FAYETTEVILLE — The first months of 2011 have brought a torrent of news at home and around the world. It has been a period as eventful as some decades.
The world has literally been shaken by recent developments and those events have vividly demonstrated two of today’s fundamental realities: the uncertainty of what will dominate the news from one day to the next; and the certainty of globalization.
The relentless crush of news has kept media organizations scrambling.
It has also demonstrated how much has changed in the coverage of news.
The Internet and new technologies have played a key role in what we have seen and heard of these dramatic events, including audio and video clips from cellphones. This and our reliance on the satellites to transmit images and information from far corners of the globe have helped alleviate the cutback in foreign correspondents within the American media.
The tragic earthquake and tsunami in Japan rippled throughout the global economy and supply chain, affecting industries, businesses, and consumers around the world, including Arkansas, where, for example, a plant in Marion that helps assemble axles for trucks depends on parts from Japan. Additionally, the problems at Japanese nuclear plants have created international concerns about nuclear energy.
Elsewhere, the instability in Libya and in parts of the Middle East have raised numerous issues andcontributed to a spike in oil prices.
Not only does technology allow us a close-up view of these calamities and protest movements and armed conflicts, the images and reports often seem to compel a response. In the case of Japan’s disaster there was so much human tragedy as well as physical damage, it was hard to know where to start, although there were extensive relief efforts from inside and outside the country. There’s danger, however, of compassion fatigue, of becoming satiated to the point that we develop a certain immunity.
Though there are different dimensions and effects, we have witnessed devastating tragedy from New Orleans to starvation and genocide in regions of Africa and the earlier tsunami in Asia.
These disasters seem so close because of the vivid images in front of us, but do we begin to push them into the background because they seem so familiar.
In the case of the intensely covered uprisings in Libya and elsewhere, President Barack Obama drew some criticism for not acting quickly before he did act by joining in the military airstrikes intended to limit Col. Moammar Gadhafi’s ability to thwart the opposition within Libya. However appropriate that action may be, rather than acting unilaterally, with U.S. forces alreadyinvolved in Iraq and Afghanistan, the Obama administration helped engineer approval by the U.N. Security Council and linked up with the British and French in burdensharing under NATO auspices. But rather than praise the administration for a diplomatic feat rare in contemporary U.S. foreign policy, some political opponents criticized Obama for acting multilaterally and aligning with the Europeans, suggesting that the U.S. was not “leading.”
All of these momentous events have competed for news space with major stories closer to home, including bickering over the federal budget and congressional redistricting plans. But there was one story that initially received little attention in this country. That was the stunt by the Koran-burning, publicity-seeking preacher in Florida. Predictably, however, the incident was highly publicized on TV in Pakistan and Afghanistan, where some national leaders reportedly fanned the flames and violent protests erupted.
As information and images rapidly reverberate in the global village, we should recognize the impact they can have and the reactions that may result.
It sometimes becomes difficult to determine what’s truly important and what isn’t. Multiple and fragmented channels of communication open the way for misinformed, misguided and malicious claims and counter-claims to gain attention. The result is that, despite the wonders of technology and the realities of globalization, we have modern-day know-nothings like the Florida preacher and others who sing the same songs as the Know Nothing movement of 160 years ago - which stirred fears about the country being overwhelmed by German and Irish Catholic immigrants. The modernday version includes those, like media magnet Donald Trump, who propagate “birther” conspiracy theories about Obama or bluster about telling the rest of the world what to do.
In a period as intense as the present and with all the information, real and imaginary, available to us and the compulsion for responses, sorting it all out and understanding what is truly important can require a concerted effort. But we owe it to ourselves to make that effort.
HOYT PURVIS IS A JOURNALISM AND INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS PROFESSOR.
Opinion, Pages 15 on 04/10/2011