Jan Egeland, director of the Norwegian Institute of International Affairs, and former United Nations Undersecretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, is currently visiting the Beloit College campus.
This afternoon, Egeland attended Georgia Duerst-Lahti’s U.S. Media and Politics in a Global Context class. Egeland engaged the students in an insightful question and answer session, stressing his perceptions of the media and its role in our world.
Media, argued Egeland, does not accurately portray the ratio of positive to negative interactions between nations and political actors.
“War and peace slowly breaking out is not a news story. A dramatic case of violence breaking out in war is a news story,” said Egeland. “Yet, the world has gotten better for a very clear majority.”
Egelend further stressed the incompetence of western media by referring to research he conducted in 2003. Egeland felt that the horrific war in Congo, which he considers to be one of the most serious conflicts of this decade, was underrepresented in western news. So, he searched for some cold, hard statistics. What he discovered was unsettling.
From 1998- 2006, five million people have died as a result of this war. But how often does this war appear in the news? Not often. In 2003, there were six stories run by major news networks concerning the war in the Congo.
There were over 1,800 stories about Michael Jackson’s court hearings.
Why? Egeland suggests that “A) Nobody cares about Africa. And, B) they speak French there. Nobody cares at all about a non-English speaking African country.”
How can we fix this problem? Egeland points to the U.S. lack of foreign correspondents. Perhaps we Americans ought to invest in such correspondences. Or maybe we should just start caring about Africa.
“Because of the debacle in Iraq, there is a danger that the U.S. and its media will become introverted,” Egeland said.
It looks as though we already are.
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