West vs. East

The Western media have done their best to create an adequate separation between ‘us’ and ‘them’ when reporting foreign and Middle Eastern news, in particular. Obviously, this distinction varies depending on the newspaper you browse through, ranging from the latent and almost unnoticeable overlooking in the Guardian to the boisterous feeling of Western superiority of the Daily Express or Telegraph. This separation is therefore almost effortless to the average reader in Britain whose news platforms focus on David Cameron saying “calm down, dear”, P Diddy drinking out of a bottle or never-before-seen photos of horses swimming in the ocean, quirkily placed under the unbelievably awe-inspiring “Sea-horses” pun. Al Jazeera, meanwhile, reports on Sudan rebellions, deadly Libyan clashes and Syria’s emergency call to the Arab league due to month-long extreme anti-governmental protests. It seems we are overlooking genocide, human rights violation, severe corruption and countries on the brink of or recovering from revolution to keep up with the latest X-factor rejects or Alex Gerrard’s immensely rapid return to wearing heels only ten days after giving birth. Only ten days? Could you believe that? (Who is Alex Gerrard?)

It is not clear whether the Western’s view of news is different to that of the Middle East, but it appears the lack of serious and major local political events has the tabloids searching for mentally unstable women who throw cats in wheelie bins rather than major political events which happen abroad. News coverage is traditionally separated into ‘Home’ and ‘Abroad’ or the equivalent, but it is rarely that anywhere ‘Abroad’ and outside of Europe, makes the headlines unless it glorifies a Western success or achievement, the death of Osama Bin Laden, Libyan airstrikes and Gaddafi’s death to name but a few.

Though the issue is clearly at hand it’s very difficult to blame the media. It must be acknowledged that despite the effort of charities, non-profit organizations and all kinds of pressure groups, the general public is not interested in anything that happens to occurs further than say 5 meters from their house, unless it is something to laugh at. It’s no wonder then that the highest selling British newspaper covered Osama’s death on a front page with the title “Bin Bagged”. Similarly, at this year’s Press Awards the prize for Biggest Scoop of the Year went to the Sun’s discovery of corruption in Cricket matches and not the WikiLeak tapes disclosing the hundreds of civilians killed by coalition troops in the Afghan war. The media do the prioritising for the public, but it seems the public is not one to disagree. It may be that with the thousands of stresses of everyday life, the capacity for empathy in the average individual cannot extend to the entire planet. Yet, this is not an urge to include nothing but foreign news in major tabloids. Nor is it an urge to cover foreign news more often than local news. Quite the opposite, it is merely a suggestion to prioritise some news over others. To place protection of the individuals above off-the-cuff cheap entertainment. To take stories and develop those as objectively as possible, by attempting to avoid the perpetual Western bias towards Capitalism and Democracy. To accept that one cause may be more worthy than another. And most of all to accept that there is nothing richer in value than the gift of awareness and if the media approaches a path that chooses to spread that gift with capricious intrepidity the public will become much conscious of its worth. Popular attitudes both are both mirrored and created by popular media. Popular media can risk its popularity in an attempt to change attitudes, but that would mean it chooses to accept responsibility and that is something no news platform would ever agree to.

So what is the conclusion you may wonder? There isn’t one. This is a matter one could never conclude. All I hope to achieve is to merely awaken that simple awareness that the Middle East is not as far away as it seems. That there is always another side to the story and that we should never settle without seeking it. So if I may leave you, the reader, with one thing that would be – did you hear Alex Gerrard is wearing heels? And she she only gave birth, like, 10 days ago! This is some ground-breaking news!