General Discussion

ellisonz

(27,711 posts) Fri Mar 23, 2012, 02:43 AM Mar 2012

On the Media and Violence: Afghanistan, Toulouse, and the United States

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It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to heaven, we were all going direct the other way - in short, the period was so far like the present period, that some of its noisiest authorities insisted on its being received, for good or for evil, in the superlative degree of comparison only.
Charles Dickens, A Tale of Two Cities (1859)

This is not to diminish our discussion on the Travyon Martin case, but rather to consider the media environment in which we live and conversate.

I find the in-depth coverage the Trayvon Martin story is getting to be fascinating. Be it Trayvon Martin, Mohammed Merah, or Robert Bales, I think social media is transforming what becomes the subject of discussion,, while the traditional media scrambles, and the cable news coverage tries to find the middle to be an interesting interchange compared to the past. A couple facts for thoughts: consider that these stand-your-ground laws have been on the books for years in many states already, consider that this was the first shooting at a school in modern French history, consider that we are in the 11th year of a War on Terror. When will these considerations cease, how often and long will we think about them?

I think the media in general, and especially the cable news media, are making up for a lack of coverage of racial/firearm law issues over the last few years with this case. It's no secret that events like this happen in the United States, and especially the South, and get swept under the rug. In Chicago last weekend, the toll was 10 dead and 40 wounded from gunfire, including a 6-year-old girl gunned down in her yard (Aliyah Shell). I think the US media is trying to make up for a lack of depth in their coverage with this case, and as much as it is admirable, you've got to wonder what they've been waiting for other than a pretty face and a catch line: Skittles.

Meanwhile, in the European media over the last decade we've seen pretty heavy coverage of gun violence, and violence in general. Europe has much more strict gun laws, less gun violence happens ~20% of the U.S. level, and I guarantee you something like what happened in Chicago last weekend would be front-page news in Paris. Mohammed Merah was still basically a teenager too. The French media will view him as such, consider yesterday mornings Le Monde headline: "Mohamed Merah. 23 years, terrorist, Islamist. 7 dead," whereas we will view him as just a terrorist, a footnote. The Mohammed Merah story has American legs too: he was detained in Afghanistan in 2010 and was on our no-fly list. Mohammed Merah might as well be an American, he assuredly has been influenced by our country, he went to Afghanistan to fight us.

I haven't seen all that much coverage on American broadcast television, and certainly not the in-depth treatment the Trayvon Martin case is getting, or the coming deluge of Robert Bales coverage. I think the media is overloaded, and that with the Robert Bales story going into heavy rotation again, America's eyes will wander until the next tragedy. Such is the lack of in-depth coverage in our media, the lack of consistent coverage of the big issues to build a consensus for peace and an end to conflict. I don't think we'll hear much about Mohammed Merah again in this country. I don't think we will hear much about Joseph Kony now that the story has flamed in the media until maybe, just maybe he is captured.

For most of us, all of these people are dead to us until their picture crosses our screens with a hashtag, until then, they are unknown...what interesting, insistent times.

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