Is Media Really Listening?
There comes a point when the size and scope of a distaster meets some social responsibility threshold to where the story merits consistant and prolonged national attention – more than the 2-3 minute segments between other stories. We’ve been on the Gulf oil spill for over a week. And that makes sense. The Nashville Flood is estimated to cost over $1 Billion in losses. It deserves the same attention. It devastated lives. It ruined homes and businesses. People are living in shelters with nothing to return to once the waters recede.
Photo by SeeMidTN.com
I am not asking for comparisons to other natural disasters as justification for media coverage. Katrina, Atlanta ’09, Iowa ’08 – all bad.
Here’s the thing, I’ve learned more through Facebook, Twitter and links from friends pointing to Middle TN sources than I have from national media outlets. I get that local media is more relevant but things this big need large-scale awareness. Awareness outside the affected area.
Here’s one big reason why the media needs to stay on the Nashville Flood – it brings in donations. It brings in volunteer efforts. Media = nation-sized support. It’s just that simple. When Katrina hit (a much larger disaster as far as loss of life) our family donated. We all donated. The whole country donated and are still donating. Same with the recent ‘quakes outside this country. There was national attention. There was national concern. And the nation responded.
Pride and a sense of community should have us standing tall and fixing things on our own but it shouldn’t keep us from asking for help. We can use it. So how do we get the media to recognize what’s going on in Nashville and surrounding areas and keep on this developing story?
Human interest? Cost of the recovery? Loss of life? Seeing national icons underwater? The amazing lives saved and acts of heroism? What’s it going to take?
At the least, media coverage and a national response gives us the comfort that we are all united. I’ve read a lot of blogs and facebook posts from locals lately and am impressed with how the community is responding for itself. But at the same time – folks just want to know that they’re story’s been heard.
Please tell the story.
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May 5th, 2010 at 3:31 pm
Well put
May 6th, 2010 at 1:50 am
I agree and compliment you on your “restraint”. I think it is a travesty that the national news media has not covered this disaster with the attention it warrants, and, therefore, by omission has cheated the rest of this great country out of doing what they do so well – responding so generously when tragedy hits. This is a good example of what is wrong with national media today – hype and political agenda (I guess we don’t qualify). I disagree that this disaster does not deserve comparison to others that received widespread media attention – it most assuredly does! It is now considered a thousand year flood which is alone an historic and newsworthy event. This flood has cost lives and livelihoods, homes and possessions and the security they represent, and will have a catastrophic economic impact from which many will never recover. Whatever the reason we have been virtually ignored, it is very sad to know that so little was done for so many.
May 7th, 2010 at 3:49 pm
Thanks for the remarks and couldn’t agree more. I am glad to see that the media has started to look closer at the disaster, although it seems selective. Anderson Cooper was all over it yesterday reporting from the hardest hit areas yet the story was almost impossible to find on MSNBC.
The high point in all this is the immense local volunteerism taking place. Luckily the flooding, although widespread left pockets of dry. Those people are out in huge numbers helping. Truly a remarkable city and region that I am proud to now call home.
I hope you made it through the flood okay and if not, are getting the help you need.