When the horror of an attack is so graphic and immediate,it is hard for anyone – reporter or reader to grasp or remember the context of the threatDr Natalie Roberts – in her clear, hard-headed way – answered the question 24 hours before it was asked. Why such overwhelming media attention to the horror of Paris, and page after page filled with eyewitnesses and reconstructions day after day,TV anchors from around the globe broadcasting live from the shadow of the Eiffel Tower?Roberts was back in London for a while after a stint working for Médecins Sans Frontières in Yemen, helping treat thousands upon thousands of casualties from the Saudi air war against the Houthi insurgency. “It’s the first dwelling I’ve been to where I haven’t met a journalist at all. This is a clash that’s just not in the public eye.” And when she asked, and at a One World Media assembly,why that was so, she mentioned how interest in the Yemen war rated on her Facebook page and the number of “likes” alongside every piece. Few likes, and few readers: so few incentives for editors to cover this particular carnage overmuch,if at all. The curse of the emojis, even before Facebook’s algorithms hold started filtering the news it brings to you rather than telling it straight and accurate.
Continue reading...
Source: theguardian.com