Comments on: The Role of the Media in Times of Crisis http://blog.commarts.wisc.edu/2010/01/21/the-role-of-the-media-in-times-of-crisis/ Responses to Media and Culture Fri, 12 Feb 2016 19:35:04 +0000 hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=4.7.5 By: Sandra http://blog.commarts.wisc.edu/2010/01/21/the-role-of-the-media-in-times-of-crisis/comment-page-1/#comment-10290 Fri, 11 Jun 2010 15:10:40 +0000 http://blog.commarts.wisc.edu/?p=1161#comment-10290 The US media coverage of Haiti was really well done in my opinion. They campaigned alot for aid to be given which was nice to see.
On one hand what you say is true.. they should have focussed on the historical situation between Haiti and the US. However, what would that have helped?
By showing the footage that they did, it made people donate more and more.. which eventually ended up helping the people of Haiti.

]]> By: Melissa Click http://blog.commarts.wisc.edu/2010/01/21/the-role-of-the-media-in-times-of-crisis/comment-page-1/#comment-284 Mon, 25 Jan 2010 14:51:40 +0000 http://blog.commarts.wisc.edu/?p=1161#comment-284 Thanks everyone for the posts–sorry not to stay engaged with the topic (I have been nursing a bad sinus infection). Being sick has given me the opportunity to watch even more television coverage of Haiti, and I’m no less disappointed than when I wrote last week! Thanks for giving me some new places to look for satisfying coverage of Haiti.

]]> By: V Mayer http://blog.commarts.wisc.edu/2010/01/21/the-role-of-the-media-in-times-of-crisis/comment-page-1/#comment-267 Sat, 23 Jan 2010 13:27:24 +0000 http://blog.commarts.wisc.edu/?p=1161#comment-267 What do you mean the news coverage of New Orleans disappeared? Katrina is the second reference whenever Saints come up in the NFL coverage. I think you need to expand that definition of “news.” LOL

]]> By: Ky Boyd http://blog.commarts.wisc.edu/2010/01/21/the-role-of-the-media-in-times-of-crisis/comment-page-1/#comment-260 Sat, 23 Jan 2010 02:28:39 +0000 http://blog.commarts.wisc.edu/?p=1161#comment-260 In her excellent (and hilarious) book “And So It Goes…Adventures in Television,” published in 1986, Linda Ellerbee says “In the movie ‘Network,’ a satire on television news, Paddy Chayefsky, the screenwriter, has a character say that television is ‘democracy at its ugliest.’ Chayefsky got a laugh but missed the point. It’s not democracy at its ugliest; it’s paternalism at its slickest.” 23 years later thing have not changed and in fact have probably gotten even worse.

]]> By: Myles McNutt http://blog.commarts.wisc.edu/2010/01/21/the-role-of-the-media-in-times-of-crisis/comment-page-1/#comment-253 Fri, 22 Jan 2010 22:11:15 +0000 http://blog.commarts.wisc.edu/?p=1161#comment-253 While I’ve been remiss in staying abreast of the offline media coverage surrounding Haiti, as my current place of residence has no 24-hour news channels and I’m trapped in fictional worlds when the news is otherwise on, I’m wondering if NBC’s scheduling gaps and the arrival of two hours of Dateline every Friday night could lead to further Haiti coverage. I don’t know what the lead time on Dateline instalments is, but I think that that NBC could be a network that ends up staying in Haiti long than others thanks to their current predicament.

Or maybe I’m just searching for any positive spin-off from the Late Night debacle I can find.

]]> By: The Chutry Experiment » Documenting Haiti http://blog.commarts.wisc.edu/2010/01/21/the-role-of-the-media-in-times-of-crisis/comment-page-1/#comment-252 Fri, 22 Jan 2010 19:00:37 +0000 http://blog.commarts.wisc.edu/?p=1161#comment-252 […] the “liveness” of the story, the fact that the crisis is unfolding in real time, but as Melissa Click points out, once the initial crisis wears off, it is questionable whether the news media will […]

]]> By: Chuck http://blog.commarts.wisc.edu/2010/01/21/the-role-of-the-media-in-times-of-crisis/comment-page-1/#comment-251 Fri, 22 Jan 2010 18:36:53 +0000 http://blog.commarts.wisc.edu/?p=1161#comment-251 It’s worth noting that Haiti’s Cine Institute has begun posting footage on Vimeo with the hopes of shedding light on the situation there. Salon has a solid article about their efforts: http://www.salon.com/entertainment/movies/film_salon/2010/01/15/haiti

]]> By: Matt Sienkiewicz http://blog.commarts.wisc.edu/2010/01/21/the-role-of-the-media-in-times-of-crisis/comment-page-1/#comment-250 Fri, 22 Jan 2010 09:28:50 +0000 http://blog.commarts.wisc.edu/?p=1161#comment-250 Being overseas at the moment I have been spared the American television coverage of the tragedy, relying mostly on the web to try to keep up. That area of coverage is of course far too broad to summarize or critique.

(However, as an aside, the politicization of the extensive Israeli aid to Haiti, mostly by critics but also by advocates, has been equal parts overwhelming and appalling in the Middle East. Good editorial here if interested: http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1144179.html.)

Anyway, you are absolutely right that the our current news structure really provides no means by which to continue focusing on Haiti as the story gets replaced by the next tragedy. There is no quick fix of course, so all I have to offer is two laments:

1. US News has never developed any sense of regionalism beyond America’s borders. We have a national/international binary that I think is almost uniquely rigid and makes places like Mexico, Canada and Haiti sometimes feel just as far away as China or Australia. There is a sense in which Haitians are (North) Americans but that’s not something that rings a bell at all in the States.
2. The lack of long-form news/popular TV documentary. In Europe people make and watch television documentaries, a form that would be of great service as a periodic reminder of ongoing stories of recovery such as this one. We have Frontline, which is excellent but underscheduled, underfunded and barely watched. I’m sure (or I hope) there will be a Haiti episode this coming season but it won’t gain the kind of viewership to make much of dent.

]]> By: Chuck http://blog.commarts.wisc.edu/2010/01/21/the-role-of-the-media-in-times-of-crisis/comment-page-1/#comment-248 Thu, 21 Jan 2010 21:22:31 +0000 http://blog.commarts.wisc.edu/?p=1161#comment-248 To supplement this reading of radio’s place in the Haitian information industry, be sure to check out Jonathan Demme’s The Agronomist, a powerful documentary about radio journalist and human rights activist Jean Dominique. Like you, I’ve often found the coverage of Haiti to be exploitative and often dehistoricized, relentlessly and breathlessly focusing on the immediate.

Anderson Cooper had a similar flub when he repeated false warnings about an imminent flood live on CNN when in fact it was looters trying to frighten refugees. We definitely need better coverage of these kinds of events.

]]>