Luxurious Media

As you probably remember, in January 2015 France suffered a terrorist attack in the offices of the French newspaper Charlie Hebdo by the Islamic terrorist organization Al Qaeda. The attack touched off three days of terror and 17 people dead. On the same night of the first attack, thousands of Parisians gathered in the streets demonstrating sympathy and sorrow towards the victims. Later that week more than a million people joined in the streets again along with 40 presidents and prime ministers in order to protest against the threat of Islamic extremism.

As you probably do not remember, alongside France’s tragedy Nigeria also suffered a terrorist attack held by an Islamic extremist group, called Boko Haram. This attack led to estimated 2,000 casualties. Local defense groups said they had given up counting the bodies left lying on the streets. In addition, at least 30,000 people were displaced due to the attack.

Nevertheless, the main difference between these two tragedies does not seem to rely on the number of deaths or level of chaos. In contrast to the social worldwide impact of the French casualties, the Nigerian tragedy was completely forgotten by the media, and consequentially the people. Apparently the press considers the life of one French citizen more important than 118 Nigerians.

Some might argue that Nigeria does not have such broad media coverage, because they lack communication infrastructure, and civil and political mobilization. This statement, however, is not true. Many media channels reported Nigeria’s tragedy at the same time France wept for its loses. Moreover, there were people who actually tried to bring awareness about Nigeria’s situation but failed. The media continued to offer a broader coverage and distribution of France’s casualties.

It is not the first time the press makes this kind of inhuman prioritization. The innocent lives of American citizens in 09/11 and the innocent lives of Iraqis, the swine flu and extreme diseases that continue to spread in Africa, the Hurricane Sandy destruction in United States and the destruction in Cuba were all miss prioritized by the media as many other world issues. It seems that media coverage has become a luxurious service in an international perspective. Only the rich and influential countries can have an extensive coverage, but most of the times they are not the ones who need it the most. Marginalized countries usually have greater issues to solve and do not have the means to fight by themselves. If Nigeria, for example, had gained the attention of influential countries at that time, it might have become a slightly safer country by now.

Therefore, the media give us a corrupted and minor representation of the world’s issues based on countries’ economical power. If people want to fight or simply inform and sympathize with a cause, they will need to look beyond the barriers media impose us. It is now on the hands of the people to bring light to the world.