Wednesday, January 13, 2010

A Mediated Earthquake

On my way home from work today, I listened to stories on NPR about the earthquake in Haiti. Crushed bones, head injuries, death, and grossly limited means for treating any of it.

It really made me think about global tragedies and information technologies: do instant media in the form of pure information bring us closer to these catastrophes, or do they push us further away? Do blog posts, images, choppy video and journalistic radio stories provide an adequate reflection of humanity brought to ruins at the hand of grinding tectonic plates? Or are they merely a simulacrum of awareness, a map of tragedy filled with predictable banalities and the minutia of human language?

Can we really feel the sadness and loss in the Haitian community by technologically mediated means?


I'm still not sure it really does it justice, but it's the closest I've seen yet.

1 comment:

  1. I always struggle with this, with the question of how much is exploitation and how much is simply informing. Or even beyond the intention of the bloggers/journalists/filmmakers, what are my intentions when watching it? You pinned it on the head with "the minutia of human language."