So Somalia is not newsworthy now, but if Bono or someone of his ilk shout about it suddenly it becomes so. Nothing has changed, the story has always been there, people are still dying and as UNICEF report, "13.3 million people, more than half the Australian population, are affected by this devastating crisis, including over 4.14 million children." Due to the clip below the United States media is now taking notice, but in Australia practically nothing.
One.org
And it's not just Somalia, it's Ethiopia, Kenya, parts of Uganda and Djibouti. The affect on the lack of coverage has meant many more have died than needed to due to poor donation rates. Rev Costello from World Vision advised that the Asian tsunami received $105 million, the Haiti Earthquake $10 million, yet the African famine in three months has received only $3.5 million in donations.
There is lots of discussion about news values and how they are changing, maybe there is a real important one that we've all forgotten, Decency.
Let's add it to our list and perhaps have a Food Free Friday. Just choose a meal, go without, donate the money and of course spread the idea!
UNICEF Donations
World Vision Australia Donations
Australian Red Cross Donations
"So Somalia is not newsworthy now, but if Bono or someone of his ilk shout about it suddenly it becomes so."
ReplyDeleteEditors/journalists et al seem to be producing stories that they think we (the general public) want, or perhaps more accurately: will click on.*
It's adding layers of subjectivity to what should be as objective a process as possible. And it's turning the news agenda on it's head.
The media's responsible for setting this agenda, but if *this is the way it's going to be, we, the public, need to take the opportunity to push issues like poverty and famine up the list.
Posts like this can only help.