4 Million Dead Largely Ignored

[supercanuk]

ClickHere

This is an article about what is going on in Congo, since 1998, 4 million have died and this has largley been ignored by the mass media. Just a question for those out their, why do YOU feel the media chooses to ignore certain horrifying topics such as this GENOCIDE and then focus on topics that are quite useless like steroid use in baseball players? do we have mixed priorities? or do we just not care?

[saturnine]

because it isn't interesting

[The_Rat_Who_Would_be_King]

I can't explain why, but it happens. What the congo needs a a natural disaster, but not the slow burn kind like drought or an epidemic, because obviously that doesn't matter, but for some reason anything that happens out of nowhere does. So I say we send a fleet of those water dropping planes, and say that the there was an earthquake in the middle of the Congo River and it done started a tidle wave. I guarentee theyd get atleast a benifit concert.

[Moonlight_Graham]

the media doesn't cover the Congo genocide or what happened in Rwanda. Seems they have something against covering genocides?

 

Very odd.

[Sparq]

Genocide is depressing. Disaster is exciting for a short time. Give the public what it wants...

[pearanoid]

Because it's not news anymore. The media reports on current news and moves on to keep people interested. They reported on problems in DR Congo and other parts of Africa when it happened, but then moved on, just like the Tsunami.

 

It's unfortunate, but most people don't care. There are still ways to find out about these things in world and if you care about it, then it's up to you to educate yourself, others and find out how to help. Fuck the media. Learn this stuff on your own and pass it on to others who might care.

[supercanuk]

Because it's not news anymore.  The media reports on current news and moves on to keep people interested.  They reported on problems in DR Congo and other parts of Africa when it happened, but then moved on, just like the Tsunami.

 

It's unfortunate, but most people don't care.  There are still ways to find out about these things in world and if you care about it, then it's up to you to educate yourself, others and find out how to help.  Fuck the media.  Learn this stuff on your own and pass it on to others who might care.

So the media reports on current news and moves on? Please, dont give me that shit man, the Tsunami victims got way more coverage than the Congo did by far so using the comparision is hardly accurate. More have died in the Congo than the Tsunami as well so its not an issue of it being a boreing topic. Why do we hold certain life more important than others? Doesnt anyone ever question this? You can see by the media, and then by extention who owns the media nad controls it why we feel certain topics are important and others are not. This is what i want to point out and maybe it will provoke some thought.

Edited March 23, 2005 by supercanuk

[pearanoid]

Of course the media picks a topic and moves on. You just proved that in your own post. The Tsunami was this huge natural diaster. It got huge coverage, but now we've already moved on. There's still the odd story, but not much. And that was only four months ago.

 

Now with DR Congo, and most other parts of Africa, it's been going on for years. Yes, there are a lot of people dying, but it's old news. And there's no real American of Canadian interests over there so it's not as big a deal. There are no Canadian tourists to worry about.

 

And what you're talking about I assume is the main media in Canada and the US. Because when I go check my news everyday, I can usually see a new story on DR Congo. I'm not sure where you get your news, but check out http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/

 

I think you'll find it's a good place to start.

[supercanuk]

Of course the media picks a topic and moves on. You just proved that in your own post. The Tsunami was this huge natural diaster. It got huge coverage, but now we've already moved on. There's still the odd story, but not much. And that was only four months ago.

 

Now with DR Congo, and most other parts of Africa, it's been going on for years. Yes, there are a lot of people dying, but it's old news. And there's no real American of Canadian interests over there so it's not as big a deal. There are no Canadian tourists to worry about.

 

And what you're talking about I assume is the main media in Canada and the US. Because when I go check my news everyday, I can usually see a new story on DR Congo. I'm not sure where you get your news, but check out http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/

 

I think you'll find it's a good place to start.

Yes I do mean the main media and what you are referring me to is the BBC news which is far better in journalistic integrity. Im using Congo as an example, but where were they in Rwanda when that was happening? where was the international community in general but more specifically the media. The issue im really getting at here is that yes of course they pick a topic and move on, but they focus much more attention on areas where they have vested interest and thats not always a very good thing morally to do. When as humans we should look out for each other, how would we know where to go without the help of the media? The amount of money that is being poured into the Tsunami is great but at the same time four times the amount of TOTAL Tsunami victims die everyday in Africa alone. Wheres the money and help for them? This is a crisis we are ignoreing. I just wanted to generate disscussion not much of a debate however it just sorta ended up being one. But yah so ive said my peace.

[pearanoid]

I can't really say where the media was during the Rwanda genocide. I was 14 and wasn't really concerned with world issues back then. I was trying to get a date with a cute girl or something. For all I know the media was there 11 years ago.

 

Do you know if it was or wasn't?

[supercanuk]

I do know the media was very absent from covering the Rwandian crisis ( major mass media) from several journal articles ( published articles from professors and writers) that said that they were very absent. I, as well as you was young at that point but Ive had to do research on the topic. So no i cannot speak to it myself, but with credible sources i can speak to its absense.

[pearanoid]

Then I guess it comes down to what interests each country has in whatever crisis is occuring. There were tourists from all over the world in the Tsunami area, but not very many foreigners in Rwanda. Therefore the media doesn't care.

 

That's too bad. It's all about ratings and business. I'm glad that I (and you) have the sense to look elsewhere.

[supercanuk]

Definatly, just thought Id raise the issue out of interest.

[Munk]

Some media somewhere is obviously covering it for you folks to even know about it. So let's stop saying it's not being covered.

 

Mainstream media [FOX, CNN, etc.] aren't touching it because it isn't entertaining in the slightest. I would barely even call them news sources.

 

If you think you can keep up-to-date on world events by watching TV you're fooling yourself. Turn off the fucking box.

[supercanuk]

Who said anything about JUST tv ?

[Munk]

*sigh* And junk flyers, the newspapers said mainstream TV outlets put out, etc, etc.

 

And anyway, as long as you can Google it, it's "being covered."

[Moonlight_Graham]

but a lot of people do get their news from TV evening news. They don't have time to sit and read a paper (even in the paper its not always front-page news).

 

So the point is that a lot of people don't know about this shit, or at least know very little about it. I watch a lot of TV news, and we also get the newspaper at my house. I skim the paper and will read a front-page article if it catches my eye, and also read all the headlines at the top. From all this, all i've learned is that i'm aware thats there's atrocious genocide happening in the Congo, but thats about all i know about it. I'm definately not alone on that.

 

Also, in order to google something you have to know what you're looking for. Yeah its being covered by media, but i don't know how many people type in "african genocide" when they bring up google.

[no yu begin wher i end]

There was a little blurb in the paper a while back, one of those little articles of about 100 or so words. The headline? 45 Burned To Death In Uganda. This rebel group, the LRA had raided a small village, where they hacked everyone they could find to bits, and then killed everyone else by setting everything on fire. The article right underneath it was something about a guy who won a lottery.

[TheKwas]

It should also be noted that Journalists tend to avoid places like Congo and company because groups like the Lord's Rebel Army aren't exactly against killing them. And the journalists have no trusted army they can tag along with like they do in Iraq.

[carv]

Darfour...

[pearanoid]

Are you trying to say Darfur? And what about it?