Media Savvy

I go through waves of media awareness. For a couple of weeks I'll by the Sunday Times or the Mail & Guardian. And then some weeks I'll check out news websites religiously. But for the most part I'm a picking-up-stompies public consumer of media. There is so much info out there that I cannot afford the time needed to faithfully investigating facts and finding resources (never mind the effort!).

As an example I have picked little drabs of news around the flood in New Orleans. The majority of what I have heard (which is little) has highlighted how ill-prepared the authorities were and slow to react. As with any US-related tragedy, the media keeps the story on-board significantly longer than other tragedies (e.g. stampede in Iraq). This link on Racism in tragedy is really worth checking out.

On the one hand globalization has allowed us greater access to the facts (which I was deprived of as a white young South Africa) but does the democratisation of information not create any problems? I'm a huge fan of the process but wonder what pit-falls there are in making information open and free.

Some fun