Criticism toward media coverage of the Turkey-Syria earthquakes rises after multiple interviewees argue that “shoddy” infrastructure was to blame.
This isn’t the first time the public has commented on mainstream media’s portrayal of international tragedies. As new developments emerge from ongoing conflicts in Ukraine, Iran, Ethiopia, and Myanmar, individuals have called out media outlets’ eurocentric news and biased or incomplete reporting. Aina Marzia, a 17-year-old independent journalist, noted the latter in the recent coverage of Turkey and Syria.
She expressed, “[Journalists] are just looking at the current situation. Not going back into time when these issues actually begin because if you look at the way that Turkey is built, a lot of their cities, the reason that they’re crumbling now is because they were built in incurred population areas…So you see that there’s colonialism and racism playing into that.”
Instead, Marzia hopes to see more discussions of intersecting issues and intersectionality in the coverage of international affairs. She recognizes the challenges in this, noting that bias in global reporting is inevitable as every journalist hails from a country and has a set of experiences that shape how they see the world. However, Marzia still believes a line must be drawn.
“It’s a hard ask, but I think at some point there’s a difference between playing Switzerland in reporting and actually, you know, telling the truth,” she stated. “So, you have to decide as a journalist where your morals stand on that issue because, obviously, there’s some genocides and some human rights abuses in which you wouldn’t want to be a neutral party.”
Social media also holds a stake in how journalists approach their work because it opens the doors to the front lines of many wars. As videos and photos of soldiers and civilians caught in conflict flood the web with opinionated captions trailing closely behind, it becomes harder to identify the victim. Susceptibility to implicit bias rises in these moments and further encroaches upon newsrooms.
Well-versed in the evolution of newsrooms, Sarah Oates, a former journalist and current journalism professor at the University of Maryland, shared her insights.
“I’m watching the younger generation of journalists,” Oates commented. “And they had a lot of trouble initially convincing their newsrooms that they needed to both be on social media and also collect information from social media.”
As much as Oates finds social media to be crucial for accessing modern “information flows,” her belief that “media systems are actually tightly interwoven with political and civic culture within countries” might be where the problem lies. In countries where political polarization dominates online spaces on social media, it wouldn’t be a surprise if the bias fueled by echo chambers and misinformation influences newsrooms.
A 2022 study from the Pew Research Center discovered that the U.S. lives this reality. Americans tested more likely to believe “journalists should always strive to give every side equal coverage” than U.S. journalists themselves.
Even Oates admitted, “Here’s the really tough question for a journalist: Am I always supposed to give two sides of a story? Or am I supposed to give the audience what they want and need? Is there some point where we cross a line and our role changes? Now, in my journalism college, all my journalism colleagues are like, ‘No! Never! We must always adhere to professional standards!’”
She continued: “You know, as a journalism researcher, I’m more like, ‘Did we do that in 9/11? Did we? Did we? Did we do that in the Iraq War? Oh no.’”
This intergenerational observation between Marzia and Oates indicates that leaving this dilemma unresolved will only lead to more questions and public outcries over misleading reporting. Although there seems to be no clear answer, both Marzia and Oates agree that as difficult as journalism has become in the digital age, it remains all the more necessary.
Written by Obse Abebe of Bethesda-Chevy Chase High School
Photo courtesy of OZAN KOSE/AFP via Getty Images