(C) Common Dreams
This story was originally published by Common Dreams and is unaltered.
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The Media Cares More About the Titanic Sub Than Drowned Migrants [1]
['Alex Shephard', 'Matt Ford', 'Andre Pagliarini', 'Tori Otten']
Date: 2023-06-20
But these are and have been minor facets of the incident’s coverage, even if they undoubtedly are a part of what is driving the public’s fascination. Instead it’s been covered the way many breaking news stories are, with updates trickling in about the (possible) victims, items being written up with the bits of information that have come from press conferences, and a general sense that it is a story whose intrinsic importance commands the public’s unblinking attention.
The sinking of a boat carrying hundreds of migrants should be treated this way, but it isn’t and hasn’t been. It is undoubtedly a new story and an unspeakably tragic one—it’s also, unlike the Titanic tourists story, one that says a great deal about the way the world works. And yet it’s treated as routine or even mundane—yet another faceless tragedy involving people who typically receive far less attention than those who are far better off than they are. There’s greater appetite for coverage of lifestyles of the rich and (now) famous than for the deaths of hundreds of anonymous migrants, or at least cable news assignment editors think so. The story is undoubtedly political as it involves immigration policy, various European governments, and the conditions that drive people to take extraordinary risks to go on hazardous journeys across the Mediterranean. And yet much of the coverage that does occur fails to address these complexities.
The deadliest migrant and refugee shipwreck occurred in April 2015, when a boat carrying as many as 1,100 people traveling from Libya to Italy capsized in the Mediterranean. Later that summer, a haunting image of a young boy’s drowned body washed up on a Turkish beach went viral after the boat that had been carrying him and his family capsized. Migrants and refugees have continued to arrive in Europe since then; boats carrying them have tragically continued to sink. And yet news coverage in the United States has largely dried up. The American media has largely moved on, particularly after the rise of Donald Trump. Attention never returned to the levels it did that summer, even though migrants have continued to take extraordinary risks to go to Europe.
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[1] Url:
https://newrepublic.com/article/173808/media-cares-titanic-sub-drowned-migrants
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