The imbalance of news coverage
Three weeks ago, more than 3 million people marched across France together with some 40 world leaders, including the French president Francois Hollande, Germany’s Angela Merkel and Jordan's King Abdullah II. But for what?
All for a few words: Je suis Charlie. Or, ‘I am Charlie’.
Let’s go back a little. On January 7, gunmen stormed the Charlie Hebdo magazine headquarters and shot ten people dead. Over the next few days, another seven would be killed as police hunted down the suspected gunmen. All the while, the event was garnering an incredible response from all over the world.
The hashtag #JeSuisCharlie became the most repeated news-related hashtag on twitter, with 7 million tweets in one week compared to the 3.5 million tweets the hashtag #Ferguson had, which regarded the shooting of the U.S. teen Michael Brown.
Celebrities at the Golden Globes wore pins with JeSuisCharlie on them, held signs, and some like George Clooney, used their speech to voice their support for the victims of the Chalie Hebdo magazine attack.
The whole world was involved in the aftermath of the attack.
But unknown to many, at around the same time, another attack had happened. However unlike the Charlie Hebdo attacks, this attack was in the town of Baga, in North-Eastern Nigeria, with the militant islamist group Boko Haram behind it.
Since 2009, Boko Haram has been intent on overthrowing the Nigerian government to start an islamic state. The group has caused havoc in Nigeria, with a string of attacks, abductions and kidnappings across the country, including the abduction of 200 schoolgirls in April 2014, which resulted in an international outrage.
Not much is known about the recent attack, but the damage Boko Haram did to the town was so severe that it can be seen on satellite images.
It has been estimated that more than 600 buildings in the town have been damaged or destroyed, and the death toll is currently between 150 and 2,000 people.
Satellite image taken on January 7, 2015
source: http://abcnews.go.com/International/satellite- photos-show-horrific-damage-boko-haram-attack/ story?id=28231796
But what was the response to this?
There was some news coverage of the Baga attack, but the Charlie Hebdo attacks were the dominant news on major media channels, including CNN, BBC, The Times, New York Times.
“People’s Daily” was one of the only local major media channels that covered the attack as front page news.
Even Nigeria’s own President, Goodluck Jonathan, failed to mention the Baga attacks despite paying his respects to the victims of the Charlie Hebdo attacks.
In comparison to Charlie Hebdo, the response the Baga attacks received seems slight. These two events show the imbalance of weight events carry in the media. How can one event be deemed more newsworthy than others?
There are various factors that could be part of the situation.
Location is one factor. People, and I among them, would be more worried about a small fire next door rather than a larger fire in a neighboring city, even less so in another country. In the case of Charlie Hebdo and Boko Haram, while France is next door, Nigeria is across the world for much of the audience of the media, making it seem less of a news item to write about.
Surprise and shock is another. Boko Haram has been terrorising Nigeria for years, and an attack of this nature is not something that has not been seen before. The shock of the Charlie Hebdo attack is again another reason as to what might have made it carry more weight in news coverages: no one was expecting it.
Better response is needed. Our attention, empathy and support should not only be given to the incidents the media chooses to focus on. It should be with other incidents too. More can be done about situations if more people know about it. More help for the victims and more pressure from the people to do something about it can ultimately result in more media coverage for the situation.
A note from our Editor in Chief: As a non-profit media outlet, we have the luxury of choosing what stories to cover regardless of their appeal to public. If you see an issue in the news that you think needs more coverage, feel free to request it by contacting us at therchktimes@gmail.com or clicking on our ‘Student Speak’ page.
By Sim Hoekstra
