Introduction and Background Analysis
The coverage of events and happenings in 2014 and 2015 show a diverse world. The world that is riddled with themes that range from power, politics, religion, and the machinations of the world’s socioeconomic and political moves my countries and individuals throughout the world. These events and happenings have far-reaching ramifications for the individual countries that are involved, their citizens, and the global status in terms of bilateral and multilateral cooperation. Globalization means that the world is interdependent. For example, the United States’ major trade partner is China (Kelley & Simmons, 2015). However, these two countries have differing ideological leanings in terms of governance. Although they do not agree on some of the global issues and subsequently take different positions, they need each other for trade and development. The amount of trade between China and the U.S. is massive. The goods and services that the trade of the U.S. with China, hit an estimated total of $579 billion, in 2012. The exports of the U.S. to China totaled about $141 billion while the imports totaled around $439 billion. In the same year, 2012, the trade deficit between China and the U.S. was estimated to be around $298 billion. This makes China the second largest goods trading partner with the U.S. These statistics shows a sneak preview of the interdependence of the countries in the world. The cooperation between the U.S. happens despite disagreements on international issues. An example is how to deal with Iran and its nuclear project, how to handle the ISIS uprising in the Middle East and how to respond to Russia’s aggression in the Crimea, Ukraine (Long et al., 2015).
Global events are not complete without the media. The coverage of the media is crucial to the perception of the news and events. The interpretation of the events by the media’s audience is dependent on the coverage of the events by the media. The role of the media in society is crucial. The media is the fourth estate of government (Long et al., 2015). Meaning it has a massive role to play in the discourse of democracy and t spread of the truth, knowledge, and information. The underlying principle of how the media should operate is the unbiased reporting of news events. This means offering the consumer an account of the events as they have happened. However, as a result of the political and ideological divisions that divide society, it is often that media is used to further a certain ideology or school of thought when it comes to international happenings, issues or events. The major news companies such as Cable News Network (CNN), American Broadcasting Corporation (ABC), British Broadcasting Cooperation (BBC), Aljazeera, Reuters, Sky, Fox News and Al Arabiya have all played a prominent role in the global political, social, economic, and religious discourse. They have had an impact on these issues through their reporting and commentaries (Long et al., 2015).
The 2014 Ebola Epidemic (Health)
This refers to the biggest outbreak of the hemorrhagic fever virus outbreak in history. It affected multiple countries in West Africa. Some of the countries that were affected include Nigeria, Senegal, and Mali (Ohlheiser, 2015). This outbreak put the world on alert. The mode of transmission of Ebola makes it hard to fight. This is because the virus can be passed on to another person through bodily contact of body fluids (BB News, 2015b). This meant that the major countries across the world, especially the ones with the busiest airports were on red alert to detect any cases and quarantine these cases to prevent further spread. Meanwhile, a humanitarian effort was mounted in West Africa to supplement the efforts of the local healthcare system at containing the epidemic. The international community including the World Health Organization (WHO), the United Nations (UN), the European Union, the United States, and the African Union was at hand to help with these efforts (Who.int, 2015). These concerted efforts at the containment of the outbreak bore fruits; the virus was contained. This was down to the collective effort that was mounted by several global powers such as the U.S. the E.U., China, Russia, and the African Union. This happened with the coordination and articulation of the United Nations and the WHO (Who.int, 2015).
As a global issue, the outbreak of Ebola took a different dimension compared to other issues that the world faces. The virus could easily spread to other countries. The epidemiology and the etiology of the virus and the hemorrhagic fever it causes mean that it could be a nuisance even to the most advanced and sophisticated medical systems in the world. These include those in Europe and the U.S. It, therefore, was I the best interest of these powers to stop this virus at the source, West Africa. The humanitarian effort that was mounted was expeditiously assembled with support from all the powers involved. In this case, the global powers spoke in unison against a common enemy (Prevention, 2015).
Media Coverage of the Event
The media had a crucial role to play in the efforts undertaken to contain the disease. The Time Magazine named the health and social workers that were caring for the Ebola Victims in West Africa as the “persons of the year in 2014” (Gibbs, 2014). A comparison was drawn by the Time magazine between these social and health workers in West Africa to the special forces of the military. These are the military forces who were volunteers to go and fight the epidemic in the times when the governments were unprepared or noncommittal about the epidemic. This indicates a positive coverage of the epidemic by the media. Such coverage ensures that the health workers at the frontline fighting the Ebola virus get the recognition they deserve (Gibbs, 2014). It also encourages the society and more members of the community to volunteer in the fight to contain the virus. However, the role of the media is much bigger and wider than just motivation and recognition. The media ought to have led the efforts to educate the society of the facts about the virus. Issues like how infection occurs, how to avoid infection, the signs and symptoms of infection and the course of action I case there are infections in the family, neighborhood, and community as well (Gibbs, 2014).
Historically, the coverage of such outbreaks in Africa has been biased. The diseases such HIV, for example, were covered in the media like an African disease. This means that it cannot affect the rest of the world. This, of course, proved to be wrong as the Aids pandemic virus spread throughout the world, and it is a concern for all humanity despite race and background. Fast-forward to 2014, the coverage of the Ebola outbreak in West Africa was much more factual and displayed a balanced coverage of a global event (Achenbach, Sun & Dennis, 2015). The event was, therefore, accorded the global attention it deserved and this contributed to the entry of various governments and international bodies in the efforts to contain the disease. These efforts proved to be successful. The role of the media cannot be wished away in this event.
The Fighting in Ukraine and Crimea (The World and Regional Politics)
Global politics has font had Russia on one side and the U.S. on the other side. This has been the position on some of the major issues that these two world powers have sought to address. These include the issue of Israel and the Palestinian war and the concomitant issue of a two-state solution to these conflicts (Taylor, 2015). They have also disagreed on the approach to take in dealing with Iran and its nuclear war program. It is, therefore, no surprise then that these two powers were on different sides in the conflict in Eastern Ukraine and the Crimea. The Crimea crisis was the first post-Euromaidan Russia operation of the military. The crisis was triggered when the then Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych was carried by Russian helicopter to the Crimea region of Ukraine. Immediately, soldiers of ambiguous affiliation began to take over strategic infrastructures and positions inside the crimes (Taylor, 2015). These were later identified as Russian-backed rebels. Russia subsequently annexed the Crimea, a region of independent Ukraine. After this annexation, demonstrations started in East Ukraine that led to the declarations of independence by the pro-Russian separatists in Donbas and Lugansk (Taylor, 2015).
This crisis led to a major international reaction from the U.S. and the European Union. Russia was deemed to have broken several international laws and provisions of treaties that Russia was and still is a signatory (The Independent, 2014a).
Media Coverage of these Events
There are two sides to the coverage of the Crimea crisis. One side is the pro-west and consequently pro-Ukrainian and the other side is the pro-Russian and consequently pro-separatists. In the lead up to the Crimea crisis, the Russian media was accused of spreading propaganda about the activities in the Crimea and the reasons for the crisis that resulted after the ousting of President Yanukovych. The portrayals that were given by the Russian and the Western media houses were different and seemed to be reporting two different events. The Russian media came under heavy criticism for the use of fabricated stories such as the death of a 10-year old boy in the shelling and the fructification of children ((The Independent, 2014a). This was calculated to charge emotions within Russia and especially in East Ukraine and thus to garner support for the separatists. The Russian media was accused of using false narratives, suppression, misleading images, and misrepresentation. The technique the Russian media was used as described as “psychological conditioning”. This was designed to excite aggression, anger, and hatred in the viewers. The Guardian dubbed this as an “informational-psychological” operation (Hyde, 2015).
The media in the West took sides and sided with the government in Kiev that was fighting Russian aggression. The reported Russian troops in the Crimea, Ukraine were described as “occupying forces” in an independent country. The referendum in the Crimea to declare independence from Ukraine was referred to as “illegitimate” by the western media. The Independent had a stinging criticism of the Western leaders for what it termed as more “lip service to the issue with little action” (The Independent, 2014b). The paper was clearly calling for tougher action against Russia to stem its aggression against Ukraine and the subsequent annexation of the Crimea. The paper went ahead to criticize the language the western leaders led by President Obama decided to use with reference to the Crime crisis. An example is the use of the words “incursion” and “aggression” instead of “Invasion”. The Washington Post called the support in Ukraine for the Western governments as “weak”. The paper blamed this “weak support” as the reason behind Russian and Vladimir Putin imposing his military in East Ukraine by annexing the Crimea and the invasion of an independent nation (McGreal, 2015).
The media coverage of the Ukraine conflict was largely biased. The point of departure was the ideology. In the opposing camps was the expansionary and aggressive Russian policy. On the other is the West, which favored the incumbent Ukrainian government and one that was against the invasion of Ukraine by Russian forces (McGreal, 2015). This was also against the violence that followed with the Russian separatists fighting the government in Donbas and Lugansk. The blatant bias in the media coverage means that the viewers were denied a good coverage of the events in East Ukraine. The Russian media reported falsehoods and propaganda to win the support of the people in East Ukraine. The media therefore directly led to an escalation of hostilities in the Crimea and the Donbas and Lugansk areas. The Western media also led to increased support for the Kiev government and an increase in hostility towards Russia and the separatists in East Ukraine. This divided coverage of an event showed the media at its divided best (McGreal, 2015). The ideological and political leanings were evident in the coverage and commentary of the events on the ground. Lost in all this coverage war is the humanitarian situation in these areas. There was a war going on and, consequently, there were causalities and an increased number of refugees made up largely of women and children. These were relegated to the back pages and afterthoughts in the grand scheme of things in the media (Aljazeera.com, 2014).
The Charlie Hebdo Shooting (Religion)
This is perhaps the biggest profile direct attack on the media. This refers to the 7th January 2015 attack on the Charlie Hebdo Magazine. Two brothers, Cherif and Said Kouachi, armed with assault rifles and other deadly weapons force their way into the Charlie Hebdo center. Charlie Hebdo is a satirical magazine in France. The brothers opened fire and killed 11 people injuring another 11 people. When they were leaving, these gunmen killed a police officer outside the Charlie Hebdo premises (The Independent, 2015c). They later identified themselves to belong to the Al Qaeda branch in Yemen. Further attacks ensued in the Ile-de-France region, a further five people were killed and eleven wounded (The Independent, 2015c).
Charlie Hebdo started publishing its satirical material in 1970. The target of the magazine was to satirize religion, politics and other issues or topics that face society on a daily basis. Charlie Hebdo attracted controversy in 2006 when they decided to republish controversial cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed. This cartoon originally appeared in Jyllands-Posten, a Danish newspaper. After they published a caricature of Prophet Mohammed in 2011, the magazine’s offices were destroyed by a bomb made of gasoline (Vinograd, 2015).
The facts above show a clear history of satire of religion, especially involving the Islam religion that has attracted the ire of some elements in the Islamic religion. This has resulted in attacks on the magazine premises. However, the attacks in 2015 are so far the biggest and most costly in terms of lives lost, and those wounded (BBC News, 2015a).
Media Coverage of the Charlie Hebdo Shooting
The shooting received massive media coverage globally. The coverage the event received is espoused by the trending hashtag #JeSuisCharlie. This hashtag was used to offer support for the victims and condemn the terrorists for their cowardly attacks on the magazine. The media coverage was also heightened with the subsequent congregation of world leaders in France and their march on the streets to support the victims and speak out against terrorism. The coverage has been criticized as over proportional and shows bias. In comparison with the genocide that has been going on in Nigeria with the Boko Haram menace, the Charlie Hebdo coverage was massive and wide while the Nigerian crisis receives little attention (BBC News, 2015a). The killings that occurred in France were unfortunate, and the terrorist that killed people indiscriminately should be stopped. However, the Boko Haram is doing the same thing to ordinary Nigerians. The killings and conscription of kids to be soldiers and fighters in the war is equally diabolical and needs the attention of the world. The issues at the root of this attack were religion and terrorism. Islam and terrorism have come to be intertwined by the media. Coverage of this terrorist attack by the media created a scenario where it is the Muslims (terrorists) who are attacking the innocent in society. This generalization is unwarranted and shows bias and stereotyping by the media that will not contribute to the solving of the underlying problem of terrorism (Doherty & Davidson, 2015).
The Obama-Iran Nuclear Talks and the Role of Israel (Diplomacy)
Recent American governments have had to deal with Iran and its nuclear program. The ideological differences between the U.S. and the major regional powers such as Russian and China have also contributed to this impasse. The impasse has led to crippling sanctions being levied on Iran by the U.S. and her allies in Europe and Asia. On the backdrop of this history, the Obama administration has tried to offer a diplomatic solution to the Iranian nuclear project problem. However, this has run into credible challenges and roadblocks in the form of Israel and the Republican leadership in the UU.S.Israel is opposed to the idea of a solution that might leave Iran to have any form of nuclear capability even civilian. In addition, the idea of having an Iran without sanctions and thus developing is not welcome to Israel (The Times of Israel, 2015). Traditionally, Israel enjoys the strong support of the American government and the American people. This is the case in this situation. The Republican Party, which controls the majority of both houses, Senate and the House of Representatives are opposed to the talks with Iran. This opposition was manifested in the invitation of the Israeli Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu to speak to Congress without involving President Obama. This also coincided with the time that Netanyahu was vying for the Israeli Premiership, which he subsequently won and formed a government (The Times of Israel, 2015.
Media Coverage
In the U.S., the media is divided down the middle. The media in the U.S. withdrew to form with the issues surrounding the Obama-led Iran talks and the subsequent agreement. The traditional divisions between the Republican and conservative media and the liberal and largely democratic media appeared (Labott, 2015). This indicates a division on an issue with the facts span to suit the storyline and analogy of the media house and the ideology or school of thought to which they subscribe. Intertwined with this issue is the support for Israel. Americans traditionally support Israel. The Republicans, therefore, fronted the issue of the Iran nuclear talks as lack of support for Israel and the American allies (Labott, 2015). This was reported in the media as well. Such a portrayal of the issue was not correct, and it showed a political bias by the media. The Obama administration has always assured the Americans of its unwavering support of Israel. The media coverage here serves one political side and thus shirks its duty of informing the people of the facts and not giving them biased or skewed reporting aimed at shaping the opinion of the viewers.
Conclusion
The role of the media in international affairs, as well as local affairs, is fundamental. The media is crucial in the shaping of the thinking and opinions of the people. As a result, the primary role of the media is to inform and allow the people to make informed decisions and have informed opinions on the crucial matters that are affecting the world. The role of the media is observed in the coverage of the 2014 Ebola outbreak in West Africa. It mobilized the international community to contain the Ebola virus. The coverage of the Russian-Ukraine crisis in the Crimea showed a division of the media into two ideological groups. The coverage of the Charlie Hebdo shooting showed the bias the media has especially in comparison with the Boko Haram crisis in Nigeria. The coverage of the Obama-led Iran nuclear talks reveals domestic political influence in the coverage of an internationally crucial milestone. The media can, therefore, serve the society and at the same time, the media can be the architect of the destruction or impasses that are witnessed in society.
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Innovative Writers 