The Haiti Earthquake

When I think back to the news coverage that followed the earthquake in 2010 one thing that stands out is the word tragedy. It did not seem to matter what newspaper, news program, or website the coverage came from, all of them were using that word. In first day or two the word tragedy was often paired with disaster or horrible and the images of complete destruction flashed across the screen. Between the pictures and video and the word usage of the reporters it was clear that the situation was very bad. The early facts were not encouraging either, the death toll was expected to be well over a hundred thousand. The news coverage seemed to quickly shift and a few days after the earthquake the media began pairing tragedy with poverty or poor.
One group was portraying the Haitian people as ungrateful and violent criminals, while other showed them as lost soles in need of saving. In the end it seemed that the earthquake that had brought the media to Haiti no longer mattered and was all but forgotten. The media had shifted their focus and was trying to shape our perception of the disaster by shaping our perception of the Haitian people and government. In the end I came to the conclusion that the people of Haiti were in desperate need of help and their fear, hunger, and desperation was behind some the criminal acts that were being reported. This perception of the events was no doubt influenced by my belief that you cannot judge everyone in a group by the actions of a
One of the reasons, was ratings and newspaper sales. The video footage of the earthquake and the resulting tsunami in Japan was holding viewers interest and there was no need to sensationalize anything. Seeing cars and entire houses being swept away was shocking enough all on its own. It was horrible, but most of us couldn’t look away. On the other hand, there was no shocking footage of the Haiti earthquake and the media felt they needed to find a way to keep the audience interested in what had happened. However, I do not believe that was main reason for the differences. To put it simply they had to make us care about what was happening in Haiti. It isn’t that we’re heartless. We felt horrible for the people of Haiti and what they were going through. We were just somewhat disconnected from it. Many of us knew very little about the country and had a hard time really relating to the Haitian people. The media, on the other hand, knew the history of the Haitian people and wanted us to see them the way that they