THursday Idea blog

In developing my concept for this semester's work i've been considering the role of reporters and the narratives applied to the major network reporters in haiti. In my past work i feel that I concentrated on events that were closer to home, in the case of the ash project I covered the topic of mass trauma through the lens of media where that trauma happened to the american public. In looking toward haiti i do not feel that i can take the same approach. For the most part the american population has not directly experienced the events of the disaster in haiti. Looking beyond haiti toward the general mythos of the foreign correspondent, I believe it is fair to say that the narratives built around the coverage of disasters abroad has continued over time to prop up the correspondent as a super hero like figure. What i am suggesting here is that in the coverage of events like the haiti earthquake and the coverage of the Tsunami not long ago as well as other international incidents is taken in only through the lens of the major media networks and in forming ratings grabbing narrative packages around the stories presented, networks continue to push their major correspondents the likes Anderson Cooper and Dr. Sanjay Gupta to new heights at the center of their ongoing coverage. I am seeking to find a visual form that connects these larger than life characters and their often pristine presentation to the bleak realities of the destruction that surrounds them. Through this contrast i hope to raise questions in the viewers mind about the authenticity of the coverage, and the motives in creating such narratives amidst the already powerful human drama that is a disaster.