Unit 3: The Power of the Media

There are some similarities within the two readings, the one which sticks out the most to me is in regards to media footage. In Gourevitch’s reading, there was mention of how the French were being pressured by the media and as a result, the military establishment tried to save face. Therefore in front of cameras, the French tried to save Tutsi survivors. Yet their intentions weren’t to actually save the survivors. That was the case for photographers mentioned within Sontag’s reading. There were set up photography sessions where a captive would be persecuted in front of cameras so that the rest of the world would know what was happening.

In both readings no one is concerned about the issues going on, they are more so trying to see what it is out of interest or curiosity. The sad truth is that many won’t care enough to act on it unless it is affecting them directly. In our sections discussion, we talked about how we as individuals constantly see terrible things the U.S. is doing on the news yet we brush it off. There was a consensus that it was due to the fact that we felt our individual efforts wouldn’t make an impact on such big issues. Where do we go from here, what can we do as individuals to act and not complacently take in streams of terrible news?