Covering International Disasters, Who makes the cut?

Introduction:

Photographs hold a very powerful ability to aid us in understanding the world which we are not exposed to in our daily lives.  For example, without the pictures of Nazi concentration camp prisoners, or without the pictures of the horrific genocide in Rwanda, the news of these events just don’t have as strong an impact.  If I were to tell you to imagine a hundred hats and shoes scattered in the snow on a train track which runs into a prison, you may be able to construct the scene in your mind.

Auschwitz-Birkenau, courtesy of http://filipspagnoli.wordpress.com/

 If I then told you this was the scene outside a Nazi concentration camp, you would draw the connections based on what you know of what happened, and consider who these hats and shoes belonged to, and what fate their owners may have faced.  However, the impact of thinking of the scene does not compare with the power of actually seeing the photograph of the very same thing.   The photographic medium brings us as close to being a witness of an event as is possible without actually being present.  The photograph acts as both a documentary and a show and tell, recording both what happened and helping the viewer comprehend what they may have already heard. 

James Nachtwey’s photograph of a pile of machetes gathered near the end of the Rwandan genocide does a similar thing.  If you were to simply imagine a large pile of machetes, even when considering its connection to the ethnic clashing and mass genocide, the mental image does not have much more impact than the knowledge you already hold of the event.  However, after you look at the photograph and see the absurd number of machetes, and after the image forces you to consider the stories behind each of these machetes, you have a better understanding of the magnitude of human loss and suffering these must have participated in.

Hutu Machetes

 courtesy of http://romanshowers.tumblr.com/post/1638108015

These two pictures have more in common than their power to demonstrate a horrific reality it seems we could only imagine.  In both cases, relative to what the US could have done to stop the atrocities, it did almost nothing.  Now, when we look back with 20-20 hindsight, general public opinion is that we should have acted because we could have done something to at least reduce the human suffering.  That begs the very obvious question, “Well, why didn’t we do anything?”

Certainly, one thing that could have provoked US involvement but was not present at the time was massive public support for such action.  The US public loves when we intervene to spread American ideals, or when at the very least, we are playing the role of the good guy.  At the times of these events, however, many photographs of these events were not reaching the American Public.  Particularly in the case of the Rwandan genocide, a large number of photographs were only recently released to the public, at least ten years after the slaughter ended.  Given the aforementioned power photographs hold, it is likely that had the public been exposed to some of the most compelling photographs of these atrocities, they would have supported American involvement.

Consequently, the degree to which photography can successfully carry out its role of shower and teller depends on which photographs we actually see.  As Susan Moeller asserts in Compassion Fatigue, as the American audience’s main source of compelling photographs, the news media chooses the stories, and which photographs to show us based on how we, the audience, understand and view of the rest of the world.  Going back to the Rwandan genocide, at the time the US government had just been finishing up other international interventionist activities, and the public was beginning to feel like we needed to focus more on our own country, leaving other peoples to solve their own problems.  In short, we were growing tired of other countries problems, reaching what Moeller describes as “I’ve seen it before symdrome” (Moeller 2).  This type of attitude has an influence on the decisions of the media.  “Editors don’t assign stories, and correspondents don’t cover events,” she explains, “they believe will not appeal to their readers and viewers” (Moeller 2).  In this way the situation goes full circle: The news media guide our world perception, and our existing world perceptions guide the news media.

In her response to Errol Morris’s film Standard Operation Procedure, Cluster Fuck, Linda Williams discusses how the framing of a photograph affects its meaning and reception.  The film concerns the Abu Ghraib prisoner abuse and torture scandal, and how the many photographs depicting the abuse, along with military personnel served as evidence and documentation and provide us with a window into the prison.  However, she warns us to consider how this window is “metaphorically framed by the people who take them,” and how the public responds to this framing (Williams 31).   A major example of how this “forcible frame” can change a photograph’s meaning is in the case of US Army Reserve soldier Lynndie England.  Among the many photographs depicting the atrocities at Abu Ghraib there is one which stands out, and in fact came to be the defining picture of this scandal.  There were two versions of this photo, one was cropped, and one was not.    

US soldier Lynndie England and a leashed Abu Ghraib prisoner - courtesy of  http://www.tcj.com/devils-and-machines-on-jonah-hex-and-all-star-western/abu-ghraib/

In the cropped version, Lynndie appears, holding a leash attached to the neck of a detainee.  Because she is alone, it is an easy conclusion that she most likely had the idea to put the leash around the prisoner, and it was also her idea to pose for the photograph, showing her dominating the man.  However when we see the uncropped photograph, it becomes clearer that England was not acting alone, so she is not primarily responsible for the scene the photograph captured.  The reason why this particular example is so important, is because of which photograph the media outlets chose to show their audiences.  In choosing the cropped version, the media advanced the idea that England was a primary figure responsible for not only this, but many of the other acts of torture committed at Abu Ghraib.  In the eyes of the American public, she effectively became the poster boy for the entire scandal, instead of the commanding officer who the other soldiers suggested was actually more responsible.

In the rest of this blog, I would like to discuss the role of media coverage generally, and photographic coverage specifically, in affecting the American public response to international disasters.  I will also look into how the amount of exposure a crisis receives and the context of the news coverage play their own part in shaping the views of the audience, and how the previous views of the audience in turn shapes the amount and context of the news coverage.

Earthquakes:

Woman prays among the rubble of the main cathedral in
Port-Au-Prince -
 courtesy of http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,2041450,00.html

Even before the massive earthquake struck Haiti in January of 2010, the Caribbean nation had already existed in the American consciousness as an extremely poor country.  Haiti has among the worst human development and income inequality index values in the world, and most of the population lives in poverty without consistent access to food and healthcare.  As a result, it has received and continues to receive large sums of international humanitarian aid.  

The 7.0 Magnitude earthquake leveled much of the capitol city, Port-Au-Prince, which had consisted of crowded and poorly constructed concrete structures.  In response to the massive destruction, there was immediately a huge commitment of international aid, and the US and other nations took an active role in managing the relief efforts.  Enormous sums of money were raised, and the extensive media coverage dominated the American news cycle for weeks, as photographs of the destruction continued to flood the American audiences.  Many of these photographs depict people either trapped or surrounded by rubble and appealing to a higher power (God, or the photographic viewer) for help.

Haiti earthquake devastation -
courtesy of  http://thetbjoshuafanclub.wordpress.com/tag/sunday-sun/

I would argue that a key reason why the destruction remained in the mind of the world is because of its continued media coverage and photographic exposure.  Six months after the initial destruction, when an estimated 98% of the rubble still remained uncleared in Port-Au-Prince, CNN aired an update on the recovery status of Haiti.  As he walked through some of the streets still lined with rubble, reporter Ivan Watson told the American viewers “It often looks like the earthquake just happened yesterday.”  Even six months later (a long time given the average compassion span of the viewers), reports like these helped to remind people, that the destruction is both real and massive.  They suggest that these are not the types of problems that you can throw a little money at and then forget about.

Much like the earthquake in Haiti, an enormous number of people in Pakistan died as a result of the Kashmir earthquake in 2005.  It is estimated between 80000 and 100000 people died from collapsed buildings during the quake or from disease and famine following the earthquake.  Relative to the coverage of Haiti, which also experienced destruction utterly incomprehensible to the American audience, the stories from Pakistan were headlines for a few days, but then seemed to fade away over a few weeks as different, possibly more interesting, news made its way to the headlines.  I say interesting because we already hear about earthquakes in far off countries and we know that the buildings in other countries are not built to high standards, and will of course fall down on people.  Furthermore, as a result of the recent military involvement in the middle east, and suggestions of state sponsored terrorism, the American public in general held (and continues to hold) a negative opinion of the entire region.  Even though the many nations pledged a significant amount of money to help with emergency response and reconstruction, the news coverage was not as significant as other comparable tragedies.  Why was this the case? 

For starters, geographically speaking, there is a large distance between the affected and the US audience.  Not only is Pakistan already far away from the United States, the severely affected areas within Pakistan were remote, though still highly populated.  After the earthquake, even Pakistani relief workers were not able to reach the most affected areas.  Rather they told residents to come into the less remote areas for aid.  It was almost two days before the rest of the world even found out about just how badly damaged some areas were.

Survivors wait in line for rice, Pakistan
courtesy of http://images.businessweek.com/ss/08/07/0704_ceo_guide/6.htm

One photograph that did came out of the 2005 Kashmir earthquake draws an interesting parallel to US foreign aid policy, and how the public seems to react to international disasters.  In the photograph, the viewer stands in the position of the ones dispensing aid, while a boy at near the front of the line and  several others make or try to make eye contact with us, hoping maybe to stand out so as to get our attention and receive some aid.  The photograph personifies the notion of: “Get in line. There are other countries and disasters that got here first”.  This type of situation is exactly what Moeller says is a result of the American public’s compassion fatigue.

 Hurricanes:

Once the first news of a potentially dangerous hurricane hitting the northeast came out, the so called “Frankenstorm” made its way to the front pages and headlines, dominating the news cycle at least a week before it actually made landfall.  When the storm did hit the Northeastern United States, social media outlets exploded with pictures, stories, and commentary, demonstrating that the storm was still on the forefront of national discussion.  As expected, in the days and weeks following the storm, as residents and local governments assessed the damage and the dead, photographs continued to pour out across the internet and the broadcast media.  Photographs of entire sections of coastlines wiped out, boats washed up, subway stations flooded, and burned out neighborhoods proved to the country the damage was both real and extensive.  What meteorologists predicted to be a particularly bad storm, and what many had passed off as a false alarm ended up almost as economically costly as hurricane Katrina.

For the rest of the country, who were not directly affected by the storm, the constant news updates from the broadcast media and social media kept us up to date and.  An integral part of these updates were photographs and video footage of the storm and the aftermath and flooding.  Sometimes the images we find most powerful photographs are the ones which capture a scene radically different from our expectations.  The photograph of Manhattan with the lights out is one such photograph.  It shows a contradiction to the common understanding that New York is the city that never sleeps.  There is something disturbing about seeing the largest city in the US, and one of the world’s most important financial centers in a state of hibernation.

Lights out in Manhattan
courtesy of http://gizmodo.com/5957676/how-iwan-baan-captured-the-most-iconic-hurricane-sandy-image

In the case of another photograph, of flooding at ground zero, the image also hits us in a soft spot, as the 9/11 Terrorist attacks are still present in our memory.  The spotlights are reminiscent of those which rescue workers used in their round the clock search for survivors after the horrific destruction.  Furthermore, the site appears abandoned and devoid of life, as the construction workers and local residents followed evacuation instructions and left.  What is interesting here is that the flood waters appear to almost return the construction site to a natural scene.  The impromptu waterfalls in the photographic scene are actually quite beautiful and picturesque even while we know they are greatly setting back construction progress.  It has a similar effect as Ana Mendieta’s Siluette series, seeming to show what happens when humans leave and the remnants of civilization are taken back into nature.  One thing that humans are really concerned with is the persistence of our existence and our impacts on the world and others around us.  In short, we want to leave a legacy.  This destruction of the human presence strikes a chord with the viewer, reminding them that humans are not in control of the world; nature can still destroy what we have worked long to achieve.

Sea water floods the Ground Zero construction site
 courtesy of http://photos.denverpost.com/2012/10/30/photos-15-iconic-images-of-hurricane-sandy/#3

In stark contrast to the large amount of news coverage and photographs released to the American public for Hurricane Sandy, there was almost a media black hole in the case of Cyclone Nargis.  Now this time, the reason for the complete media void was not the American public’s compassion fatigue, or that we did not care about the suffering of others.  Rather it was the Burmese military government’s refusal to allow reporters and foreign aid agencies to enter the country and begin emergency response.  Furthermore, what little aid actually got through either ended up on the black market, or the military government made it look like the aid was actually coming from the regime.  This directed the news agencies to cover the way the government was handling the situation instead of the actual devastation from the storm.

A girl stands injured surrounded by
devastation caused by Cyclone Nargis
courtesy of http://www.burmacampaign.org.uk/index.php/burma/about-burma

                As a result of the poor way the Burmese government handled the situation, both internationally and domestically, the monetary and human costs were extreme.  An estimated 138,000 people died as a result of the storm and its flooding.  It is important to note this number is the official government estimate, whose numbers do not account for the wave of death from famine and disease that usually follows these types of disasters.  According to the military junta, no such wave occurred, though this is likely to be part of their attempt to reduce political fallout.  The international response to the government’s actions was both appalled and angry.  In an exemplary use of social media, some Facebook users organized a group of 10,000 users with the goal of getting the Burmese government to open up to international aid.  The Facebook page became a place for photographs of the destruction, in spite of the government’s efforts to contain such media.   As a result of their actions, in conjunction with several other similarly oriented groups, May 18^th, 2008 (about 2 weeks after the cyclone hit) became the Global Day of Action for Burma Humanitarian Aid Relief, which further raised awareness of the suffering taking place behind the governmental media blockade.

Societal Disasters and Final Words:

Child Soldiers, a breach of international law
courtesy of http://www.voiceofnigeria.org/Features-special-reports

Now there is another type of tragedy which I have not yet discussed.  Unlike sudden natural disasters, plagues or most cases of famine, this other type of tragedy is much more difficult to resolve.  Even in the case of Haiti, where earthquake reconstruction continues 3 years later, the situation improves and, with enough resources and time, the damage will more or less fade away.  In societal disasters, such as acts of terrorism or forced African child soldiers, the resolution does not come as a result of spending money or resources to rebuild homes, bridges, or other tangibles.  Rather, in these cases, society itself may be what is broken.  As Moeller explains, people “are weary of pouring money into crises that never seem to go away” (Moeller 9).  Furthermore, because we cannot respond to every disaster, “we’ve come to believe we don’t care” (Moeller 9).  Consequently, the stories tend to fade away for a period of time, until something happens and they are thrust back into the news (queue KONY 2012), and the cycle repeats itself once again.

The story African child soldiers has gotten its share of news coverage over the years, and as described above this story goes through media cycles.  Occasionally, this seems to come up as a new story with new footage some have been able to capture of some of the kidnapping raids.  The motivation for these photographers and filmmakers is pretty obvious.  “For a long time,” as Susan Sontag wrote in Regarding the Pain of Others,  “some people believed that if the horror could be made vivid enough, most people would finally take in the outrageousness, the insanity of war” (Sontag 14).  It is just like the situation with the holocaust photographs; when people are exposed to the scope of the atrocities, they want to know, “What can we do to help?”  Yet something else happens when we realize just how complicated the whole situation is.  We become tired of hearing these stories over and over, because it seems they will not disappear.    The news agencies are very weary of causing this compassion fatigue, because their profits are drawn from viewership which will definitely drop if no one wants to hear their stories.   Where does that leave photography in this cluster fuck of audience - news outlet interplay?  As Sontag puts it, “the photographer's intentions do not determine the meaning of a photograph, which will have its own career, blown by the whims and loyalties of the diverse communities that have use for it” (Sontag 39).  In other words, it does not really matter what the photographer wanted of their photographs, they just become objects for the news media, to use and strategically frame in order to appeal to their audience.


Bibliography:

Moeller, Susan D. Compassion fatigue: How the media sell disease, famine, war, and death. New York: Routledge, 1999.

Williams, Linda.  Cluster Fuck: The Forcible Frame in Errol Morris's Standard Operating Procedure. Duke University Press, 2010

Sontag, Susan.  Regarding the Pain of Others, Picador, 200

Watson, I. "Six months after quake, Haiti still suffers". CNN. 12 July 2010. May 13,2013