Issue II Final Layout (1)

december 2022 OPINION | 05
The American Media’s
Disproportionate
Coverage of
Global Conflicts
Why do some conflicts receive so much media attention and others so little?
IFUNAYA OBIDIKE ‘23
Staff Writer
Design and graphics by Trisha Yun ‘24
Congress has sent so much
money to Ukraine, the
same should be done for
the people who are feeling
the brunt of this war in Ethiopia,”
said Aida Haile ‘23, who has spearheaded
advocacy efforts for victims
of the war in Tigray, where her family
is from.
The Tigray-Ethiopia conflict
formally began on November 3,
2020 as a civil war between Ethiopia
and a region within it, Tigray,
after the Tigray State Council held
an election for a new Prime Minister.
The war, which was recently halted
by a ceasefire on November 2, has
spanned two years, resulted in half a
million deaths, and received little to
no coverage on American platforms.
So why do so few Americans
know about this globally significant
conflict?
America has always been more
captivated by its European neighbors
than its African and Asian ones.
Noam Chomsky explains the reason
behind this phenomenon well in his
1988 work of media criticism, Manufacturing
Consent. He explains that
the mass media divides the world
into “worthy” and “unworthy” victims
for propagandistic purposes,
a label that is assigned based on
whether the aggressor in the conflict
is an enemy or ally of the United
States. Chomsky notes, “While
the coverage of the ‘worthy victim’
[is] generous with gory details and
quoted expressions of outrage and
demands for justice, the coverage
of the ‘unworthy victims’ [is] lowkeyed,
designed to keep the lid on
emotions.”
This disparity in coverage between
the “worthy” and “unworthy”
victims is exemplified by the
immense global spotlight that the
ongoing Russia-Ukraine conflict has
received. We as American people are
enthralled by this conflict. In addition
to the fact that Russia is a major
political rival of the U.S., White
“
America has always
been more captivated
by its European
neighbors than its
African and Asian
ones, a phenomenon
Noam Chomsky
explains in his 1988
book Manufacturing
Consent.
”
America has always been captivated
by its White European neighbors and
extensively addressed their conflicts
in American media.
From a local perspective, for
example, Baldwin Service League
sent an email to Upper and Middle
School students hosting a humanitarian
drive by the end of March 2022.
American social media and
brands were quick to emphasize their
alliance with Ukrainians. Grammarly,
for example, changed its icon
to the colors of Ukraine’s flag. Many
users on social media platforms such
as Twitter and TikTok made similar
changes to their profile pictures, and
the internet was soon flooded with
posts declaring: “Support Ukraine.”
News platforms such as The
New York Times and its podcast The
Daily have had the Ukraine-Russia
conflict as their running theme for
the past few months. According to
Axios, 520k articles were published
about the conflict during the first
week after Russia’s invasion, and
even three months later, the conflict
was still averaging 70k online articles
a week. Day after day, a new
podcast or article relating to the war
makes headlines across the world.
This sharply contrasts the lack
of both media attention and support
for the Tigray conflict. To put it into
Chomsky’s terms: Ethiopia is a strategic
ally of the U.S., and as a result,
coverage of the conflict in Tigray has
been limited. The media has deemed
its victims “unworthy.”
However, just because some
conflicts are less covered by the
mainstream media doesn’t mean
there aren’t credible sources to educate
yourself on these conflicts.
News platforms like Democracy
Now!, Fairness and Accuracy In
Reporting (FAIR), and Media Matters
for America are among the best
places to widen your feed to global
catastrophes, as well as independent
journalists reporting from the ground
in warzones like Tigray.
No matter where it unfolds,
violence must be condemned, and
its victims aided and their voices
amplified. But that is the critical issue—currently,
this support is not
dispensed equally. Some parts of
the world receive our attention and
assistance, while others are pushed
aside. The devastation of these conflicts
shouldn’t be compared, but
the way we go about sharing them
should be. Coverage can have real-world
effects; critical media coverage
can put pressure on political
leaders to take action.
Haile said, “It seems as though
no one is listening and it’s frustrating.
These are innocent people that
deserve screen time too, regardless
of their background. It’s important
to go the extra mile and just listen.”