Mainstream media does a terrific job at telling partial stories about tragic events. Most of the time, if shootings, attacks, or murders didn't occur in a western, white-majority, “developed” country, they are at best shallowly mentioned, but generally altogether ignored. However, what really intrigues me is not the way big information companies both nationally and globally distort news, but how people are now serving as unmindful perpetuators of the very power structures that shape collective imaginary. A phenomenon I directly experience in my country's social media, it is a worrying constant with increasing presence nowadays.
No longer than a month before the fatal incidents in Orlando Pulse nightclub, a similar crime took place in a small bar in Xalapa, the capital of Mexican state Veracruz. During a seemingly normal night, a group of armed men walked inside “La Madame” bar and opened fire, leaving behind seven dead and several injured people. Notwithstanding the depth of the issue, the following day, very few independent newsagencies spoke about the previous night's tragedy. During the subsequent week, grieving relatives and parents gathered in protest, asking the government for answers. Just one of the shooters got caught, and the case was thrown away in the abyss of oblivion. Leaving a permanent, painful vacuum in the lives of the victims' families.
Just as empty was the space in the social media world. Contrary to the vast amount of prayers and support posts elicited in Mexicans by the Orlando killings, a general lack of empathy was the rule for Xalapa. Despite that it occurred in their own country to their compatriots. And I'm not saying that Mexicans shouldn't be aware and critical of international problems; however, it was rather flabbergasting reading posts about Orlando and not seeing anything about Xalapa. Why did people seem not to take interest for something that happened in their own home? Why did they not care? Then, just as an unconsciously expected déjà vu, it all started adding up.
Turning into a mere product the woeful massacre of June 22, the Mexican media behemoth jabbed into the minds of the people its most convenient opinion. All of a sudden, the same TV channels which would oftentimes mock LGBTQ people or broadcast misogynistic Telenovelas, externalized their feelings of regret. Following the same ritual, people inundated social media with tons of articles, hashtags and modified profile pictures, which started plunging into my Facebook wall. Thus, it became obvious that their not remembering anything from Xalapa, was but the result of the whole media machinery doing the only thing it does well.
Mixed feelings arose in me. One the one hand, I deeply appreciated the fact that Orlando began a conversation among people and made visible how we still need to continue fighting for the rights of LGBTQ people, but on the other, it made me sad that the tragedy only received all that much media attention because it had happened in the United States. Lastly, I believe that young people have to be critical of what they consume not only in the Internet, but in every instance of life. We all ought to be truly aware of the problems plaguing the world and to act beyond lame hashtags. But, first, we have to inform ourselves about the whole globe, not just the white-centered, western, “developed” portrait that the mass media wants us to see.
