The Irony of Media Coverage: Highlights
What's Wrong: The Irony of Media Coverage
by Bill Carter, 6/11/96The wrong of Bosnia isn't war and death. That is obvious. It's the lack of humanity in the information. Suddenly the information is soulless: facts without faces, voices without words spoken, numbers without language, death without pause, joy without laughter. It is a true byproduct of our post modernist debacle and political correctness bringing us to a virtual emotional stand still. Instincts are fading, gut feelings are no longer the way to make decisions or to judge the basic sense of the right and wrong. And this endless stream of information creates a numbness which allows a place like Bosnia to become dehumanized, a place with problems, but thank God they aren't our.
What's wrong? Bosnia is in trouble no doubt, and a great deal of it they have to find a way to solve, but sometimes when you stand in downtown Sarajevo and look out at all the television cameras looking in it's hard not to wonder what's wrong with us instead.
Media Wars
by Marko Balabanovic, 6/13/96I would like to present a problem (not restricted to the Bosnian conflict) which provides a counterpoint to Mr. Carter's original message. Let me take an extreme stance in order to provoke discussion: news media coverage as we have today (funded by advertising revenue, which in turn depends on viewership/readership), and democracy as we have today (e.g. US or UK style) are inherently antithetical. Consider: politicians are compelled to make decisions based on public opinion; public opinion of foreign wars is determined by news coverage; news coverage is sensationalized and simplified to maximize viewers. In effect this means that a government must make decisions according to this lowest common denominator, rather than the superior information, analysis and experience they must posses. On the one hand this leads to the so-called "media wars", with military actions being taken for their photogenic quality, and even with combatants, disguised as their enemy, targeting their own civilians to foster international sympathy. On the other hand it leads to a foreign policy of sound bites, grand gestures and short term solutions.
Facts vs. Insight
by Srecko Bartl, Toronto, Canada, 6/16/96The problem with Western, especially American, television news is that it concentrates on just reporting the facts. The most important station, CNN, is particularly devoted to this approach. Although it's undoubtedly fascinating to see the story as it unfolds, which is CNN's creed, it's often just as important to know the background of it. In the case of Bosnia, this is absolutely essential. Furthermore, American TV is based on the principle of impartial reporting, and therefore has probably less news commentaries than TV in other Western countries. This I find basically good, as long as it's not taken to the extreme, which is exactly what has happened with most stations' Bosnia coverage.
Slipstream
by Elena, 6/13/96Bill, I have not yet seen your documentary, so I am not one to say whether it is part of the negative stream of media coverage that is occurring at this time or not. But I do have a question for you. What do you see as a solution to all this "dehumanizing" coverage of what is going on there? If the media is what's wrong with Bosnia (or a big part of what is wrong), then how are we to learn about it and discuss it? Are we part of the problem? Should we stop making documentaries or reporting the events in the news? I ask this as honestly as possible. I understand that some of the media's coverage of world events is atrocious and leads to desensitization, but what then is the solution? How can we learn about and talk about the events in other parts of the world without contributing to the problem?
