covered by the media, it is going to be the main focus for 2-3 weeks, and then it disappears and most individuals forget about it. However, Haiti needs our help for more than 2-3 weeks. I think if the media portrayed this event in a more efficient and appropriate manner, the severity of the event would be taken more seriously.
First and foremost, I would like to agree with some of my classmates about the depressing music in the background. This music manipulates the audience’s feelings and perceptions about the issue. I found that most of the coverage was focused on children suffering. I saw repeating images of disfigured children with missing limbs, and they kept on emphasizing the fact that no pain killers were used to amputate the victims. Moreover, aside from the disturbing images we see of the haitien population, most of the people talking are white canadians/americans. Not only are they talking, but during camera coverages of refugee camps, they do not show one black doctor/nurse. Every individual that is “helping” the victims are white; and this subliminally implies that black people cannot be self-sufficient; they need Canadian help in order to get out of their suffering. They also often put an emphasis on who is carrying a victim on the screen. I also noticed on a coverage that bags of rice were being distributed among the victims. That bag of rice had a HUGE United States of America flag on it; analyzing this situation, I understood some type of American propaganda. Last but not least I would like to point out that I noticed that during the intervals of coverage, they showed different natural disasters that were taking place in the world, such as a mudslide in Pasadena, California, as well as other serious rainfalls. This reminded me of the video we saw in class that taught us how the media can instill fear in their viewers, and in my opinion this is exactly what it was attempting. Showing the suffering in Haiti that followed an earthquake, and showing us that it can happen here as well.
I’ve read many of the comments posted by others and almost everybody comments on how bad the coverage in Haiti is and on what they are focusing but very few proposed examples of what should be covered by the Medias in Haiti. I don’t watch television very often (thanks to this class I’m reconnecting with the world and news) but I worked for three years for TQS (which is now called V-tele), who was one of the three major francophone network in Quebec. I am not going to the defense of the Medias but let’s say that I believe that some of the bad coverage on Haiti isn’t intentional. I don’t have cable TV so I watched mainly TVA (francophone network) for this assignment and you can tell that they don’t have a camera in Haiti. They are only using images that bought from other Network. From a critical point of view I think that most people covering the Haiti crisis are people like us and they don’t know how they should cover the event. They don’t know what they should say about the event. Because the dominant culture that we are part of here in Quebec (like Mrs. Steinberg mentioned in her class) we CANNOT imagine what is going on over there. We have no clue what it feels to have nothing and to starve. We cannot even consider being thirsty more than 5 minutes. Knowing that we don’t know what it feels like, the people working for the television stations are in the same boat as we are: they don’t know. So I believe that as educated as we are we still have to learn a lot to understand poverty and absolute misery. That’s why the coverage in Haiti is poor. Every now and again I suppose their is a good report on an area of Haiti but most of the time the same imagines are used in every broadcasting Network. The best imagines from Haiti are most probably the Newspapers photos. The reason for that is that a camera photo is a lot more portable than a huge professional camera. Another thing that struck me about our ignorance in listening to the Medias was the use of words the News Host was using. She said things like: People are living in uncovered places so you can imagine the hygiene level. Answer: no I cannot actually and neither can you. Something that struck me watching this same report was about Cité-Soleil which is a slum in Haiti where humanitarian help doesn’t even go because it is too dangerous. My favorite about watching the news is that the host would talk about Haiti for a couple of minutes trying as hard as she can to cover it a good way and then: Anouk it’s going to be sunny today perfect for skiing (with a smile on her face). To answer to all the people who wrote bad commentaries about the Medias coverage and interviews with people in Canada, it’s far easier to send a crew of camera in Montreal North to talk to the Haitian community than it is to send a crew in Haiti right now. That’s why they are doing it this way. Imagine how hard it would be anyway to the cover the crisis even if an actual crew was in Haiti. Wouldn’t you feel embarrassed to film the people who just lost their loved ones? Wouldn’t you feel ashamed of asking questions from a white person’s point of view to somebody who just lost everything that is dear to him and can still die from hunger in a couple of days or weeks? I would certainly have problems making an interview with a person that I have very few things in common who just survive one of the most catastrophic event of his/her country’s history. What kind of questions would you ask to the Haitian people anyway? There isn’t much to say since there is no anger against another group (this is nobody’s fault really and it’s not war). The only thing left to say is sadness, despair and hope. Even though it might sound tacky but I think that some of the artists of Hollywood do care about the Haitian people in Haiti. George Clooney is one of them. He has already made efforts for the crisis in Darfur and he is willing to help the good causes. He is using his fame and his notoriety and white man of high society power to reach certain people and make them understand that this is an important problem. On the other hand, I was shocked when I learned that Madonna gave 250 000 dollars to Haiti. This is outrageous because Madonna is one of the few Billionaires of music. She is drinking Kabbalah blessed water and spends about 10 000 dollars per month on that. So basically it’s as if I would have given 1 cent to Haiti. She used that token to look like she is nice and make some publicity. By the way giving money to Haiti is probably the only thing that we know how to do to help them. I personally don’t know what to do so I am going to give money. It’s no wonder that the dominant culture that we are is often caricatured by other countries (like India, Morocco, Mexico, Indonesia) as money givers.
I watch the news intently and have been religiously watching the CNN news coverage of the devastation in Haiti. I have every mixed feelings about the way that the news networks have been covering the recent disaster. I definitely think that the local (Montreal) news networks are trying to pull on our heart strings by having us connect with these French-speaking individuals who have lost everything. However, there is a part of me that believes that the news networks are more interested in getting attention rather than recruiting help efforts. Some of my classmates also noted that the focus seems to be on the news anchors or affiliates of the station, like Dr. Sanjay Gupta, rather than his patients and those who are truly suffering in Haiti. From my perspective, it is sad to say but it all just seems like a marketing plot to get people to favor a given network. The news anchors rarely interview earthquake survivors or people who have lost loved ones. Also, several people mentioned the celebrities hosting fundraisers for Haiti, call me a cynic, but that looks more like a publicity stunt than anything else. The flip side on all of this is, regardless of people’s intentions, I suppose that the Haitian people are inevitably getting help, which is what matter. This was something that I thought about when people sent those chain messages over Blackberry Messenger explaining how to donate money to the Red Cross via their mobile device. At first, I was almost insulted that people that I know who frankly don’t give a hoot about Haiti were sending on this message because it was the “cool thing” to do. After a while though, I realized that regardless of why it was being done, the Red Cross was collecting more funds this way. Please do not get me wrong, I am in no way diminishing the magnitude of suffering or need that is going on in Haiti, simply questioning the objectives of people in North America. I suppose, that all of these different medium that are trying to get us to pity the Haitian population, regardless of their intentions, are ultimately doing good.
As we all know, the topic of the week among many in this world is on Haiti. From the Golden globes, you tube videos, even the Google homepage; every other issue is set aside, and the topic of the earthquake in Haiti has been put into the sport light.
Much like many of my classmates, for the past week I have been glued to the News stations (CTV, CNN and various others online).
As soon as the news reports began on the issue, you have the depressing music. The music adds to the devastation of what took place and it places its viewers in an emotional and sympathetic state. In addition to the music, we have the graphic images of Haiti after the earthquake struck.
As I watched the new reports, I realized something very similar to my classmates. There was very little, to no coverage on the people of Haiti and how the earthquake has affected their lives and how they are coping. There is very little on the fact that there has been and will be aftershocks occurring.
The focus of all these news reports is on how Haiti has affected our culture. A day after the earthquake had occurred; we all saw the report on the couple that was waiting to learn about the children that they were in the process of adopting. In addition to the story of the couple, we learn of the story of the students from British Columbia who were in Haiti at the time. We got to see how they first stopped in Montreal and then back to British Columbia safely. Although I was saddened by the story of the couple, and happy for the students from British Columbia, it was shocking to me that a day after the earth quake occurred, we are hearing about those two stories none stop, rather then news reports on what is happening to the children of Haiti? What about coverage on the people there? The suffering they are going through, the fact that they have nothing. Why are we not interviews of people who are there, who experienced this tragedy? I want to see it first hand from those who were there, those who have no food, no family and no home.
I am embarrassed that our culture is so obsessed with their lives and how what occurred in Haiti may affect a minute, if even, in their life. It is terrible that the News stations have to focus on North America at this time, because if they didn’t, then many North Americans would change the channel. I think that this is horrible. I understand if they start showing these reports later on, but the first week after the tragedy occurred, more focus should be on how the Haitians are dealing with this tragedy and so on.
I do however want to touch on how our society is making a huge effort to find ways for us to help the people there out. When paying at the Metro grocery store, they ask to give a dollar to Haiti; google.com has a link to a page where we can give money to help out. The golden globes were very amazing in that it focused a large part of the show on the tragedy. They focused on the audience giving money, and what the celebrities are doing to help.
We learnt that Lady Gaga and many other influential people of our time, are donating proceeds from their concerts to Haiti, starting up charities, making awareness on their blogs, auctioning their designer clothing, and so on. I think that the fact that our society idolizes and looks up to celebrities can really be beneficial at times of need. It is amazing that these celebrities are using their fame to help out Haiti.
Its clear that for CNN this is a huge event. Most of their stories have to do with Haiti and all the terrible destruction that has gone after the earthquake. This is not to say that the event doesn’t deserve to be covered but what I don’t really agree with is how in when such an event occurs they find a way to make American victims. I think that it is crucial that the world see what is going on in Haiti.
I have never really put much thought into how the news is presented to the viewer and I noticed a couple of things that I found interesting. the thing that stuck out most to me was the amount of information that they put on the screen for the viewer. Your watching the main story and then on the right you can see how bad the stock market is doing. Throughout the entire show there are written stories passing at the bottom of the screen. If that wasn’t enough during the main story the screen splits in two and the start showing more clips of the disaster and advertise for a CNN special report that will take place later that day. There is just so much information to process. It makes me wonder what exactly they put on CNN when there is no “good” news. I find that it is amazing that there is enough interest in the news to have a 24 hours a day news show.
One story that I viewed was about how there was no building codes in Haiti. throughout the whole story the report basically blames Haiti for not adopting building codes. Of course its an American who has went to Haiti to inspect the damage and is talking to CNN about it. I was just amazed that they were able to put the blame on people that have suffered so much. At the same time they made Americans look better than everyone else.
HOLLYWOOD STEREOTYPES OF AGING
This week I came across an interesting article in the Gazette about Hollywood and the stereotypes they feed into. In her article Tale of the Tape Joanna Weiss criticizes the ideals of show busyness with emphasis on the gender stereotypes in relation to aging. The author uses the example of Courtney Cox in Cougar Town versus Alec Baldwin from 30 Rock to make her point. Shat states: “The men get to be vulnerable (and overweight, and bald), while the women get to be thin and fabulous. But there’s a fine line between “ get to be” and “have to be” (Weiss, 2010). I feel as though this is an image that is constantly being thrown at us every time we tune in. Felicity Huffman on desperate housewives, Victoria Beckham, Kelly Rippa just to name a few put real women to shame with their size 2 jeans and smooth foreheads. Also with the exception of George Clooney (who once again was dreamier than ever at the Golden Globes) most men in their 40’s in Hollywood are pretty average looking most of the time. We need to think about what kind of message this sends us. Maybe that aging gracefully is no longer ‘in’ and that a little nip and tuck here and there is normal for the men and women of the 21st century. What do you guys think, is Hollywood misrepresenting the middle-aged man and woman of today?
A different point of view: I know that I may get penalized for not watching the news and not putting my special eyeglasses that let me see critically of everything. Too bad for me. O.k. It is everywhere and it is really beginning to bother me. You all know what I’m talking about. We are living in media-saturation! That is all that I have to say. I am not only annoyed about Haiti’s misfortune but about everything that becomes the center of attention in media. I see it in the newspapers, magazines, internet, billboards in metros, on flat screens at metro Berri-Uqam and the gym, I hear it in the news and I hear it coming from people’s mouths. When it’s not a disaster it’s something else depressing. In one way I could say I was relieved of hearing less about the topic of H1N1 but now it is this. I certainly do not consider myself a media sponge and that’s simply the way I am. Do I absolutely need to watch news coverage on what is currently happening in and out of Haiti in relation to what society can do to help those in need? I get the message just by reading the 43 posts above. I think I understand the main point. Like Deborah Graziani says: “I’m all Haitied out [as well]!” I have so many questions but one in particular stands out. Why are we experiencing so many weather related catastrophes these days? Earthquakes, tsunamis, droughts, and even cold temperatures in Cuba? What is really going on? Sometimes I believe that humans can do anything (man-made disasters) when he/she has all power in politics and control over money. They are using fear to dominate the world and what no other better example is the Haiti earthquake. Maybe HAARP (acronym for the U.S government’s High-frequency Active Auroral Research Program), is really about more than weather, but rather US Weapons of Meteorological Mass Destruction. No wonder why there is no critical media literacy available in schools in the U.S and that the movement for critical media is slower there compared to other countries. They are trying to keep their people uninformed about what is actually going on. This is just my point of view on current situations.
The news coverage on Haiti has really been unavoidable during this past week. I feel as though every channel you turn on displaying some form of update on the situation or asking you for money.
After reading through some of the comments above, I cannot help but agree with Jennifer’s response in that a significant amount of the coverage focuses on the ‘specialist’ or reporters as opposed to the Haitians themselves. One person that I feel as though I have not been able to escape from this week is Anderson Cooper. He seems to be on every channel all of the time and telling the same stories and concerned. Even when I was watching Ellen Degeneres the other day he made an appearance!
In terms of the messages that newscasts and reporters are displaying I feel as though there is a sense of blame. After having watched the countless interviews with Anderson Cooper I can’t help but feel as though he is blaming the US and aid agencies for their lack of immediate response to the disaster. Reports have been continually noting the fact that Haitians are not getting the help that they need, and that volunteer groups are not getting to the scene fast enough. Personally, this does not exactly make me want to reach very deeply into my pocket to give to these kinds of organizations if they are not going to be helping with the disaster. On the other hand, I can understand why various people and reports are finding the need to place blame. If you think about it, most news stories distinguish who the good guys are as opposed to the bad guys. When it comes to a natural disaster, however, can any one person really be to blame? Perhaps that is the reason that reporters on the scene feel the need to blame on governments and aid organizations; there is no where else to point the finger.
In response to Genevieve Quintin: HOLLYWOOD STEREOTYPES OF AGING.
-Is Hollywood misrepresenting the middle-aged man and woman of today?
The answer is yes; they [men and women] always have and always will be. No matter where we are living or in what society, as long as the media is predominant, men and women will always be misrepresented. Hollywood has always been seen as a model society. A society that has the most spotlights shined upon it. Whether we like it or not, and whether we let ourselves be influenced by it, it will always be there, as long as the media indulges it, with new stereotypes and fashions. This is partially because of the predominant high class that resides there. Actors, actresses, models, that all earn no less than half a million a shoot. Most of Hollywood’s inhabitants can afford the high lifestyle and the nips and tucks of perfection, but once this lifestyle trickles down, through the media, into middle class homes, many do not have the assets to age like the stars. This means choosing the university education for their children rather than the facelift. For middle class Hollywood is more like a glamorous dream that more than half of us try to attain.
Also I find this misrepresentation of gender is more predominant in women than in men. The media always gets to the women more than the men. With the latest Atkins diet or the latest body slimming pill, this is what women are exposed to with the media. They are shown Hollywood bodies and lifestyles and immediately influenced by them. Now compare this to men… Do we ever see men on magazines that are promoting a diet or a sexier body? The answer, no we don’t.
Therefore I feel women have a much harder task at hand because of all the media and influences our society has.
“Disaster in Haiti”
I have been watching the news coverage of Haiti and came to most of the same conclusions as most people. I heard the depressing theme music, saw the bold “Disaster in Haiti” title flashing in my face, and realized that there was a lack of a full length interview with Haitian people affected by the earthquake. I truly believe that the news stations feel that providing a Canadian connection will just push us all over the edge of our sorrow and really make us act to reach out and help. By providing a Canadian connection, we realize that the world is not so big after all, and such a disaster, though thousands of miles away, affects us too, big or small. What I think they fail to understand is that we are all annoyed at the lack of care and consideration given to the voice of the Haitian people; I want to hear what they are going through, I want to know what they need, who they are. I do not want to be informed by a second party that may be getting it all or in some part wrong, or who may be twisting actions or words to make a better storyline.
For example, and I am really upset about this, I watched a CTV news report by Tom Walters today and was shocked to hear what I consider to be an insulting and insensitive remark: “The efforts at recovery have actually been much more pragmatic. Rather than recovering human remains for burial, people have been trying to recover material that is of use.” Walters went on to claim that he witnessed a group of people making a “heroic rescue” of a three-wheel utility vehicle. Reading between the lines, his emphasis on this being a ‘heroic rescue’ came across arrogantly. This is unbiased news coverage? I honestly do not know why he would try and make the people there seem as though they cared more about material objects than people’s lives. I would like to point out that we have NO idea what these people are actually going through, and if in their searching they happen to find an item that will help them in any way or relieve them in some manner, than why not be happy to have made such a discovery? I believe that this was a horrible abuse of media coverage and a complete waste of air time that should have been devoted to raising awareness and support for the relief efforts. This report comes at the same time as the search and rescue efforts were being called off; perhaps they are trying to anger people enough to have the rescue effort put back on. What are the motives behind what the media spoon-feeds us?
I provided a link to the report in question, if anyone would like to watch and draw their own conclusions.
http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20100123/UN_Haiti_100123/20100123?hub=TopStoriesV2
I agree with many of the previous statements made by my classmates about the ways that different news stations are choosing to broadcast the devastating news about Haiti. I have been mainly watching CTV and Global and I have also noticed the specific ways I am being forced to learn about this tragedy. I turned on the tv yesterday and before I even looked up to see what I was watching I heard the sad music and knew that I had tuned into more Haiti coverage. The media has a way of controlling our thoughts and making us feel remorse towards the victims and of course we would feel this way but I feel as though I am not learning anything about many of these victims, I only understand how sad it is that this happened but not specifically what happened or what those families are doing now.
I have also noticed what else is going on throughout the news cast on the side and bottom of the screen, such as upcoming stories, stock market drops and the weather. I was shocked watching the news the other day when the story moved back to the news room and the news caster was discussing how tragic the earthquake was and how their thoughts are with the victims, and without even taking a breath she switches to a new story and starts off by saying, Heidi Montag has her plastic surgery gone too far, and breasts how big is too big. I was honestly taken aback by how quickly and painlessly she moved from one topic to the next. Yes Heidi Montag has gone too far with her plastic surgery but who cares and at least cut to commercial before beginning to talk about it.
Hi everyone,
I think that since I have been watching the news on Haiti only in the last 2-3 days, I have not seen as much emphasize on dead bodies as I thought I would by reading your posts. I also think it might be because I watch the news in French. In fact, I was mostly watching RDI and the emphasize was more on French Canadian people and families here in Montreal trying to reach their friends and families, on the adoption plan that was being organised by the Canadian government and on the show that has been organised right here in Montreal to raise funds for Haiti. I think that since there is a large Haitian community in Montreal, it is normal to see Montreal families on television, but as most of you have said, it would be better to know how the people in Haiti on confronting their situation and surviving. I think in any way it is difficult to give the appropriate information since it is still a chaotic environment.
I am wondering if the fact that it is a French speaking country that has been attacked if the francophone community in Quebec is more likely to feel closer to the victims than the English speaking community. I do not say that to create any torment, I’m just using the context of this class to ask a question about the dominant culture. Since the culture of religion and language is the same for Quebec francophone and Haitians is there a difference in the way people feel or act about this tragedy. I am also basing this question on the fact that while scanning the television channels, when I look at the francophone channel, more information is given on small things that are made to help the Haitian people day after day and to raise funds in Quebec while on the American television, they still mostly show crude images with dramatic music and army information (even thought they too made a show to raise funds for the Haitian people and presented it on TV and sent civilians to help).
On another note, as we have talked about in class, the dominant culture is the dominant focus in the media in this crisis. I was chocked that the news would spend a lot of time on one person’s death (one of Quebec’s ministers). not that the person was not important, but there are hundreds of thousands of deaths and the focus on one person made me think of what we said last Monday about the dominant culture and the importance of power in today’s society. I think this clearly shows the idea of race (Caucasian), gender (man) and class (minister) are clearly empowered in the media. Also, the fact that the minister was a francophone really put a great deal of importance on the French speaking news channel.
I was impressed by the way the same images were played repetitively even when the subject would change. Also, from what I have seen in certain mini-reportages there was a lot of dramatic music and a use of harsh words while showing pictures of either children or wounded persons. Very few Haitians spoke during the broadcast and pictures were used to speak for them.
On another note, I was glad to see there was a great wave of solidarity around the world. I think it is sad that it takes such a dramatic event to reunite all countries. I hope no one will try to gain advantage of this situation; it would be inhuman and stupid to do so even thought it has been done in the past (e.g. Hurricane Katrina).
Throughout this week, I have been keeping up to date with the tragic events that are occurring in Haiti. I agree with what most of my classmates are saying when they discuss how the news reporters do most of the talking on networks like CNN, CTV news, etc…. In my opinion I would much rather hear from the people of Haiti and listen to their personal stories of what they’re going through. Every time I watch the news I hear and see the same things. There is sad music being played while seeing pictures of injured children, women with broken bones, and the destruction of buildings. In class we discussed how some television shows try and hypnotize their audience with flashing colors and rapid movement but in this case the pictures of these people are hypnotizing because we cannot get them out of our minds.
I’ve seen rescue stories where a young girl was pulled out from a pile of rubble and a man was rescued after being buried for eight days and all he had to survive on was peanut butter. Never once were these people interviewed and allowed to express what they were going through during this time. Their stories were told through newscasters who could only assume some of the things they were going through. Because newscasters are trying to paint a picture to the rest of the world about how serious the results of this earthquake has been, they mention portions of people’s stories that will stick in people’s minds. For example, we aren’t made aware of what the man went through when he was buried under the rubble but the newscasters mentioned how he survived off peanut butter. The peanut butter leaves a lasting impression on people because one would never think that peanut butter could save a life, making his story an unbelievable miracle.
I agree with one of my classmates who said that we rarely see any other races besides white people who are helping with the problems occurring in Haiti. In regards to class, we never see the average Joe going around and helping people rather we see white American doctors helping out with the situation. I guess it makes sense to have doctors helping the people but why do we see only white doctors? Where are the black doctors?
Instead of hearing about the stories of the Haitian people, we become familiar with how Americans and Canadians are influenced by the earthquake. For example when searching on Google for information about Haiti, the third link I came to was how 17 Canadians were declared dead in Haiti. We also hear people in the United States who were in the midst of adopting from Haiti and who have to start all over again because the adoption papers got lost. All these stories make you think about who the media is trying to reach to. Do we hear these stories to spark an interest in Canadians and Americans to help the people of Haiti, or do we hear these stories because this is what the media considers to be relevant regarding the earthquake?
After watching news coverage and reading the posts, it is apparent that many of us agree that through a “critical” lens, the news stations are abusing the use of media and using tactics like sombre music, graphic images and texts to essentially “suck” us into their constructed image of this tragedy. As I agree with all of this, I tried to see (if possible) some positivity in all this constructed media attention and was pleased to see it put to some good use last night on the 2 hour telecast “Hope for Haiti”.
I admit, as Jennifer Hillman said my immediate reaction to this event was “here we go”, just another opportunity for celebrities to market their names and gain publicity. But as I watched, I was actually glad to see all this media attention put to some good use with a great message. Instead of the negative texts we are being bombarded with on the news with headlines like “Hati’s Hell”, last night’s telecast shows we have moved past the negativity, and now seeking ways to help titled “Hope for Haiti”. If you didn’t get a chance to catch it last night, here are some highlights: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9pFSe2ALUNU .
The telethon was broadcasted live from New York, London, Los Angeles and Haiti, and was featured on all the major networks and channels. It was also streamed live on sites such as YouTube and MySpace (again putting media and technology to some good use). Many celebs wrote songs that will raise money through ITunes sales. Although, what really got me was the fact that over 100 celebrities like Reese Witherspoon and Julia Roberts were the actual ones answering the phones and taking the world’s pledges. What a great way to get people to donate. The younger generations especially would be pleased to get to speak to their favourite celebs and help make a difference. Each celeb sent out different message touching upon a different story targeting different people around the world. The one that really got to me was I believe Leonardo Decaprio’s message about school children attending a normal day of school that day and suddenly their world literally comes crashing down in an instant. As a teacher, this affected me greatly since I couldn’t even imagine what the teacher and students must have been going through. Needless to say, they did a great job of pulling on my heart strings. It did not however make me feel guilty; it simply helped put this matter into perspective. What I also noticed and enjoyed that was after each performance, there was no audience or applause after each transitions, letting the messages and lyrics of each celeb stick.
They did however play the sombre music, graphic pictures and interviews with news reporter and not the civilians, however as Jennifer said “in a certain ways, it is a backwards way of raising money and awareness, but in this case media exploitation of celebrities actually benefits those who need the help most desperately”. Regardless of the way it was done, helping Haiti was their ultimate concern.
It is an absolute terror to see what has happened to Haiti over the last week. Although I try to keep up to date with the situation, I find it rather challenging to get just of the story given the selective filtering of the various news reports. Although it is important and perhaps relevant to connect Canadians to the situation in Haiti, it should not be the main focus of the situation.
It was interesting to read about Karine and Alan’s entry on how the Canadian Anglo networks are somehow managing to center the disaster happening in Haiti around a Canadian aspect. Major headlines of the news cover reports on what CANADA is doing to HELP Haiti. I am not denying that what everyone has contributing is great, however, as Jennifer already mentioned, these people and groups should be recognized at a more appropriate time.
Another important aspect I think it worthy of mentioning is the lack of information we are getting from the people of Haiti themselves. There are so many reporters taking various picture and footage of this community in order to publicly display them, yet they are not even given a moment to express feelings or messages that they want to relay to the rest of the world. I think it is a real shame because more than the graphic pictures, and the depressing music, the messages that these suffering people have to share are foremost important and real.
Although I have tuned into the news on television, I have mainly been keeping up with the disaster in Haiti through the newspaper in particular The Montreal Gazette. Sue Montgomery, one of the official reporters for the Montreal Gazette, and also a family friend of mine, is on location in Haiti and therefore I have been following her stories through her columns. I truly enjoy reading her articles because she writes about is important, that is she writes about the people of Haiti rather than Canada’s interests in this time of disaster. Her stories are touching because she explains how this disaster has affected ordinary people and their faith. She truly knows how this country has been through hard times because she was there in 2004 when the rebellion went on in Haiti and there were major riots surrounding the government therefore her stories reflect more truth and importance than any television broadcast, in my opinion.
I have to admit that I don’t watch the news often…actually, never. The information I get concerning events happening around the world is usually from class or family members. Reading a couple of these blogs, I get the sense that many people are getting irritated with the fact that this Haiti event is been talked about very often. Since I haven’t been watching the news, I really wouldn’t know. However, I wonder if this is a bad thing. Maybe it is being publicized to often though, or perhaps it is being publicized in the wrong way or maybe inaccurately? I’m not sure how to answer these questions. I wonder if the news is focussing too much on Canadian involvement and what Canadians are doing, and perhaps not focussing enough on the event itself. It’s difficult for me to pass judgement on any of this since I have difficulties finding time to read the paper and watch the news. I rely on the publicity I see around me: in the metro, on billboards, internet sites, etc.
I did have the chance to watch CTV news the other day and the news reporter started off right away by saying how Canada has pledged aid staffed by Canadians. They quickly also mentioned that there was American involvement: American troops were sending severely injured people to a medical ship anchored off the coast. The rest of the report was focused on how many amputees there were. They mentioned how the earthquake has created a whole generation of amputees and how most of the amputation was done quickly and crudely. I wonder if these were one of those instances where Canadian involvement was focused on too much. Did they have a purpose by explaining how dedicated Canadians where to helping and only but mentioning American involvement? Are there only Canadians and Americans helping? Thoughts….
As many of the clasmates have mentioned most networks have their own way to broadcast the news. The one common thread is that they use the same piano music to draw people in.
Whats interesting is that right now they’re a lot of positive things happening like the discovery of a 25 year old man or all those who are reaching out to adopt the children. CNN’s coverage on the 25 year man that was rescued after 11 days. was barely visable. I was rather annoyed with the fact that the coverage I saw on the man that was found lasted a couple of minutes. Where as the coverage last week of the tractor picking up bodies was constantly being shown over and over again. Another thing I have noticed is that whenever they show Haiti and the victims they show dark images to intensify the tragedy of it. The one thing that I have noticed with CNN and CTV and Im assuming that it is similiar with other broadcast is that now that people are reaching out and helping those in Haiti there is more light used in the images shown. I’,m asuming expressing that there is a light at the end of the tunnel.
I mostly listen to the radio. What I enjoy about listeing to CJAD is that they really talk about those that have helped others and mention those forgotton hearos that most of us overlook or are unaware of. Often I feel I will recieve information on the radio that I won’t on the news. An example would be a young Haitian man living in Montreal mentioned that he had family living there as well but knew that Haitien people will over come this because they are strong and that Haiti has gone through so much that they have a strength about them that many don’t realize. I thought it was really amazing how a Haitian man can be so positive and strong knowing that he may have lost some of his family in this tragedy.
The one thing I find rather interesting is that since Haiti is a poor country that has suffered for numerous years most people were really unaware of what was really going on in Haiti. As a society some of us tend to close our eyes and often are unaware of how the other side of the world lives, or don’t want to know.
People know that certtian countires like Haiti are very poor and have little resources but some neglect to acknowledge them. Its only in a time like this where Haiti is in dire need that people reach out. The question is what will happen later when the coverage stops. The truth is Haiti will never be the same. Will their race, class and gender have an impact on where they go and how they will be accepted. I believe so.
Another thing I have noticed is that the commericals being used to get people to reach out and help are usally really loud and dramatic. I’m not saying that I’m against these commericals I just find it interesting how they are publicized.
Another infuriating matter was that in the beginning CNN was there on top of the Haiti crises but as I saw the other day and today the coverage usually will mention something like finding other casualities and then right after will flip to another story that is more positive. As if they are tying to focus on something other tthan the Haiti crises.
Another thing I have noticed with CNN is that they were interviewing John Legend about his movie he is promoting to help those children in Haiti. It was mentioned that “knowledge is power”
and that poverty exists because of lack of education. Which is so true. Therefore, the governments will have to step up and really look at the long term plan for Haiti.
On Thursday night, I watched the CTV news broadcast at 11:30pm. Like many others have already stated, I too noticed the sad and emotional music that played while disturbing and tragic photos were shown. This broadcast focused on the multiple victims who have had their legs or arms amputated as a result of the earthquake. They mentioned how doctors from all over Canada and the world are forced to simply amputate ligaments in the middle of the street since there is no place to go. The photos shown are very sad and pull at our heart strings, because we are in our comfortable houses while these helpless victims lay in the streets of Haiti.
Afterwards, interviews are shown with Canadian parents who are still waiting for their adopted children. Like other students have already mentioned, I do not think that this is one of the more important things that should be talked about right now. It is sad that the children aren’t here yet and they haven’t heard from them, but at the same time so many others have died or are still dying. It really shows how our media works with the dominant culture that we spoke about in class. The media does its best to get us as Canadians to relate to the suffering of other Canadians.
On Friday night’s CTV broadcast at 11:30pm, the focus was on the telethon. They spoke about how generous Canadians were and how we raised 9.4 million dollars which will be matched by the federal government. The French broadcast of the telethon raised 5.5 million dollars. They then showed some clips of performers and Canadian celebrities talking about how important it is to donate to Haiti. The Montreal Haitian community was shown and interviewed as well. They were saying how thankful they are for everyone’s help and how we are all coming together for Haiti. No actual interviews with Haitians in Haiti were shown. Friday’s broadcast was mainly focused on relief efforts and speaking to Haitian Canadians.
I think the telethon was a great idea to raise money and I’m glad that celebrities were able to use their status and wealth for a good cause.
The problem I have with the current media coverage of Haiti is that it merely skims the surface of the truth. While I agree with many of the points that others have mentioned, including the selfish way the media has used the tragedy to boost ratings, as well as the auditory and visual stimuli they use to invoke feelings of dread and shock, I find that something else is wrong with the media’s coverage. All of the major news networks are showing the same stories and using similar techniques to keep the viewer interested in the story. However, they all fail to examine the reasons why Haiti has no infrastructure of its own to supply medical care, rescue survivors or even paved roads to drive on. This failure is a colossal one. It is indicative of the way modern news media limits itself to showing only the simple story that everyone will understand and not question. I am no expert on Haitian history but from what I understand the country was heavily exploited by the United States corporations after the U.S. government removed its nationalistic leader. The country does not even posses its own flour mill or cement plant as both were purchased by foreign corporations and sold off or dismantled. How can a country feed its people or build houses and roads without the most basic of utilities? The media does not question, they do not search for truth, they report the news that will generate ratings, the news that will increase their shareholders stock price. Because their goal is making money and not uncovering the truth, they lack the true spirit of journalism.
While much of the coverage is meant to invoke feelings of shock and desperation intended to keep the viewer glued to the station, I cant help but yawn when I watch it. It is the same thing I’ve seen a hundred times, some tragedy in a far off third world mess. These images have lost their value; they’ve lost their ability to provoke empathy. It is sad reality, as the super-saturation of violence and horror has caused images that are truly horrific to become nothing more than commonplace.
I appreciate the comments of many people regarding the adoption process of the Haitian children into Canada. While many people are saying the focus is entirely on Canada and its citizens, I tend to disagree. When I watched the story involving the parents waiting for their Haitian daughter to arrive in Canada, their pain and worry was evident. I am not saying that this justifies taking the focus of the Haitians, however I do think it is helpful overall.
Canada is currently trying to expedite the process of adoption in order to move Haitian children into Canada faster. There was also a story about a Canadian man who moves between Port-au-Prince and Ottawa in order to bring orphans into safety. He discussed opening his services up to 65 more children than he normally accommodates. (Side note: This story was full of coverage from Haitian families and if I remember correctly, there were no Caucasians present in the story).
I think there is significance to the reports such as this one, and the one with the Canadian family. If they are going to be bringing Haitian orphans into Canada, they are going to need more families to put them in. These stories could have been a good technique to mobilize other Canadian families into considering the adoption of one of these children.
Now, on a completely different note, one thing I did find interesting while looking through news reports and articles was that the majority of statistics on the earthquake are Canadian related (i.e. the number of Canadians killed and injured). There are stats regarding Haitian losses, however they are never stated early on, but rather following those of Canadian. Also, when you’re watching the reports, it’s common to see the headlines as Canadian statistics as well, rather than Haitian. I think this is interesting and definitely makes Canada seem self absorbed.
Something I would quickly like to add is that media appeals to its audience (as we have all learned and read). I believe that the reason there is such much Canadian emphasis in the news is because it catches the average Canadian’s attention faster. We live in a self absorbed society. For the most part, what doesn’t affect is, we do not care about. As a result, I believe media is trying to engage more audience members by making the stories more relative; it makes them more personal, close to home and therefore relevant.
I am not saying this is a good thing, however I feel as though it is the truth and it needs to be considered when evaluating the legitimacy of the news.
I am reluctant to admit this but I do not watch the news very often, however have recently been trying to keep up with the media coverage of what’s been happening in Haiti. I have to agree with Adina Carmeli that the one common thread I’ve been noticing from CTV and CBC news broadcasting is the all too similar stories they have both been projecting. There isn’t much of a difference among the two news groups and what is most unfortunate is their lack of personal accounts taken from actual survivors in Haiti. The most coverage that I have been watching throughout the week are accounts of Canadian soon-to-be parents devastated by the tragic event and how their adopted children are unaccounted for or the supposed delay in adoption processes. I have been seeing a lot of CTV or CBC reporters, Canadian or US officials and various relief aids, yet not too many Haiti natives. The accounts mention death tolls, injuries, and other related accounts yet do not consider many reportings from Haitian citizens. I feel as though there is some sort of favoritism toward the ‘Canadian perspective’ in the reporting and not nearly as much of a Haitian perspective. Why does the focus seem to be on us and how we are affected by this devastation when the Haitian natives are directly living and affected by this violent tragedy?? I feel like there are too many Canadians talking and not enough Haitians!
As a viewer I am exposed to a lot of disturbing imagery of collapsed buildings and debris, injured and maimed bodies as well as bloodied children. I realize the imagery is meant to procure feelings of shock and disbelief but I feel they lack a true sense of realism. Rather than spending time viewing these pictures, journalists should be more involved in getting personal accounts from the people affected by this dilemma instead of exposing their horror like some slideshow.
I feel as though the media has constructed this event from our perspective by having Canadians speak of what’s happening in Haiti. It seems as though the media is trying to make Canadians look like heroes by the way they are actively helping in Haiti and are constantly covered by the media. They make it feel as though this is a story about us when it is clearly not making their journalism efforts look totally bogus, and inaccurate.
Given that I am a Canadian resident, the bulk of the news coverage I’ve been watching has been from a Canadian perspective, notably CTV and CBC. However, I have been occasionally watching CNN for it’s almost around the clock coverage. Overall, I’ve found the coverage of the earthquake to be extremely disappointing, with too much of a local spin on the disaster, rather than the impact on the Haitians who have been directly affected.
CNN continuously focuses on American relief efforts and what this or that person has done to help the cause. They seem to pay more attention to the damage done and present the viewers with very little information about the actual Haitian people. Meanwhile, the coverage from CTV and CBC has been very Canadian oriented. They often lead in by reporting on the Canadians who died during the earthquake, which is just a little over a dozen. They then shift their attention by reporting on the thousands of Haitians who have passed away. In general, they have been presenting the information to appeal to Canadians. As a result, the majority of the footage is of Canadian troops and relief efforts. Furthermore, the interviews are primarily of Canadian doctors and volunteers who are giving their opinions on the disaster.
There is not enough attention being given by these stations to the actual Haitians. Everything seems to revolve around the Canadians involved and the Canadian networks haven’t really given the Haitian people a voice. I feel as though the national networks coverage has been too broad. In fact, I believe that the local newspapers have done a superior job of giving the Haitians a voice by interviewing and doing human interest stories on Haitians living here in Montreal who have family that have been directly affected. The national coverage seems to be more statistically driven. Every person who passed away is just another casualty, another number. They struggle to actually make a connection between the viewers and the people of Haiti. The only times they’ve actually made a concerted effort to report on the Haitian people affected is through images of the disaster and while they have shown pictures of the damage, I feel it is mostly to sensationalize the events, rather then for actual informative purposes.
I haven’t watched a tremendous amount of news coverage on the tragedy in Haiti since it happened, mainly because it’s the same thing regurgitated over and over, but I did watch the TV special “Canada for Haiti”. As many people before me noted, the news coverage of the tragedy in Haiti has been carefully filtered to appeal to a specific audience. More specifically, I noticed a few main characteristics in the show which coincided with what other stations were portraying.
- Haiti is portrayed as a desperate, fragile and scared country that seeks to find hope once again. More importantly, we are told as Canadians that it is up to us to keep that hope alive. This makes Canadians responsible for the survival or demise of Haiti.
- Canadians are compassionate and generous (and so should continue to donate generously quickly). One of the announcers on the show said: “we are a compassionate country, and we help other countries”. Donating is just what a good Canadian does.
- The coverage makes the tragedy relevant to Canadians by mentioning how many Canadians died in Haiti and how many Haitians are living in Canada at the present time. This means it’s affecting Canadians in their everyday lives, another important reason to donate.
- The coverage is presented to us by the three Canadian television networks. The show was mostly presented to us by the network correspondents, with additional guest-starring government representatives, Canadian artists and celebrities, and a few, very brief personal narratives told to us by the network representatives. Only very short segments of Haitians telling their story directly were included in the show. I see this as the media propelling the idea that Canadians want to hear from other Canadians, and not foreigners.
I think these characteristics were manipulated for a particular audience and a particular purpose: to make the Canadian public donate more money towards the earthquake aftermath in Haiti. I think it’s great how much money and resources has gone to help Haiti in this time of crisis, and my thoughts are those suffering, yet I can’t help but wish we didn’t need filtered and customized media feed to convince us to donate- it sucks that it takes such a huge production for people to lend a hand. I wish it could be portrayed as human beings helping each other, instead of Canadians helping Haitians.
The tragic earthquake in Haiti has been the top-story in the news since the moment the world learned of it 11 days ago. Like my fellow classmates have mentioned, there is the sad music, the horrifying images, interviews recounting experiences. I noticed at the beginning of the coverage, the focus was on the mass destruction of the infrastructure of the country, where the bodies were being “buried” and the missing tourists. There was also a lot of follow up on the aftershocks, where the media created more anticipation and panic. Like some of my classmates have also /mentioned, there are little or no Haitians being interviewed in the media during this time when they are the ones who are truly suffering from this natural disaster.
Unfortunately, as days progress, the death toll continues to grow. It is estimated to be between 100,000-200,000 people who have died, and counting. Today it was announced that the rescue operations would be coming to an end, however a 24 year old man was pulled out from the rubble and rescued merely hours later. He is expected to survive. So many others did not. Some of the most horrifying graphics I have seen on the news of the earthquake coverage are when you see the piles of bodies in mass graves, the injured and lost children who have no one and no idea what’s going on, the scenes of men fighting for food. People don’t have shelter, food, water or clothes, never the less adequate medical attention. There is also the fact that a prison collapsed and 45, 000 prisoners (approx.) were able to escape. Think of the social repercussions of having 45, 000 jail broken criminals running around in chaos.
CNN reported that doctors who initially went into Haiti to distribute aid were moved to safer, more distant locations. Dr. Sanjay Gupta was the only doctor who stayed back to help, despite the evacuation. The response that Canadians and Americans have achieved thought donations and offering aid, the celebrity-endorsed fundraiser events, the Clinton-Bush fund and all other fundraising organizations have really allowed for people to show their compassion and generosity during this difficult time. On the other side, there was the issue of whether immigration rules should be lifted during this difficult time. CBC claimed that the Quebec government was all for it, despite the Federal government being against it.
Lastly, there are some people who choose to take a natural disaster, yet blame man for it anyways. Hugo Chavez apparently claimed to the media that he believed that the US government was behind the earthquake because they have some sort of weapon that can simulate natural disasters such as earthquakes, in order to occupy the country that is one of the poorest in the world. Some people may choose to believe this, but I think most people agree that this is just another example of how the media plays on people’s emotions and fears by allowing stories such as this one to reach the public.
Thinking about media coverage in Haiti at this time of devastation and tragedy is hard enough as is, but approaching the media coverage critcally proves to be even more challenging. Questions arise; some about values, culture, the ethics and morality behind such coverage and especially about the stereotypical issues revolving around everything having to do with media: dominant culture, race, money, power.
I recently stumbled upon a heart-wrenching CNN clip featuring Anderson Cooper guiding a child away from Haiti looters:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N-P5D887IcI
The boy is covered in blood, looking dazed, expression-less, probably due to the degree of complete and utter shock that he is in. He keeps on wiping streams of blood from his face. We see the famous Anderson Cooper bring the child to safety in the midst of total chaos and danger. Of course this clip is an example of North American coverage on the disaster in Haiti which portrays North American males, being the dominant culture in the country this coverage is being broadcast, as glorified “heros”. To be honest, I don’t even want to go there, or try reasoning in that respect, because maybe, sometimes, when tragedies as such happen and the world tries making sense of it all while trying to help those who are unfortunate, we have to try to forget about these “labels” and different social statuses and just look at the bigger picture: Those who are capable of helping, are doing just that. So what if some of these scenarios or clips may adhere to a specific issue or fault that the media has in broadcasting the situation in Haiti. Our main priority right now should be ensuring that the Haitian people are getting all the resources that they need to cope with what has happened around them. At least with regards to this CNN media coverage of the bleeding little boy, we need to stop analyzing the implications of white, priviledged men being “heros” and be thankful that these children–and Haitians in general–are getting help. That is what matters.
I watched the Anderson Cooper 360 special: Saving Haiti on CNN. Broadcast covered a lot of the issues happening in Haiti but, like most of the other responses mentioned already, all of stories have connections to Americans. We saw American rescue workers try to help a lady who was convinced her daughter was trapped inside a crumbled day care, American medical supplies not getting out to the hospitals quick enough, orphans being allowed to go home to the US sooner than planned, an American ship off shore transported Haitians to a safer part of Haiti, an American business owner had one of his shops looted and we even saw Anderson recue a Haitian boy.
I found that they did cover most of the major issues going on in Haiti, even if they did spend a little more time on the one “happy” story, I felt they could have gotten more stories from the perspectives of the Haitians. We heard Anderson narrated most of the stories, apart from the few bits (1 sentences, literally) that needed a translator and I think this made me feel too much like a 3rd party instead of feeling like I was in there experiencing the situations first hand. Maybe the special was trying to target Americans, but I certainly don’t feel I saw how “bad” things have really gotten.
Being the only haitian from this group, I watch the news with a totaly different eye on the coverage. From what I have seen in my country and what’s being shown on the screens ,there’s a huge gap. I think it is really sad that the newscast depicts my country has being the poorest of America…well it may be the case ,but there is one side of Haiti that is NEVER and WILL NEVER be shown on TV ,its beautiful beaches, its wonderful lands and houses, its rich people,its educated workforce…and the list goes on. Everytime I watch the news I do wear these critical lens in order not to be blinded by the false projection of Haiti.
I did watch a lot of the coverage last week, and I was amazed by the amount of wrong information the reporters present. Moreover ,they always project the poorest, the ones that already had nothing and the uneducated. What about the one that had beautiful houses and were not living in the slums? I must admit that this category of people only represent 5 to 10% of the whole population but still…
Let’s keep in mind that the dominant culture will always prevail. For my part, I have been watching the news from a French newscast and the reporters were mainly worrying about the Canadians who were dead, the lost ones from the Canadian embassy and the missing Canadian soldiers.They allowed the “white” survivors much more time to speak than the natives. Most stories were personal narratives;there were lots of statistics of tremendous numbers of deaths. As one of my classmates stated above: “One of the most used technique is to focus on women and children rather than on the males of this tragedy.” This is 100% true.
One other thing I noticed in the first week is the accent that was put on the increasing death toll and the images associated: collapsed buildings, hotels, schools and houses, rubbles, bloody, sandy, maimed humans bodies.How sad… The most striking were the description of the horrific smell of the dead bodies and the projection of an “morgue a ciel ouvert”…I was speechless. It is not ethical at all to show the dead bodies being literally thrown away like that on TV.What if it was my mother? But this is another debate.
The text being use puts an emphasis on the scale of the tragedy. The words chosen to describe the quake are quite dramatic (death toll,chaos,hell,grieving,the poorest country of America…) which makes me personnaly feel as if we (as a country) did not exist anymore. Someone from a french TV newscast even said :”Haiti has been erased from the map”. This is an insult. What about all the people suffering from the lost of loved ones? What about our hope to rebuild our country? What about my brothers and sisters overcoming this tragedy who have been transformed them into heroes? Well I guess it does not really matter to them as long as the world is being informed.
The music…depressing ,dramatic,you name it! As if our burden was not big enough to bear.
Like it was discussed in class,mass media use different techniques to convey subliminal messages through music,speech and even facial expressions.The way they bring about the information is not always fair…especially in this case.
I can also say that I am reluctant to admit I don`t normally watch all too much media coverage, but when I first heard of the disaster on the radio, I wanted to know more. Disasters like 9-11, tsunami`s, hurracaines, violence and so on are issues that, I think we can all agree on, people tend to pay particular attention to. These devastations are horrifying and are turly unforgettable.
I watched a variation of CBC, CTV and CNN news coverage on the disaster. When we were discussing the dominant culture during lecture and how “whiteness” is something that dominates media and how we have come to understand how power works, or looking critically at culture in itself, I began to see the links between Canadian and American media coverage as the dominant or “whiteness” and Haiti as the “other”. Also, when we were watching that short film about fear, I began to noticibly see the links between us as Canadians who fear the deaths of our own people in haiti who are helping out, and the way they present media to the public in a way that can be biased. I mean that in a general sense, but for this specific topic of discussion, Haiti coverage is something that has been presented to us Canadians with fear.
There was one story I was briefly watching as I was coming home from work one night, about a tiny newborn baby with a small fracture on its head. A volunteer aid working for `giving children hope` helped bandage the victim as well as others. The whole media coverage centers attention on the volunteer (who was caucasian-so again we touch upon this idea of dominant culture).
However, I did fid that CNN represented the media coverage well in terms of those in desperate needs, especially children who are not orphans. We see children who do not have the supplies to be cared for, who are suffering, those who are now alone in poverty. So much has to do with race, class, and gender because we, as Canadians, can stand back and see all of the priviledges, the opportunities, the resources available to us. When we look at Haiti in these desperate times, it`s hard to imagine that class can be viewed as something so powerful. Anderson Cooper discusses how chaotic it has been for the people in Haiti, because there have been no signs of government aid or support. I mean, they were talking about performing triage in the middle of the streets because there are no medial facilities that can support that many victims. Some and left to suffer without any proper medical attention.
Headlines such as “MAJOR EARTHQUAKE HITS HAITI” or “DISASTER IN HAITI” are only some of the headlines used to describe the terror of the Earthquake on CTV and CBC.
Within these headlines, we see photos of extreme poverty and despair.
Just to add onto Tanya Avridor`s comment about the quote ” Haiti has been erased from the map”,I heard this quote also from a CNN report. A nurse was talking about all her frustrations with no having enough medication for the children who are suffering, how the syringes are too long for the babies and how children are left with nothing. Really, it`s as if Haiti is being erased from the map because of all its destruction and chaos right now. I will have to give my own opinion on this quote as well, because I don`t think it was meant to reveal a sense of insult or pessimistic message to the people of Haiti, I thiink it has to do with people`s frustrations on hhow little supplies and help they have now, and they need our help to rebuild their place onto the map. Perhaps I may have misinterpreted it, but I honestly feel it was a cry for help!
This week I watched a few of CBC and CTV’s news coverage on the earthquake in Haiti and was particularly shocked by the one story about a Canadian woman who has been waiting five years for her adopted Haitian child to arrive. I was not shocked so much in the sense that I felt the Canadian woman’s pain, but more because of the fact that the focus of the news cast was on her never-ending pain rather than on the tragedy itself. The Canadian lady is speaking in the majority of the clips as she explains how her family has been impatiently waiting for the arrival of the adopted child for a long time. The people who never speak in this particular news cast are in fact the people who are in the tragedy. My intention is not to trivialize the horrors of the event; however I feel that the various Canadian news casts I have seen have not helped me in constructing a deeper understanding of the traumatic event. The personal story of the Canadian woman was accompanied by short slide shows of photos of the Haitian girl who she adopted and photographed prior to the earthquake disaster. She continues her narrative by explaining how she is pained by being unsure if this little girl is still alive. Although I personally believe that the spotlight of this particular news cast had the wrong focus, I hope that it still served a purpose. I hope that other news coverages encourage more Canadians to help Haiti during this difficult time, in whichever way possible. In the words of Michael Jackson, if you want to make the world a better place, take a look at yourself and then make the change.
While watching the news on Haiti this past week, one story in particular jumped out at me. It was the story of the photographer who captured the picture of the smiling boy who had been in the rubble for a week. The newscaster discussed the little boy for roughly one minute and then discussing potential awards that the photographer may win for being in the right place at the right time for about four minutes. For me this interview really trivialized the entire situation. The miraculous story didn’t take center stage, and the fact that his sister was also saved was never even mentioned. I think the interview with the photographer really reflects American and Canadian culture and our love for all things famous. Because recognition was on its way (they mentioned the Pulitzer prize), the real story was left in the dust.
I would also like to briefly mention that I have yet to see an interview with a woman from Haiti. Although I have not been watching the news 24/7 but have only caught snippets I still feel that women are not being shown as frequently as men. Although I do not know why that is, I feel like it is showing a one sided view of the story, and is probably skewing our knowledge of what is really happening in Haiti.
For the picture of the smiling boy:
http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/top-stories/2010/01/21/haiti-earthquake-eight-year-old-boy-rescued-after-a-week-in-the-rubble-115875-21983592/
I usually don’t watch the news channels on television because I prefer to read the news online. I did however spend some time this week watching news coverage of the earthquake in Haiti. I mostly watched CTV, CBC, CNN and some other french channels. Like others have mentioned, what I found most interesting is the fact that I have seen very few interviews with local Haitians. We can see interviews with Canadian doctors, nurses and soldiers but rarely with the local people who are the main concerned in this situation. I even saw a report where they interviewed a white Canadian who had been working for the Haiti government in Haiti for a few years. Why choose this person for an interview before all the other Haitians working in the government offices? As if it was not interesting to hear the Haitians tell their story first hand, as if we needed a Canadian to “translate” even though Haitians speak french? It seems to be understood that because we are so different, we need a white Canadian to interpret the situation for us. I wonder how different the media coverage would have been if the earthquake had distroyed Paris instead of Port-au-Prince? Would there have been more interviews with locals?
Furthermore, like many have also mentioned previously, it seems that the interest is mainly focused on Canadians. We get reports of Canadians directly involved with the earthquake and reports on how Canada is helping out. Although I do want to hear about this, I find the coverage is disproportioned with regards to the focus we put on the Haitians in Haiti. I don’t feel the principal victims are Canadians, but this seems to be what kind of response the coverage is trying to create.
I play Soccer with many Haitian Canadians and I can’t even imagine the pain that they and their families are growing through right now. Many of them told me that they have lost cousins, grandparents and friends living in Haiti. One of my good friends informed me that his family living in Haiti are safe, but their Haitian neighbours’ house collapsed and inside the house were 15 young girls all around 20 years of age and not one of them survived.
Most of the stories seem to be tragic. The images are really difficult to look at without breaking down in tears. These images last a lifetime: buildings that have been turned into rebel found all over the place, dead body’s which nobody has identified. We see men carrying wooden coffins in the streets, innocent little kids have disappeared and nobody can find. In the streets men and women who haven’t survived the earthquake are being burnt. The positive part in all of this is that people are working together. Everyone needs help. How many more Haitians are there out there under rebel and how long do they have to live. Haitian citizens were being interviewed and they are keeping hope and they won’t stop working till they find their loved ones. Furthermore, the music that is playing in the background is very sad. The music is so soothing that it creates a bond with us and makes the audience feel their pain and before you know it, a tear comes down your face.
Right now the subject of the story has got to be the American’s whom are helping out in Haiti. They are doing a great job helping out the Haitians and the American’s should be proud of their troups. These soldiers are doing their best to try and save the lives of many Haitians who are still stuck under the rebel. Today they found a man who was stuck under the rebel for 12 days and they interviewed the American’s and it seemed that they were hero’s but what about the Haitians who helped in the miracle. CNN will concentrate on the Americans because they are one of us. After seeing what is happening in Haiti it makes me realize how good I have it. Although the images that are being shown worldwide look like a horror film, this is reality and I believe the message in which the media is trying to elicit to us is that Haiti needs our help. That any donation even the littlest donation possible will make a difference.
This week, I watched news networks such as CNN and CBS.
On the CNN website, there are actual links that say Quake and Aftermath, Relief Updates, etc. The one that stood out to me most was the link titled “Voices from Haiti” (notice my quotation marks). The first video I watched titled “I was very lucky” is about a UN employee who had been rescued. His wife, an American is the first to comment rather than the survivor himself. Of course, she mentions that she prayed when she heard about the tragedy. She also continues that she made phonecalls to relatives in Missouri, Miami, and in Estonia. At the very beginning of the interview, the couple is holding their two young daughters. They put them down as soon as the first question is being asked. The children were not spoken to or seen for the rest of the interview. Was this constructed just so viewers can see that this couple has a family? So that more viewers can relate and sympathize with their story? What was the point in showing the children for a split second?
On CBS, there were clips of Before and After shots of Port-Au-Prince. There is an interview with a 12 year-old citizen of Haiti; linked with the title “Hard to be any age: Devastation through the eyes of a child”. The news reporter points out the ruins as to where the Haitians are now sleeping. The young mentions how the price of food has increased, making it more difficult for everyone to survive. All of these things were shown without music. However at one point, there are sirens and the news reporter says “These sirens are just a part of the landscape now in these last 48 hours”. There is a focus on mothers and children in the many clips of CBS. Another clip from CBS included anchor Katie Couric. Once again, there was no music. While Katie Couric is speaking, there are constant clips of people in the streets, those who are injured, gangs, etc. She brings up the increase in chances of diseases spreading due to lack of water. When she emphasizes on the word “devastation”, a clip of a woman crying appears. I like the fact that there is never any music in the background of the CBS clips. Instead we hear background noise from the streets in Haiti. However, CBS still uses other ways to grasp their audience’s attention and getting to us on a more emotional level by interviewing Haitians, showing bodies, injured citizens, women and children, etc.
This week’s lecture and this blog has really opened my eyes to how media really does try to portray their news in a way to lure the audience and allow the viewers to sympathize, and feel pity and emotion so that we can watch it more and more.
As Rebekah an many others mentioned before, I too found it interesting while watching CBC that the coverage was mostly was focused on the fact that 14 Canadians died, and in all 200,000, while images of dead bodies were shown in the background. It seems to me that some media have lost sight of what has really happened.Right now, the point is that people in Haiti need food, and for all the publicity, the international delivery system has, so far, been a visible dud.
Media, most of the time, tend to arrive obsessed with property (and the headlines that assaults on property can make). Media outlets often call everything looting and thereby incite hostility toward the sufferers as well as a hysterical overreaction on the part of the armed authorities. Or sometimes the journalists on the ground do a good job and the editors back in their safe offices cook up the crazy photo captions and the wrongheaded interpretations and emphases. That’s what I believe is happening, nowadays. Reporters are more concerned about soliciting compassion an pity in order to grasp their amalgamous audience’s attention. As if they are trying to convey and attach to media some kind of a rescuer role. But really who is the rescuer in this kind of situation, is there such a thing as finding time to identify a “rescuer” in times of despair?
The media’s coverage of Haiti has been overwhelming, and important. Because so much relief aide is required, many organizations and individuals have taken initiative to develop fund raising campaigns and benefit events.
To respond to many of my colleagues comments about the coverage by Canadian News agency’s having “Canadian focused coverage” I would like to outline why this is the case and why there is little (no?) harm in doing so. Despite the fact that Haiti has been devastated, it is still important that the Canadian media reports on News relevant to Canadians. Like the American news coverage that some other students mentioned being focused on American stories, the Canadian news media does the same thing. There has been no shortage of images and news stories that are solely concerned with Haiti, but the major specials often involve Canada’s presence. I watched a news segment last night talking about Canadian soldiers maintaining order in the lines to get into the Canadian consulate. This would be considered much more relevant to Canadian’s watching the news, than a similar story with Italy’s consulate. In order to present the most pertinent stories in the media, they must sift through the tremendous numbers of stories available.
I believe that the awareness and coverage of the disaster in Haiti has been very well done, and provides a much better picture of ground zero than most natural disasters in the past. I am also impressed with Canada’s initiative to match any and all donations by Canadian’s to Haiti.
People are complaining about the graphic images of bodies everywhere.
People are complaining that the media is not showing the Haitian reality.
Personally, I think that TV news and newspapers have done a rather good job with the coverage in Haiti. They have made people aware of what life is like in Haiti now. They have largely ignored how terrible the infrastructure in Haiti was before, and how this crisis would not have been nearly as bad if Haiti wasn’t so poverty stricken to begin with. But they are focusing on what is there now, and on the future of Haiti. To me, this is good enough to get “help” to Haiti. Unfortunately, when people tire of the coverage, as quite a few people who have blogged here already have, then it will be out of people’s minds and the help will stop. Then Haiti will be able to return to the poverty that was there before. So in my mind, for the moment, the media is doing a good job covering the story. All of the sad music and the sob stories and making it hit closer to home for Canadians, it is creating interest and keeping people involved in the situation. So, hidden agenda or not, the media is doing what the media does best: getting people interested in something.
Ilana Carmeli (43) says: “There was very little, to no coverage on the people of Haiti and how the earthquake has affected their lives and how they are coping”. To this I say, how much did you know about the lives of the people in Haiti before this incident? Why should you know more now, just because it has been altered? I have seen many news reports about how they are coping, in cramped tent cities without plumbing or hygiene. What more would you like to know? Their own personal histories? If my entire life had just crumbled and my family was dead, personally, I would not really be very interested in talking to a foreign camera man telling him/her about my life. I don’t know why we expect to be privy to the personal lives of these people, I think that is more of an invasion of privacy. I don’t mean to criticize what you have said, I was just hoping to come at it from a different angle.
Rebekan McLellan (49) said “Walters went on to claim that he witnessed a group of people making a “heroic rescue” of a three-wheel utility vehicle… make the people there seem as though they cared more about material objects than people’s lives”. If I’m not mistaken, this news report is from Friday or Saturday. By this point in time, if anyone is still buried in the rubble, they are dead. What is more important at this time, recovering dead bodies, or trying to save the lives of the living by clearing debris, rebuilding, and re-establishing some way of life? Dead bodies are not going to help do this. A utility vehicle will.
I would like to comment, also, on all the fundraising going on. Everywhere I look, I see phone numbers or websites where I can donate money to help out in Haiti. I even received an email from McGill about collections going on next week. But where is all of this money going? There is no food, no water, and a shaortage of medical supplies. I chose not to comment on this, but I
REALLY FEEL THAT EVERYONE SHOULD LOOK AT THIS: http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2010/01/19/2796032.htm
Being critical does not mean criticizing, and that seems to be much of what we are doing in this blog (notice, I have just done it…). If the media didn’t talk about what Canada is doing in this situation, everyone would be demanding to know what their country is doing and why they aren’t helping. When the media does provide this information, people demand to see more of the personal lives of the Haitians. When they do show graphic images of Haiti, people complain about how disturbing it is. The media cannot satisfy everyone. Do they have their own intentions? Of course. It is a business. It would not exist if there was no money in it. Television news reports and newspapers can’t just fly their reporters to Haiti on good intentions, nor can they pay their salaries. The media is out to make money, like everyone else. The disaster in Haiti is constant in the media because people want to know about it. People are interested. When people are interested, the media focuses on it more, because that is how they make money. Are all of the stories important? Of course not. One families adoption struggles (which I actually haven’t heard about other than on these posts) is by no means as important as the 200,000 dead Haitians. But we only need to hear about 200,000 dead Haitians so many times. Stories are found to relate to this crisis, because people will watch and listen.
Instead of criticizing the media, we should be listening critically. A clear alternate agenda is to make Canada appear as though they are really helping and contributing in Haiti. In doing this, they are making sure the people of Canada are satisfied by their government’s actions, and will be content to keep the same government. It’s good PR.
A lot of my classmates have mentioned how the focus of the news casts have been on Canadians and not on as much on the Haitians. I don’t know if I’m simply not watching the right news but I don’t see that the focus is being directed incorrectly. I watch LCN news which is a french news cast and find that they speak about the earthquake as the true horror that is it. Yes they do speak about the loss of some Canadians but why not? Obviously the Haitians are in a horrible situation and everyone knows that because of the pictures and the videos that the news casts of Canada have shown us. The Canadians are doing all of the talking and I’ve hardly come across any interviews with Haitians, the news casts use big text headlines like “Disaster in Haiti” or something along those lines. The music is usually suspensful or dramatic but in a way using big headlines and dramatic music is a good way to make us feel the devastation. The coverage of the disaster is in my opinion was well done and is promoting a lot of donations and ways to help Haiti in general.
Clearly, as many commentators have already eluded to, the North American Anglo media has constructed an image of the Haitian as victim, with particular emphasis on woman and children as Samantha Boyd has pointed out, in relation to an image of the heroic Westerner, in the form of the aid worker, sympathetic celebrity or Canadian adoptee family. In my own viewing of the North American coverage, I also noticed more emphasis placed on the heroic construction and found Lisa Morello’s “Muchtalks: Haiti” synopsis particularly fitting since it portrays so well the sheer superficiality with which many, predominately Caucasian, talking heads speak about the Haitian experience. The paltry coverage begs the question: Who are these Haitian people besides just victims? After all, our Governor General is Haitian. We, Montrealers, have a thriving Haitian community in our midst with notable Francophone writer, Danny Leferriere, living here. Obviously more needs to be said about the Haitian cultural identity in order to get beyond the unfortunate victim/hero dichotomy. I agree with Karine Beauregrand that the North American Francophone media portrays a more nuanced picture, with greater attention given to the cultural context of Haitian people. For example, La Presse has a special section called “Haiti P.Q”, which documents various aspects of life in the Montreal Haitian community. This gives a different impression of the Haitians as a cohesive, independent community than is typical of Anglo North American coverage, which tends to zero in on the devastated lives of individual Haitian people, reinforcing the image of the Black person in perpetual need.
Like many others, I too watched CTV and CBS for the Canadian outlook on the tragedy that has swept over Haiti and its people. It was clear to see that these news reports were targeted to hit home as they mainly focused on how all the events somehow relate back to Canadians and their suffering. Stories such as “Canadians in the process of adopting children from Haiti are now caught up in a nightmare” like Diana pointed out, as well as newscasts that focus on the amount of Canadian deaths and those trying to bring their loved ones home.
The actual coverage of the state in Haiti and those who were truly affected is sparse as both stations have skirted around actually interviewing Haitians who are in need in favor of volunteers and affected Canadians. Haitians who are interviewed, tend to not get much air time as it is apparent their stories have been edited to only allow certain parts that the news stations have no doubt deemed worthy and interesting for the Canadian public. Personal stories appear to have the favoritism of the news stations as in the end it all does not seem to boil down to the events in Haiti, but how the media is able to manipulate the stories into a western disaster.
I’m going to go off on a bit of a tangent from this week’s assignment and focus on one particular story that I saw on MSNBC about an American Filmmaker, Dan Wooley, who was in Haiti at the time of the earthquake. As Amy Batley pointed out, “the news on Canadian stations has been focusing a lot on the search and rescue that is taking place at the Hotel Montana, which was popular with a lot of Western tourists”. MSNBC, an American news station also paid some attention to this hotel. Dan Wooley was at this hotel at the moment when the earthquake hit. He was buried in rubble and left in complete darkness. So he used his camera flash to light up his surroundings and an iPhone app to treat his wounds. I was initially really interested by this story’s headlines: “Buried in Haiti rubble, U.S. dad wrote goodbyes /But with iPhone info, he treated his injuries and was rescued after 65 hours”. When I searched this story, evidently all of the articles I found on it emphasized how his iPhone saved his life, which I do find impressive. However, the direction that MSNBC took with this story was quite distasteful. In an interview, with TODAYS’s Meredith Vieira, he shows his notebook and Emphasis is put on how it is stained with blood and contains messages of last goodbyes. Throughout, the interview Wooley also on numerous occasions points out his faith in God. “Stained with his blood, Dan Woolley’s notes contained messages of faith in God”. These details are superfluous, unecessary and obviously added to hype up the story. Furthermore, it’s another example of how emphasis is put on stories about American or Canadian survivors: “U.S dad wrote goodbyes”. I was initially attracted by the extent to which technology can be used, but really put off by how MSNBC spun the story. Here’s one comment that I read that really put everything about this story into perspective: I wonder how many Haitians were able to rely on their iPhones?
http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/34933053/ns/today-today_people/
As many people have mentioned, the news coverage you get really depends on which chanel you watch. While watching any Canadian converage, the stories were mainly based on Canadians that were involved in helping the Haitians but while watching an American chanel, alot of the stories were based on Americans giving a helping hand. I find it very interesting how various new chanels find a way to spin the news of another country to say how it affects themselves. We have also seen this while viewing news coverage of the war in Iraq. We always hear about the many Canadian souldiers who have died but rarely spend more than two minutes to see what is happening to others or the coundtry itself.
Another thing I noticed was how quick celebrities are to help in any way they can when disaster hits but every day there are people who are suffering from diseases and hunger yet no one looks twice because it doesn’t get enough credit to make the news. Before this week, I hadn’t been watching much news coverage but I always found a way to hear about which celebrities were going to help by either donating money or answering phones to take donations. As much as everyone wants to think that they are helping Haiti through this difficult time, it all comes down to how much this affects themselves as well as others.
Watching the news, these last couple of days, there are many stories about how Canadian families are now adopting Haitian children who are said to be Orphans. I believe that this is such a selfless act and that many children affected by the earthquake will benefit immensely from the generosity of these families. That being said, many of the newscasts are discussing the effect on the Canadian families rather than the children themselves. While watching CTV and CBS along with other newscasts, it is fairly disappointing to see how most of the officials in charge of the adoption process, discuss and are more concerned with the adoptive family, rather than the children, who are never really asked how they feel about it. Most interviews discuss issues such as the length of the waiting period along with the fact that some of these poor children might be a burden on these Canadian families. Major parts of interviews sometimes don’t even include the children. They don’t ask about how they might feel in the process or even what their condition is. Despite the fact that what these Canadian families are doing is a truly wonderful act, the media seems to spin a negative connotation towards all of it.
As well, I’ve also seen some newscasts with interviews discussing how some families are being too pushy and that not all the children can be adopted. The interviews go on to say how the Canadian families need to understand that the adoption process is a long one, especially in the case of papers being lost or destroyed in all the rubble. I believe that the media should somehow find a way to show the families that indeed their actions are kind; however there is a waiting period. I disagree with the fact that interviews discuss the fact that these families are being quite impatient, when in reality all they really want to do is help.
Throughout all this media coverage on the earthquake in Haiti, I’ve been getting mixed signals. Some tend to lean towards Canadians, explaining how wonderful they are in all their helpful acts and other media coverage seem to spin a negativity towards this help, saying that at this point Haitians just want some stability in their lives. I find it is confusing to keep track of such a complicated situation, when so many stories seem to be taking opposite rather different sides. I believe at this point, the media is just trying to find some new and interesting ways to keep the story going as long as possible.
Firstly, I would like to mention that I am extremely devastated by what happened in Haiti and my sympathies go to all of the individuals that were affected by this strategy. Like many peers, I have been watching and following the news coverage of this story from the very beginning. I, like Elissa, had not truly realized how much media are influential in various ways on the coverage of this story before starting to actually analyze it.
After looking at various television stations such as CNN, CTV news as well as Friday night’s “Canada for Haiti”, CBC news and TVA, I got a similar view of what is happening in Haiti. As was discussed in class last Monday, the aim of these programs is to place importance on the Canadians that are affected by this situation in some way instead of placing importance on the many Haitians that are in a situation that we are not even able to fully understand! A comment that Dr. Steinberg had discussed in class and has marked me is how we cannot even begin to understand what the Haitians went through; the majority of Canadians have, thankfully, not been through a situation that catastrophic therefore we cannot fully have sympathy for the Haitian population.
Each television program that I watched had the same aim but had a different approach of going about it. On the French news channels, there were Haitian Quebecois guests that spoke about their situations; usually concerning their family affected by the earthquake and stuck in Haiti. The English News channels focused on the Canadian and American soldiers that were going in Haiti to help or that have died from this catastrophe as well as the 2 Canadians that died during the earthquake. During the “Canada for Haiti” hour-long show, there was emphasis placed on the Canadian help coming into Haiti but also on the Canadian celebrities and government figures such as the Governor General (Michael Jean) and the Prime Minister (Stephan Harper). I found another interesting trait during the “Canada for Haiti” program, which was focusing on what the Canadians are best known for and constantly mentioning them to the audience in order to get as many Canadians donating for this special cause. One of the hosts of the show, Cheryl Hickey, specifically mentioned that “we are a compassionate country [and] we stand up for those who are less fortunate. As a part of being Canadian, this is who we are, this is what we are” (Canada for Haiti, 2010). I found the repetition of these traits quite interesting in the sense that this example is particularly showing the public how media educates the people and empowers our lives by deciding what our values are as Canadians.
The pictures that were used to describe the Haitians in the earthquake were mostly quite sad and even gruesome at points in order to make us feel sympathy towards the Haitian population and understand what they are going through as well as donate as much money possible. The music that was played as a background to the video footage or pictures was, like discussed in class, the traditional sad music with the string instruments (either violin or guitar). When there was an individual story that was being told, the commentator of the news cast or the host was mostly the one explaining it (dominant culture) and there was little input from the person that had actually been through the tragedy of the earthquake (minority culture= Haitians). The way that I chose to investigate this topic helped me greatly in opening my eyes and actually seeing how media affects us in the worst ways.
Sorry for the paragraph spacing, it did not come out well because I write my message first on word. I will copy and paste it another time in order to make it more legible.
Firstly, I would like to mention that I am extremely devastated by what happened in Haiti and my sympathies go to all of the individuals that were affected by this strategy. Like many peers, I have been watching and following the news coverage of this story from the very beginning. I, like Elissa, had not truly realized how much media are influential in various ways on the coverage of this story before starting to actually analyze it.
After looking at various television stations such as CNN, CTV news as well as Friday night’s “Canada for Haiti”, CBC news and TVA, I got a similar view of what is happening in Haiti. As was discussed in class last Monday, the aim of these programs is to place importance on the Canadians that are affected by this situation in some way instead of placing importance on the many Haitians that are in a situation that we are not even able to fully understand! A comment that Dr. Steinberg had discussed in class and has marked me is how we cannot even begin to understand what the Haitians went through; the majority of Canadians have, thankfully, not been through a situation that catastrophic therefore we cannot fully have sympathy for the Haitian population.
Each television program that I watched had the same aim but had a different approach of going about it. On the French news channels, there were Haitian Quebecois guests that spoke about their situations; usually concerning their family affected by the earthquake and stuck in Haiti. The English News channels focused on the Canadian and American soldiers that were going in Haiti to help or that have died from this catastrophe as well as the 2 Canadians that died during the earthquake. During the “Canada for Haiti” hour-long show, there was emphasis placed on the Canadian help coming into Haiti but also on the Canadian celebrities and government figures such as the Governor General (Michael Jean) and the Prime Minister (Stephan Harper). I found another interesting trait during the “Canada for Haiti” program, which was focusing on what the Canadians are best known for and constantly mentioning them to the audience in order to get as many Canadians donating for this special cause. One of the hosts of the show, Cheryl Hickey, specifically mentioned that “we are a compassionate country [and] we stand up for those who are less fortunate. As a part of being Canadian, this is who we are, this is what we are” (Canada for Haiti, 2010). I found the repetition of these traits quite interesting in the sense that this example is particularly showing the public how media educates the people and empowers our lives by deciding what our values are as Canadians.
The pictures that were used to describe the Haitians in the earthquake were mostly quite sad and even gruesome at points in order to make us feel sympathy towards the Haitian population and understand what they are going through as well as donate as much money possible. The music that was played as a background to the video footage or pictures was, like discussed in class, the traditional sad music with the string instruments (either violin or guitar). When there was an individual story that was being told, the commentator of the news cast or the host was mostly the one explaining it (dominant culture) and there was little input from the person that had actually been through the tragedy of the earthquake (minority culture= Haitians). The way that I chose to investigate this topic helped me greatly in opening my eyes and actually seeing how media affects us in the worst ways.
I agree with many of my peers, as they discuss how much of the attention in Haiti is being focused on how the Canadians or Americans are helping in Haiti, but are taking away the focus from the suffering Haitians. Much of the news coverage describes how many Canadians are helping out, and shows images of Canadians supplying food and necessities to the Haitians, with horrifying pictures of dying Haitians in the background. I agree with one of my peers as she describes how we hear about the few Canadian soldiers that have died while fighting the war in Iraq (don’t get me wrong, it is tragic) but then we do not hear about the thousands of other people who are dying from nuclear bombs, in other countries around the world. I think that most of our media coverage is mainly focused on Canadians, and is ignoring thousands of other suffering people, with stories equally as tragic to ones of Canadian soldiers. One of my other peers also said how they noticed that some of the news coverage was focused on Heidi Montag’s plastic surgery; I think that is completely absurd. It is disgusting that the news would even take a second to talk about her plastic surgery when there are actual things that matter, which should be talked about. I think that in a time of grief like this for the Haitians, there needs to be as much news coverage as they can get, so people can see the severity of what is happening there, and hopefully Donate money to Haiti.
If there is one thing that can not be escaped all week is the coverage of the earthquake that took place in Haiti. I watched a few Canadian broadcastings as well as American ones and one main thing they have in common would be the focus on the non Haitian residents who have been stranded or not heard from. Of course it is devastating if anyone is missing or assumed dead but it is unfair to have that focus be taken off the Haitian people who are certainly those who are most in time of need.
Interviews are often with officials or the interviewers take on the situation rather then real stories of the Haitian people. When Haitian people are featured it’s often rather short or shown in snippets. For example I saw a story where they dug a woman out of the rubble, it cuts back to them speaking to the family members of the woman and them showing a picture and it quickly cut back to the scene of the rubble where they had pulled the woman out of. The focus then turned to the interviewer who found a doll amidst the rubble and began to cry when thinking of her own children. The interviewer then gave her take on what the story of the family was.
I feel that a lot of news stations focus on their particular approach towards the event and don’t show the real tragedy that is going on. I’ve heard a lot of stories where Haitians are digging through the rubble to find loved ones with nothing but a shovel and barefooted, which made me wonder where all the people that are being sent over to help were. When you do hear of the various troops who are supposed to be there to help it is often linked in their search for the missing people of their respective countries.
I also watched Oprah’s coverage of the earthquake and Wyclef a Haitian native who had invested time and efforts in an organization to help the Haitian people prior to this devastating earthquake spoke of the fact that supplies have filled the airport and yet there hasn’t been enough organization to rightfully distribute the goods. He also says that the Haitian people ask that they stop with the photo opts, as well as to stop handing out food to them as if they were animals. Hearing him say these things I was taken aback because you don’t really see any of that in the news. On Another note, I heard on a Canadian radio station that a lot of countries are being criticized for the amount of journalists they sent over.
I agree with Diana(the first person to post on the blog) that a lot of emphasis has been placed on parents who were awaiting to adopt a Haitian orphan and whose process now has been delayed due to lost or unfinished paperwork or in part due to the fact that the child they had chosen to adopt can not be found. Of course this is devastating but considering the large amount of children who were orphans before (close to 300000) and the increasingly larger amount that have become orphans since the devastating earthquake, to focus so much energy on brining such stories forth seems wrong.
Je trouve vraiment intéressant de parler de cette événement cette semaine. Ce que nous vivons en ce moment est probablement la plus grosse tragédie que la Terre n’est jamais pu vivre. Je dois préciser d’abord que je suis une personne très sensible à ce genre de situation et que depuis que j’ai entendu cette histoire je n’arrête pas de penser à ce que je pourrais faire moi même pour aider cette situation. De plus je dois aussi avouer que j’ai beaucoup de difficulté à regarder les images que l’on vois à Global, CNN, CTV puisque, comme j’ai aussi lu plus haut dans les autres commentaires, ces images sont totalement bouleversantes. On rajoute aussi souvent une petite musique ou on nous montre un vidéo de personne littéralement entrain de mourir devant nous.
Je dois tout de même avouer que même si je ne suis pas totalement en accord avec tout ce que l’on nous montre dans les médias, c’est quand même essentiel d’avoir les informations sur ce qu’il arrive. De plus, cette sensibilisation des médias vers la Terre entière démontre à quel point on peux tous s’unir dans un grand projet et je trouve très impressionnant de voir à quel point les gens se mobilise pour aider cette situation désastreuse.
I I watched a lot of news coverage this week and really thought about how news is given off. I had never thought about how the news has other goals besides giving off the world news to the population before this class. As I watched CNN this week it was evident to me that the news was meant to scare people. They showed only the destruction going on in Haiti as well as survivors stories and struggles. They also focused on the people helping out and how good they were which was probably a method of getting other people to come to Haiti and help out. I watched as CNN showed people helping out from Israel and Europe and other places promoting others to come join in and help out. The news also only showed the most terrorizing videos and stories from the most extreme cases such as children who lost their entire families.
Clearly, it is hard not to agree with most comments above. It is difficult here to be original about how we perceive the devastating events which thousands of Haitians have been forced to witness. How could one be insensitive to breathtaking images and video footage the media bombards in our directions. It becomes inevitable, everywhere you go, someone/something/somewhere, the Haiti earthquake is brought up, practically imposed on our culture. You can’t blame their people as they reach out to the “wealthier” for help, support, funds, food, water, etc…heck anything that can make things easier. When we realize the value of our money, and how far a few dollars can go on their damaged turf, its hard to turn your back or be careless.
News reports, as usual, try to induce us with hurtful images, powerful words, fear, and even more pity. It feels like every channel I flip to, or every front page news paper is one big organized telethon. It’s almost like watching the show where we try to encourage you to sponsor a child, except for a whole nation.
The media seems to take advantage of the fact that they know that most of us have never witnessed or survived the demolishing effects of Mother Nature. I know for a fact that the information shared here in Canada, is probably completely different than what they are running in third world countries, or even a place like Sichuan, China who they got hit by a terrible one back in ’08. This method, that I like to describe as media taking advantage of people’s inability to relate to the events is one that I dislike. Yes the situation in Haiti is beyond unfortunate, and it is obvious that a country of their scale absolutely needs support, but the fact that its presented to us in theatrical ways, takes away much of the reality and causes desensitization of many.
Even though its two completely different stories, I don’t find it fare or normal, to even say shameful that I was able to detect similarities in the way the information is imposed and shared between the documentary we viewed in class about 9/11 and Bush and this sad event that touches us in the end, directly or indirectly, one way or another.
The newscast that I watched placed a great emphasis on a specific group of people (all seemingly part of the dominant culture group) seeing the importance on going to Haiti to help those in crisis. The piece repeated how this group felt the necessity to provide money (“lots of money” as expressed in the clip) and 13 people (nurses and doctors) to go down and help. There was no description as to what they were going to do to help (and with only 13 people how much of an impact can they make – but at least they’ll be providing “lots of money”) and yet absolutely no coverage on people who experienced the disaster first hand. It surprised me to notice that everyone interviewed were part of the dominant group and not nearly affected by the disaster as the Haitians (or even those with family in Haiti) are and expressed an excitement (“feeling good about it”) about going to the area and helping out. The reactions found in the people interviewed within the newscast were comparable to that of a Church group organizing a bake sale. Meanwhile as less than 5 seconds of the 2:43 newscast is dedicated to merely images of muted people affected by the disaster, it is described by the newsanchor that the “desire to help is strong”. While Diana (first blogger) juggled with two different concepts of the media portraying the event, I realized that Canada’s egocentricity overpowers its desire to truly capture the heartbreak. The newcast I watched demonstrated how Canada’s dominant culture deals with tragedy from a third party perspective – with as much “understanding” as it can.
After watching news reports on the devastating earthquake in Haiti, I discovered how the news spent a lot of time talking about how it has affected Canadians, not Haitians. Of course knowing how it has affected our country is important, but I think there should be a focus on everyone who was affected, especially the Haitians. I also noticed how they do not give much time for interviewing the people affected, at least not the Haitians. When coverage of the aftermath was shown, another thing that stood out to me was how most times there were shots that focused on hurt children. In a university class I took last semester we looked at how children are also the “logo” for charities for aids because people feel more sincere and responsive therefore they’re more likely to donate– don’t get me wrong though, I definitely think everybody should give what they can to help out no matter how it’s shown in the media.
I totally agree with Nicole when she says that there should be more – and more appropriate – news coverage of what is going on in Haiti. When I specify “more appropriate”, what I mean is that (like many of my peers have pointed out) the focus of the news is much more on Canadian victims and Canadian aid than on the situation of people in Haiti. I understand that it is important for the Canadian population to see that Canada is providing help and know what actions we can undertake to change the situation, but I feel like there isn’t enough coverage of the situation itself. In order to know how best we can help, we need to know exactly what is going on there and what the most important needs are.
Moreover, I think that there is too much attention brought to the Canadian victims of this earthquake. It sure is sad that Canadians died in Haiti, but if we compare the number of Canadian victims to the number of Haitians who suffer or die because of this earthquake, it is egocentric to think that Canadians have it hard.
Finally, I would like to bring attention to the vocabulary the news uses to describe what is going on in Haiti. The words used are really strong: disastrous, tragic, dramatic, etc. These words represent well the reality of the situation there. They grab people’s attention and maybe they make us realize how serious the Haiti’s state is. In this case, using such connoted vocabulary is for the best because people then seek to help to change the situation.
However, I can’t help thinking that the more dramatic the news is, the more it will be interesting to some people, just like watching a drama movie. I do not think this applies to the situation in Haiti – because it is dramatic, so there is no exaggeration there –, but in some cases I feel like the news exaggerate the drama of some situations just to get people’s attention and to have them react. What do you think about this? Do you have the same impression as me or do you feel otherwise?
This week on TV, it was nearly impossible not to watch footage of the disaster in Haiti. The man I’ve followed throughout this rough battle is Anderson Cooper. I’m almost certain that he’s been there shortly since the earthquake hit, and recently went most journalist went back to their families in the safety and comfort of their own homes, Anderson Cooper stayed behind. I’ve chosen to follow him because he seems to be the most honest journalist. I’ve seen many interviews he’s had with many different people torn from the families by the earthquake: men, women, children and the elderly. He is also speaking to the many doctors, nurses and staff sent from abroad to help those in need. I find he asks them questions in appropriate ways and in a very gentile, non-condescending manner. CNN has been following the disaster moments after the earthquake struck. Although many believe the media tries to suck in their viewers simply for ratings and popularity levels, I personally believe that in this case, they are focusing in on showing everyone watching how lucky they are, and what a horrific event this really was. I never really sat down and thought about the harsh impact of an earthquake, but after this one unfortunately struck, it immediately hit me how disastrous it can be. The music is very melancholy, glum and generally unhappy. Then again it’s not like they’ll be playing Billy Joel either. When something like this happens its only natural for them to choose to play this sort of music as a soundtrack to the peoples’ story. All of the mini video montages are in slow motion accompanied by sad, but true facts about the damage that the earthquake caused. Most TV stations have set the title of this unfortunate event as “Disaster in Haiti”. In a very dark way, some would argue that the media is milking this tragedy in their benefit, but I’d like to believe otherwise. Although this is doing great for ratings, I think that the media is trying to portray an honest image of what this disaster is really like. It’s kind of hard to exaggerate something so devastating and serious as this, because all of it really is painfully saddening and heartbreaking.
Many heart-wrenching stories have been broadcasted. Stories of lost parents and siblings, orphans and missing children have all been shown. The people speaking are often crying or in a state of panic, naturally.
Friday night CTV, CBC and Global hosted “Canada for Haiti”, a benefit to raise money to help those in need in Haiti. Complete with a star-studded cast, this telethon was determined to raise millions of dollars to donate to the people of Haiti. I think about 9 million was raised in Canada. The celebrity appearances really helped, I believe, and it’s good to see these people use their fame toward something meaningful. Following this telethon was another one, an American version called “Hope for Haiti”, once again filled with various celebrities and musicians. During this 2 hour special were many interviews with the people of Haiti and their stories, and some were very difficult to watch. There was a woman buried under the rubble and all you heard her saying was “dead or alive, tell my husband I love him”, which brought me instantly to tears.It’s just scary to think that this is all really happening, and that it’s not some sad movie. They had people like Julia Roberts, Steven Spielberg and Reese Witherspoon taking phone calls from the donators.his most certainly aided in raising the estimated 58 million dollars. These broadcasts were commercial free, which I thought was intriguing. Advertising agents would be a TON of money for their commercials to be shown, but it’s nice to know that when a disaster strikes, media selfishness can be put aside…for now anyways.
After watching several Canadian news stories on Haiti this week, I noticed a significant difference when I was considering the “critical lens” that we discussed in class. Typically, when I watch the news I often get swept away with the news anchors, often just taking in the information without thinking twice. This week, I was watching the aftermath of the Haiti earthquake through a very critical perspective.
As I was watched a news segment on CBC, I noticed how the media really does get to us by relating the event to our life here in Canada. As Dr. Steinberg discussed in class, the media wants to instill fear in us. However, pertaining the situation in Haiti, the media is not trying to instill fear in us about earthquakes, but rather the media is tapping into our fear of losing one of our own, a Canadian. We have been conditioned (mainly through videos of third world countries on television) that people who don’t live here in North America simple die more. Our underlying attitude that we have about foreign, and often poor countries, is so disconnected from our comfortable lives here in Canada. Therefore, the media tries to focus on what they think the dominant culture cares about, their own kind.
Again, when I was watching CBC, the first image that appeared on the screen was the statistics of Canadians dead, missing and hurt. There was such a focus on the fact that 19 Canadians have been reported dead and that 213 have been unaccounted for. There was NO mention in this segment of how many Haitian people have died or been hurt. It’s terrible how the focus has been so distorted in order to get more sympathy and attention from Canadians.
I have read all the comments above and I agree with most of them. I looked at the media coverage of the Haiti tragedy with great interest during the last week and what struck me the most was how some of the stories that were covered were all about the so-called generosity of the Canadians. These stories did not focus on the earthquake and its repercussions; they did not focus on telling us the facts which is the main purpose of all journalistic professions. Also, I wanted to point out that inevitably some of the media are playing the guilt card with us. Now, don’t make me wrong here. I feel really bad for the hatian people. What happened to them during the last twenty years is horrible! Dictator after dictator, corrupted government and natural catastrophe after natural catastrophe. You wonder if there is a God above, what those people did to deserve this.
I wanted to talk about to stories that I have seen druing this week. The first one was in the newspapers. It was about haiti children that were abducted during chaos that occured after the earthquake. Some people witnessed shady people bringing kids into airplaines and coming back without them. It seems these children were to be sold as slaves in europe or something like that. Now I don’t want to imagine what will happen to these kids. Can you imagine some of them were taken while they were at the hospital recovering from injuries after the earthquake. Humanity really has its loads of parasite!
I have seen the second story on LCN (Some kind of French CNN) They were showing how they delt with criminals during the time of crisis. Believe me it is rather simple. You steal = you get a bullet to the head. The journalist was interviewing people about these methods and almost every one was agreeing with the way these thiefs were dealt with. People were saying that it’s wath they deserved and that nobody wants thiefs as their neighbors. They were leaving the bodies in the street, because they did not have anywhere to put. The bodies were baking in the sun in the middle of the street and nobody cared. The journalist was even describing the smell. Now, keep in mind that the majority of these so called thiefs were steeling food to feed themselfs and their own family. So yeah, just shoot the poor guy who tries to survive!
Watching the media, I noticed that the reports fall into different categories. The first is “poor, suffering, effed up Haiti,” the next is “the problems with doing anything to help Haiti,” and after that, “how the earthquake in Haiti is affecting us.”
The “poor Haiti” pieces tend toward pictures of black people in bloody bandages or sitting under makeshift shelters and lots of rubble, but the stories are focused on the quotes of unpictured officials. The essential message of these stories is that “this country used to be awful, but now it’s terrible. Send money.” You have to figure this publicity is extremely degrading to the national feelings of Haitians who may or may not have the collective volition to rebuild.
The “problem with doing anything to help Haiti” are the reports that point out the myriad of difficulties that a Canadian’s dollar will encounter on its way to a better purpose. These are the pieces that point out the corruption of the governments, the slowness of the NGOs, the backed up airport, and generally shot infrastructure. It’s hard to tell whether the cynicism is good for anyone.
Then the “how the earthquake is affecting us” stories are usually the most accurately reported but the most obnoxious. Yahoo! Canada featured a story about how Haiti images are swamping nighttime news and traumatizing Canadian children. It reminded me of how censorship of disturbing images can slow the ending of a war and deflects a sense of reality during a crisis. It’s also an opportunity for publicists to pull out all the stops and remind people that they love celebrities and will make an investment in image with what it loses in donations to relief causes.
I was truly in shock when I first heard about Haiti. Normally, when I hear about a tragedy like this, it takes a while to sink in. I remember 9/11 quite clearly. I can precisely recall the tsunami, Katrina, suicide-bombers and how I’ve felt after hearing about them. None of these tragic events had a similar impact to the one I felt for Haiti. Not to say that I was insensitive to all those previous events; they all mortified me and it did take me quite some time to grasp their meaning, to understand that a lot of innocent people had died, that life is unfair. Haiti though, seemed to hit home. Oddly enough, I don’t have any close friends or relatives that are Haitian, nor do I know any people that have perished in earthquakes. Maybe it’s the geographic proximity (although Katrina was closer), or the thought that these people who didn’t have much at all to begin with had lost everything they could; their homes, their families and even their lives, broke my heart. I cried when I heard the news about Haiti, and truly felt useless for some time, but what startled me is the lack of coverage from the Haitians’ perspective in the media. Aside of all the sad music and predictable titles to add shock value to the whole situation, what I found truly disrespectful is that Haitians were victimized, and somewhat dehumanized in the sense that they were always portrayed as the “poor people”, mournfully wailing as they dig to find their children’s bodies, but were not given a voice or a chance to address the media. It is as if they aren’t considered worthy of media attention as individuals, but are reduced to the idea that they are all pretty much the same person; poor, man or woman, uneducated, pushed aside in the background while troops, students and other North Americans do the talking. I don’t really know what to think of this, maybe I am biased and as much as I do understand the importance of the media coverage of such a catastrophe, I can’t help but feel a little voyeuristic when I watch the news, and to be honest I do not like the portrayal that the media gives us of Haiti and Haitians in this tragedy.
I don’t usually watch the news because I find that watching the 11 o’clock news, just before going to bed, doesn’t allow me to sleep very well. However, this week I caught a few news casts about Haiti and it seems to me that they are all just repeating themselves. I understand that it is a tragic and very sad thing that happened to the Haitians but it is becoming very repetitive. The sad music that plays in the background is basically the same for all networks, the sad images of the children are the same, and all the networks seem to be asking for money all the same. There are so many ways to give money to help the Haitians but I can’t decide which organisation to give my money to because there are so many different ones.
I think instead of showing the tragedy as much, they should focus their attention on what has happened to help Haiti. For example, I was listening to the radio this past week and it was saying that even people with nothing are trying to help. Apparently, some homeless people have collected cans, saved their change and collected it to send to Haiti. I think in situations just like these, positive feedback is better than negative feedback. This kind of information makes me happy and proud to be able to help out and makes me want to help out just as much as others have. I guess you could call it healthy competition: “Who can help the most?” competition.
Since the earthquake in Haiti, there are various segments on newscasts daily concerning the disaster. Like Samantha, I too have noticed that many of these segments focus on the women and children being affected. I watched one segment that was about 5minutes long and it concerned the make-shift hospitals that are being used, and the only male featured throughout the entire thing was a doctor.
As Dr. Steinberg discussed in class this week, many of the Canadian newscasts focus on reporting stories concerning Canadians. Whether it’s through discussing Canadians who were in Haiti during the earthquake, how our society will change with Haitian immigrants coming to the country or adoption stories, many segments on Canadian channels focus on Canada and/or Canadians. One clip that I saw was about something not concerning Canada whatsoever but featured at the end were statistics about how many Canadians died during the disaster, how many Canadians are over in Haiti and such. I feel that there should be more of a focus on Haitian people although I understand that viewers are interested in Canadian stories because they can relate to them more easily.
The people speaking in most of the clips are not the Haitian people who were affected but doctors and other aid workers. If Haitian people are featured, it’s very short and the broadcaster usually fills in and speaks at the end or beginning. I think news stations should get out there and get more coverage of the people affected by this disaster.
I find it interesting that during the benefit concert for Haiti, the stars kept saying that they were ‘helping people that could not help themselves’. I find that all of the media coverage is making Haiti out to be a weak country who have always needed the ‘saviours’ of the West.
Yes, it was a disaster and aid is necessary, however I find it interesting that only now when corporations and certain governments can benefit from the aftermath of this crisis, is aid being sent to Haiti. There has been extreme poverty in Haiti since they were the first country to gain their independence from slavery and colonialism. It makes me question the motives behind the immense donations and the ‘tied aid’ that is being sent to Haiti only now.
The benefit concert was not educating people on Haitian culture, they wre playing mainstream artists of the western world.
It’s also interesting that nowhere in the news coverage are they talking about the fact taht it was Venezuela and Cuba who wre the first responders to the disaster. It’s interesting to see who is taking the credit for all of this aid.
I am so proud of the countries helping out Haiti. It is true that the news is repeating itself – but that is always what happens when there is an unfortunate catastrophe. Also, the fact that so many countries have been helping out shows the world that there are more important things to focus on.
Something that really made me appreciate people helping out in Haiti were the individuals I read about who are involved; such as Doctors without Borders. It makes me so happy to know that there are people leaving their homes to go help out in a foreign place. One of my family friends from Israel left the other day to go help out at the Israeli Field Hospital in Haiti.
To comment on Jordan Elliott’s response about the Haitians not being shown on television, I just wanted to add that maybe they don’t want to be interviewed or have a camera crew surrounding them when they are in shock or terror. If you go online you can find many individual stories of Haitian survivors and what is happening.
The music that has been playing on tv during a Haiti reports seem appropriate for the current event. Laura Pietracupa made a good point; that it’s not like they should be playing Billy Joel or something up beat. Having sad music in the background will probably influence the media viewers to be upset and have pity for the tragedy that is going on, it will probably encourage more people to donate money or their time to helping Haiti.
So in response to Emilie Raymond, I also think that the diction in the news reports has been carefully selected to emphasize what a dramatic event this really is. And I think it is important that the news stations, celebrity talk shows, and interviews are on the same boat this time.
I watched a Korean news about Haiti and it was interesting to find out that the news focused on the actors or the actresses who were donating and helping out for Haiti. The news especially talked mostly about the famous actors and actresses. I also noticed that in one of the news I watched (a Canadian or American, I’m not sure about), the news also talked about Angelina Jolie and Brad Bitt, that they donated a huge amount of money to help the incident in Haiti.
I also think that the music should be a sad tone, because it suits with the story. It is weird to have a happy song when the news is talking about a sad story. It also develops people to be more sad or to understand that the incident in Haiti is really severe. Like what Arielle said, the background music can encourage more people to help and donate for Haiti.