Putting Things In Perspective.
Watching the news today regarding the tragic shootings of 30+ people at Virginia Tech, I couldn’t help but wonder to myself; ‘Why is such a big deal being made of this?’, now don’t get me wrong, I know it was a catastrophic and horrible thing to happen, but even on European television it was the top story on almost every news broadcast, and all the news stations were showing various videos and speaking to American students on phones with newscasts on this one story running into almost an entire 30 minute news show. I guess the main comparison I am making here is that we’ve seen people die, innocent people, not just soldiers, In Iraq for the past 4 years. The majority of the time their deaths, no matter how numerous, have been given a tiny amount of airtime. There is no distinction, however way you look at it, it’s another human life that has been lost and just because of geographical location one group of peoples lives are made to look more worthy by the media.
When 30 American students die it is a world tragedy.
When 30 Iraqi Civilians die it is just another statistic.
It’s important to political figures. They say “ZOMG! TEEN VIOLENCE [is] GROWING WITH [the] NUMBER [of] VIDEO GAMES THAT HAVE VIOLENCE! I['ll] PUT [a] STOP TO IT! VOTE [for] ME!” When in reality, the number of teen violence incidents is just growing like it ’should’ (percent is the same).
In short: Blame politics!
You’re right, the media chooses who gets attention and who doesn’t. As one could expect, it’s a very big story in America and it’s being reported on nonstop. I’m very sad about what happened there, but I don’t want to hear updates on it ever 15 minutes.
The public, in general, is much more interested in what happens next door than on an island in the pacific ocean. The same thing applies here.
I hadn’t yet heard of this happening, but then again I haven’t checked the British News today, yet.
Number of people who died in Virginia Tech: 33.
Number of people who have died in Iraq since the Iraq war begun: Around 700,000.
Generally, American lives are seen as more valuable as Iraqi lives. Why is beyond me. A life is a life is a life.
/rant
Nobody made those soldiers go out there against there own will, those soldiers signed a contract and knew the consequences they would have to face. Students in Virginia were the victims, they didn’t know that on Monday at 7:15 some crazy gunman will walk by the campus and shoot at you.
The case at Virginia was #1 gun shooting incident in American History, so there is something to brag about, the victims weren’t adults they just were teenagers living on with their lives.
Alexandr, read the blog post and you’ll see I was talking about Iraqi civilians not soldiers. I’m sure they don’t want soldiers and insurgents flooding their country and taking their lives and as Matthew said, A life is a life.
My bad Brad, only bothered to read the the tittle/first couple of sentences.
Although Iraq had a cruel dictator which was killing it’s own people (Sadam) although if there is a war there always lives to be lost.
Let us say the American media has an agenda. To understand it you must delve into the mind of corporate America. Five corporations own around 85-95 percent of all commercial media in the United States. Two primary organizations actually gather 99% of the worlds news: the AP and Reuters. So if you are a corporation and you want to keep control over people (or get more control) you are going to want to “spin” things. You might, let us say, want to make Iraq another Vietnam. So you are going to make it seem like a blood bath, put it on every front page “76 die in car bomb attack” everyday you continuously report it as numbers…because the Iraq war isn’t a war at all, it is a massacre of America’s military!
Now agenda 2, you want say gun control (because multi-national corporations hate people who think and act on their own) so you take 30 dead people on one day and you blare it all over the world. You make it seem like anyone can just go down the street and buy a gun and shoot up their neighbors. You neglect the fact that gun laws already prohibit non-citizens from owning a gun, and people under 21, from owning a hand gun. Or the fact that guns aren’t even allowed on college campuses. You also neglect that fact that more school shooting deaths are rarer per capita then just about any other catagory you can dredge up to compare it to, and that includes gang fights that occur at schools.
So what is my point? The media first of all is not America. There are plenty of Americans who think just like you Brad. Who don’t understand why this is getting so much attention. Trust me…I’m one of them and I know a lot of people like me who don’t understand either. The medias job is to blow things out of proportion…the make money off of people being glued to news reports and buying their sponsors products. Three thousand some odd people died in September 11. How many people die each day of starvation or wars in Africa? How are many people died in the Earthquakes in India? (75k or so I believe) are these reported as heavily as September 11 was? No, because they do not serve the agenda set down by the media of the United States of America to control the people that live here.
I would appreciate it if you stopped associating “Americans” and the “American Media”. I, and many other Americans, hate the media with a a passion. We hate how it presents us, and we hate how it works against us to make everyone else hate us. So please take it from me everyone on RSB&B, what you see on TV about the U.S is false. What they present to you on TV about the U.S. is false. What you get here talking to real, living, breathing Americans is real. We are individuals like yourselves struggling to protect our freedoms and to live with the day to day problems that we see. Some of us our skinny, medium, and fat. Some of us our tall, short, or just right. We are not all as the media presents us and we are certainly not all Supremists who eat at Mcdonalds everyday and sit on our couch living off government welfare checks.
I haven’t been to a Mcdonalds in almost two years. I haven’t had a soda in four months. I generally make my own bread, eat the healthiest food I can find or make it from scratch. I don’t have a TV, and I live in a 16 by 10 1/2 prison cell they call a dorm room. I am perfectly happy with my life as it is and I don’t need any corporation telling me to buy new clothes, how to cut my hair, what the movie stars are doing, or why I should care about anything at anytime anywhere…I have my own problems just like everyone else in this world and I’m sure they are all equally as difficult to deal with.
Glad to get that off my chest.
-meesekiller
I wasn’t associating with the American people with the American media.. I was simply saying it’s the way things are reported, by everybody. Hell if you’d read what I wrote thoroughly enough you’d see I used EUROPEAN news broadcasts as an example. You seem to think I have some rampant anti American agenda, when most of it is simply inside your own head.
The farmer farms, the business man commutes, 33 shot at a school, and George W. bombs another country whose name we can’t pronounce.
Yes, it’s just another perfect day in the fine land of America.
When mah’ cowsa’ dien’ I gets kinda’ saaad. Buts ita allll goood, they gun’ on ta’ a bettah’ factory to eat. YEHAW!
I concur! It seems you have the same state of mind as I. The media publish things that the readers(or viewers) will pay attention to. If theres an explosion with 50 deaths, THATS NEWS(to the media)! But if a solder saves 5 innocent lives, its just overlooked and nothing becomes of it.
Just now, for instance if you turn on CNN 80% of the news has to do with deaths… thats what the media believes the public wants to hear. If only there was a way to change the media’s perspective. A way we could show them that we DON’T want to only hear about depressing topics or tragic events.
I am not saying that I do not show sorrow that people are dieing every day, but i really don’t want to know most of the time. I think it is good to have a positive outlook on life, but there are some things that make that very difficult.
~Cody(rsn:silvermist82)