My first reaction when I heard the news about Haiti was that it is such a tragedy. It seemed every media source as well as social networks were spending all their time covering Haiti.
And I started to think. Exactly how many journalists are at the site of destruction? And, how many are actually necessary?
There are over 300 journalists covering Haiti for their broadcast news, newspaper, and every other sort of media. And it was somewhat disappointing.
The people of Haiti need all the help they can get. There are too many dead, too many orphaned and too many wounded. I guess I just feel like 300 extra people to feed and house is unnecessary.
And I thought, “ wow, how shameful to have journalists only think about their job, and not care about the devastation.” I was embarrassed in a way to think that these journalists were fitting into the mold that they will do whatever they can to get their story.
But I understand that we need to know what is going on. As citizens we need a constant update on what is happening and if there is any progress in Haiti. But 300? I thought that it would have been a good idea to possibly share stories to have fewer journalists over there.
And then a media outlet ( I forgot which one) said that every one of the journalists that was covering something in Haiti took their own food so that they would not interfere with the aid that was being provided for the people of Haiti. I thought , “ oh, well I guess this makes things a little better if they are being considerate.” But what about housing? Where is everyone staying? And even if they are paying for their own housing, they are still occupying space that could be used to house the Haitians during their time of need.
As an aspiring journalist, I know that this would be huge to cover, and I don’t think that many journalists could give this up. But I think that every network, and every media outlet is telling us the same thing. So why not have at least half of the journalists return to their places and only leave the journalists that are needed.
And I guess we should all be grateful that so many people are coming together and helping out in any way that they can, because I feel like there is a huge amount of people helping, and its good to
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This is very true, I agree about what your are saying how there shouldn't be so many journalist over in Haiti, but at the same time we need to know, so just cut back.
ReplyDeleteThis is a really interesting angle to consider. I wonder though if many of these journalists even really had a choice. I mean, if the choice was to go cover Haiti or lose your job, what would you do? This also makes me wonder how many of those journalists are working for American publications, because I sort of have the feeling that our selfish country has like 290/ 300 journalists there.
ReplyDeleteI totally get what you're saying when you talk about having all those extra people to feed and house when they can barely handle what's there in the first place.
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