Selective Compassion
Should the media give equal attention to all terrorist attacks?
In a world striving towards
complete globalization, it is essential to note that “A life is a life”,
regardless of proximity. Due to my life-long decision to never post anything on
political media because of my will to be an American politician, I sat silent
next to my keyboard on Friday night. Interestingly enough, the reaction of my closest friends, who are of Arab decent, was the same. Instead of posting about
the tragedies that happened in Paris, they compared the bombings with what
happened in Beirut, and were angry that Facebook did not include the ‘safe’
button or the Lebanese flag profile picture change. Although many of comments
on their posts came with the backlash of people, mostly my French friends,
stating that one cannot compare the two attacks and that it is disrespectful to
do so in a time of mourning, I wholeheartedly agree with the views of my Arab
friends.
Are their families and lives worth less than my French friends’
counterparts?
Selective
compassion opposes the ideal that all humans were created equally. If one truly
believes that they should empathize with some human lives over others, then
they simply value the life of
proximate people more than those that venture further away.
Media responsibility
When journalists argue that readers do not click on
articles where the action occurs in a part of a world where violence is commonplace, is a blasphemous statement at the
least. If readers are not interested in the article, they are not forced to
click on it. Regardless, the media still has the moral obligation to report the
news in which portrays the lives of all citizens equally, and thus giving the
attacks on Paris the same amount of media attention as other terrorist attacks
that devastated cities and families internationally. The media needs to write
its articles by omitting borders and religion, and rather focus on the value of
human life: which each life should be treated equal.
Each life deserves equal representation
A
terrorist attack destroys families, cities, and nations without borders. We should all sympathize with the victims that
faced the tragedies of savagery. Whether these tragedies are faced in China or
Costa Rica is irrelevant, the media has a responsibility to display the news
with the same charisma as it does with western countries. Regardless of the
proximity or the amount of people that can relate with the notions of the west,
the media should not succumb to the same savagery that ISIS is trying to impose
on western nations: the media must try to bring all human lives together, and a
great starting point will be to treat all lives with equal amounts of respect
and dignity.
I completely agree with your argument that the media is biased in what it presents. This ties back to the idea of sensational/yellow journalism. I also think that it is our right as citizens of the world to know that is happening around the world. For this reason, I try to go to as many news outlets as possible in order to get a full view of any issue at hand.
ReplyDeleteI definitely agree with you! Newspapers, especially in the U.S., are particularly narrow in terms of issues they choose to focus on. Take for example the refugee crisis in Syria. It is all over the news, but I would doubt many people know/care about the crisis in Columbia right now, which is probably the second largest right now.
ReplyDeleteI believe that media offer what most people want to hear. It's definitely true that a life is a life, but the Paris attacks were also used to create even more attention and rumors around ISIS and terrorism. It's really sad, but there's not much we can do. I personally tend to follow news from different countries to have diversified opinions.
ReplyDeleteThis is a compelling article and I definitely agree with you. It really does suck that the media has so much power over what we are knowledgable about and even our views. I couldn't agree more that this fact makes it their absolute responsibility to portray important news equally rather than pick and choose what they think we're more likely to click on.
ReplyDeleteIt's the same thing in sports: there's so much ESPN can talk about with the Sac Kings but they'd rather have Skip Bayless and Stephen A Smith pretend to argue and talk over each other about whether Lebron James is a good guy to have take the last second shot.
Interesting topic and well written article. Easy to follow your thoughts of which I completely agree. The Media has a responsibility to report in a socially responsible matter and it is disappointing to watch as that is usually not the case.
ReplyDeleteAs you mentioned earlier in the article, a violent occurrence is considered more newsworthy when it happens in a place where it is not commonplace. Though I do think that the news is too Western-centric, I don't believe it makes sense to give equal attention to all terrorist attacks. I did hear about the bombings in Beirut and I was very saddened by it, but I think it makes sense that Paris got more coverage. If the news really wanted to cover all tragic events equally, it would be an impossible task. Terrorism happens everyday, and in fact inundating the news with stories about every act of terrorism would be impossible in print media, and would also be highly impractical for websites.
ReplyDelete10,000 Americans are killed by guns in the United States every year. People may argue that it's unfair that a few particular cases get more coverage. But should the media really be expected to give each of the annual 10,000 gun deaths equal front-page coverage? That would just be silly. I'm not arguing that any person's life is less valuable. It's just the sad reality that we have too many deaths.
I don't think there is anything wrong for people to care more about the death of one particular group of people than another. It is human nature to care more about a tragedy that is close to home. Though a random person I don't know is equally valuable as a human being as my mother, I would be much more devastated if my mother died.
We are looking at the soon to be president of the united states! Very great article. It was very admirable that you stuck to your opinions and proved them with facts. Great read.
ReplyDeleteThe media has the difficult job of balancing the responsibility to drive readership and "clicks" up while also fulfilling their duty to inform the public. I think in the current state of global affairs, with conflicts on many fronts, absurd election campaigns, and lots else, this balance of responsibility has been lost.
ReplyDeleteA particular issue within your great topic is the way Israel is portrayed by the media. I completely agree that any loss of life is tragic and the world should unite in valuing life and love over any form of destruction. But what seems to be lost on the media is intent - wanting to kill vs. needing to kill to protect others. The media, in its efforts to stir up the public, has blurred the lines between terrorism and self-defense, which I find deeply problematic.
Although I agree with you on the media's responsibility of equally reporting all types of attacks, I think it really depends on what medium of media you are using. You may notice that the larger names in media is biased because it is against the interests of those who own it. All types of attacks are reported, you just have to find and share the media that does report it, no matter how small it is.
ReplyDelete