The most memorable mediated experience I have encountered would be the earthquake in Japan. Although I was not physically present for the earthquake, I was horrified through the images shown on T.V and several websites. On March 11. 2011 the news about the earthquake was everywhere. It was impossible to miss. I found out about the earthquake in school. I was in my English class, and as we were waiting for the Professor, my classmates were talking about it. I was aloof, and had no idea what had happened that night. When I heard the news, I remember being scared and thinking, "Oh my god, the world is going to end." I was having a intrapersonal conversation. My classmates also mentioned that about ten thousand people were found dead, and there were even some that had not been found yet. When the Professor showed up, the first thing she mentioned was the earthquake. That was the impact the earthquake had on people, it was impossible not to talk about it. Of course, the media has a lot to do with this because without the media we would not be able to see the damages that were done, on the other side of the planet. According to Huffington Post, "Some 660,000 households do not have water more than 209,000 do not have electricity. Damage could rise as high as $310 billion, the government said, making it the most costly natural disaster on record." The numbers were horrifying. For the Japanese had to undergo time with no water, heat, or electricity. While the most dreadful thing that I had experienced was the blackout in 2003.It is amazing how the media can impact us. A few days after the earthquake, it was broadcasted in the news that there was a lot of radiation in Japan due to an explosion in one of the nuclear power plants. Of course this is very terrifying. However, the media made it seem as if it was so deadly that people should not step foot in Japan. Being the gullible person that I am, I believed the media, and I was freaking out. Japan is one of the countries I want to visit, and because of the media, I was thinking, "Now I can never visit Japan, there's too much radiation. It'll take years to clear up." However I was told that the radiation is not as bad as the media protrayed it to be. The amount of radiation is about the same as microwaved food. Of course the fact that there is radiation in the air is something we should be alarmed about, but, the media makes it a bigger deal than it really is. This is an example of the publicity model that Hanson points out in Chapter One. Hanson says that the publicity model shows, "...how media attention can make a person, concept, or thing become important regardless of what is said about it." In other words the media depicts whether something is important or not, based on their protrayal of things.
Although it has been several months since the earthquake, there are still damages that need to be repaired. People are still missing, and these factors are things we constantly think about. Even though, we are in America we still sympathize with them. The graphics of the earthquake are too strong and hardcore for anyone to just look and forget. As S. Baran says in his "What is Culture?" passage, "Culture is the world made meaningful; it is socially constructed and maintained through communication. It limits as well as liberates us; it differientiates as well as unites us. It defines our realities and thereby shapes the ways we think feel and act." In other words culture is spread through word of mouth and actions. The fact that there are different cultures around the world is what brings people together. If everybody was the same it would be boring. The point is that although we have had our differences with Japan we still sympathize with them because that is part of our culture, it tears us apart but also brings us together.
From the video footages I saw, I had to sympathize with the Japanese. Houses were on fire, people were homeless and dying, homes were damaged, cars were flooded away, and people were dead along the shorelines. It was just a devastating event and my prayers go out to the Japanese that have to endure this pain. Everyday I am thankful that I live in New York City, because natural disasters are rare here. This mediated event has components of the Seven Truths in that when this media came out it was scary, and it shows that the media are essential components of our lives, because without the media we would not know what is going on halfway around the Earth.
The images of the earthquake, and the video footages allow us to reveal our emotional dimension from the media literacy. This is because the images of the earthquake allow us to feel sympathy, scared, depressed, and many other feelings. It also brings out the moral dimension of the audience as well. The graphics and the news of the earthquake allow the audience to appreciate what they have and appreciate their lives, family, and friends. For example, when I found out about the earthquake I also realized that I have a aunt that lives in Japan, so the first thing I asked my parents was if she was okay. She is okay, because she lives on the other side of Japan. It also showed me that my experience with the 2003 blackout was nothing compared to all these disasters, the earthquakes in China, Japan, Haiti, and the tsunami in Indonesia. These were all the crazy events that had happened in my lifetime and I will always remember them. Especially the September 11 attacks. However the earthquake in Japan was the most recent event and a lot if people chose to write about 9/11, therefore I decided to go with the earthquake.
References:
Hanson, Ralph. Chapter One in Mass Communication: Living in a Media World.
S. Baran. "What is Culture?"
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/03/25/japan-death-toll-earthquake-tsunami_n_840435.html
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=__8Le05sEQA&feature=relatedhttp://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/12/world/asia/12japan.html?pagewanted=all
-Janet Chan
Seeing the image of that huge wave wash over the landscape of Japan from the view of a live camera in a helicopter was one of the most surreal things I think I have ever seen on television. It was breathtaking in this almost awesome type of way, and I don't mean for that to sound like I enjoyed it or anything. When I say awesome I mean that I was in total and complete awe of the capacity that mother nature has for complete and total destruction of things that man has built up over centuries. Being able to see an image like that broadcast on television and then accessed on the internet, although deeply saddening and upsetting for the reality of the matter, is something that is new to our generation. My parents and my parents parents could never have witnessed anything like that on television when they were my age. In fact, when my parents parents were my age there were no televisions. It is simply amazing the way in which we are now able to collapse time and space so that people all over the world may understand and thus empathize with the news in other regions.
ReplyDeleteI can definitely agree that the earthquake was a very memorable media moment. I would never have gotten to see the scope of the disaster without the media and I would also never have seen just how the denizens of Japan dealt with this disaster and those before it. I had nothing but sympathy for the Japanese after this disaster much like you did. Although, if anything, I gained more respect for them than I ever had before after seeing how they reacted and dealt with this disaster. I was as shocked as my father how calm and quiet the Japanese people were even after the destruction caused by the earthquake. I was also impressed by their resolve to rebuild their lives and find hope in a time of such tragedy. Its more than likely their culture and prepardness for earthquakes is why they reacted in such a way. If such a disaster were to have happened here, there would likely have been considerably more panic and chaos like there was with Hurricane Katrina. The media gave me a chance to see that we should count ourselves lucky a disaster of this magnitude has not happened here and it also let me see how we can learn something from how other countries deal with disasters.
ReplyDeleteJapan's 3/11 earthquake reminds me of the 9/21 earthquake in Taiwan. It reached 7.3 on the Richter scale. Countless buildings fell down. Numerous people were buried under buildings. Many were missing. They have been flushed out to the sea. I was in Taiwan at that time, but luckily the earthquake did not do too much damage to the place where I lived. Both earthquakes got me thinking of how fragile life is. I told myself that I have to cherish everyday while I'm still breathing because God knows what's going to happen next...
ReplyDeleteI actually had the same thought about the radiation, and how I can't visit Japan now and how I should stay away from Japanese products. When you actually think about it we are exposed to more radiation then we know it with the technology around us. But the images and videos that was captured seemed almost unbelievable, if anything it looked like a movie about the apocalypse.
ReplyDelete3/11/2011 is definitely a very memorable date for many of us. Luckily, many of my friends and their families were unharmed during the earthquake. The experience of seeing the recording of tsunami is shocking and painful. One of my friend actually raised $5618 via facebook and donated it to "Pray for Japan" (https://www.facebook.com/HelpForJapan). I remembered that there were several major phone companies(AT&T, Verizon..etc) provided free callings to Japan. Media do not just give us the access to the actual event, they also give us the options to help through all these technology, especially in the situation of natural disasters.
ReplyDeleteOf all the things that came out of the earthquake in Japan, I think the most amazing thing was all the sympathy that went out to the nation. Seeing images of people going to help all those effected was very touching to me. It was especially interesting watching how fast groups were able to raise money be it youtubers like nigahiga or thespeedgamers. It truly shows how much we care and how thanks to the media an event half the world away can get us taking action.
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