Attention Monopoly

Osama bin Laden was killed in Pakistan last Monday.

What else happened on that day? Protesters were killed in Syria and the rift between rebels and loyalists in Libya widened. These are the only two developments that I remember from that day and in truth, they are based on a following of these news stories for the past few weeks. I partially blame my own blinkered vision on Monday for this, yet the sheer volume of attention that the death of bin Laden garnered necessarily pushed everything from the front page of sites and papers.

With good reason, too. The reaction to this event is far-reaching and has serious ramifications for everyone in both the 'west' and 'east'. I am not saying that these stories should not be given their due space and news outlets will obviously be in competition with others for the most succinct, original and in some countries, extreme piece on the event. It makes good economic sense to devote this kind of space to major events.

Yet I cannot help but wonder what the tyrants of the world are thinking when they see such dominant headlines. I do not know if Gaddafi was particularly violent on this Monday or if Syrian security forces cracked down even harder on protesters and I would be willing to bet that most people in the world do not know this either. Was such a news story a carte blanche for such regimes to enact brutalities on a people that would go largely unnoticed? I do not know and I do not know how this would be mitigated.

At any rate we should be aware of this trend and not allow dictators one moment free from the global gaze.

-The English Student

Alternative News Blogging?

Real news became ancillary news this weekend.

I will not engage with my usual effort to avoid naming certain events with the thought that they have garnered enough attention and do not need my own. Instead, I wish to name and shame the royal wedding in the UK this weekend and how certain news outlets dealt with the event. Throughout this post I do not wish to dampen the joy and fun that people gained from the event. If UK citizens wish to celebrate this wedding they are within their full rights to do so and it is always a good thing to see a country unified in joy.

It is not, however, acceptable for this particular news story to absolutely block out the rest of the world. One site in particular caused me a great deal of frustration. This site frequently live blogs on certain events. I have often left their live blog on middle eastern politics open in the last few weeks as it is both informative and updated frequently. On Friday, however, there was a blog devoted to everything that was not royal wedding related. I skimmed through this blog and found entries on Libya, riots in Bristol and other big events happening throughout the world. It was, in short, a blog of the news.

When did the news become the secondary factor of a news website?! The media itself has been quick to point out that this wedding was a massive reality television show on a huge stage. Yet surely with this self-awareness, these outlets need to consciously address the balance when relating news. If people wish to submerge themselves in royal wedding 'news' for the whole day then a royal wedding live blog would have been a brilliant way to do it and would have allowed people nonplussed by the whole affair to equally, avoid it.

Allowing oneself respite from the harrowing events of the world is understandable but that should not lead to a wider ignorance of the world.

-The English Student

The Real Danger from Swine Flu

Panic in the streets of everywhere as the lowly pig threatens to derail all of human society.

Usually, I try to stay away from the discussion of 'hot' media topics, especially when I believe that they do not warrant extensive coverage. That said, I can no longer ignore the mass hysteria that is building in relation to the Swine Flu virus. It is impossible to pick up a newspaper and avoid the constant announcements that this virus is increasing in prevalence and deadliness throughout the world. Of course, journalists should provide knowledge on the virus. They should not, however, try to terrify us with the same knowledge.

For a moment, let's just look at the empirical facts relating to 'Swine Flu'. This is a form of influenza that hit the world hard in the 1918 pandemic. Symptoms include coughing, headaches, upset stomachs and fever. In addition to this, the very young and elderly are most at risk, along with the young adult generation that has had very little exposure to influenza. So basically what we're dealing with is the flu. It can be deadly, it can kill and it can be treated. It affects those most likely to be affected by influenza and acts in a similar manner.

I am not trying to downplay a potentially deadly pandemic but I do believe that we are letting fear do more damage than the virus is physically capable of. We must do all that we can to prevent the spread of the virus and limit the consequences of it. At the same time we cannot allow ourselves to be paralysed from living our lives. If we can learn anything from these worldwide pandemics it's that our existence on this planet is precarious and cannot be spent submerged in terror.

We should live cautiously, but live nevertheless.

-The English Student