Dominique Barrett
As an aspiring journalist, I find myself utterly disgusted at what the news chooses to report and how much they choose to reveal. Trying to keep up with current events is extremely frustrating. Not because stories are not being reported, but because news coverage is extremely selective and many times incomplete.
In a society where we have access to practically unlimited information, I’m constantly wondering why I, if I truly want to know the full story, do I have to search and dig for it myself. News outlets like CNN run for 24 hours, reporting about the same story over and over, glossing over the same details for hours, featuring a very narrow view of the story. What happened to investigative journalism where every detail was thoroughly researched? With the resources major news outlets have, there is no excuse for not having the full story.
Furthermore the news has become more like entertainment. If the headline story doesn’t feature a popular celebrity or catchy phrase, people are unlikely to pay attention to it.
Let’s jump back to April when “Bring Back Our Girls” was the major movement. When the armed group, Boko Haram kidnapped 276 Nigerian girls pictures of Michelle Obama, Amy Poehler, Cara Delevingne, and many others flooded the Internet holding signs supporting the movement. For a few strong weeks people were outraged and in full support of the movement, but just like any other story, the fervor for it eventually fizzled out and finding news outlets that would still cover it became harder and harder.
Now thinking back I can’t help but ask myself, would major news outlets still had covered the tragedy and would people still care so deeply for those girls if major public figures had not told them to?
More recently, “Je suis, Charlie” is being chanted throughout the nation due to the recent terrorist attack in which 12 people were killed. The French were quick to respond saying that they are unified and not afraid. A massive rally against Islamic terrorism was held in Paris where more than 40 European leaders were in attendance alongside the 3.7 million people. This attack and rally were both obviously major news, so when neither Biden nor Obama attended to show support people were outraged claiming America has snubbed the movement Which is hardly the case, a terrorist attack on any European nation is a huge deal.
Meanwhile the entire nation has snubbed the gruesome terrorist attack in Nigeria. The same militant terrorist group, Boko Haram, who kidnapped those 300 girls opened fire on Nigerian villages, killing 2,000 people. The raids began on Jan. 3 and have displaced 30,000 people and over the course of these past two weeks how much have you heard about this on the news? So why does one story get more airtime than the other?
My guess is because 40 plus European leaders didn’t go to Nigeria in support. Michelle Obama and other public figures didn’t take to the Internet with signs, and there is no catchy phrase for people to chant in support.
My purpose is not to discredit one tragedy for another, but I can’t help but weigh 3.7 million person rally in support of 12 lives lost against 0 for 2,000. Who is rallying in support of the Nigerians? No one. As for now I don’t have all the answers on how to solve this issue, but calling attention to it must be the first step. So whenever you hear something on the news, take it at face value and don’t be afraid to search for other news. You’d be surprised at how much is going on around the world that nobody is talking about.
