It was all the news stations talked about after the Charlie Hebdo incident. It was all the news stations talked about after the Paris Attack. Now, it happens again, after a bombing in an airport in Brussels. Multiple police forces and military forces get involved, and the media follows the investigation with headlines based on "what we know so far." Explosions in the Brussels airport resulted in more investigations and allegations about a connection with ISIS.
In the Paris attacks on Nov. 13, 2015, several locations in Paris, including a concert hall, a soccer stadium, and several restaurants were attacked by gunmen and suicide bombers. The attacks were allegedly coordinated by ISIS and were preceded by a long investigation, well-covered by the media. What people seem to forget, is that two other bombings related to ISIS occurred within the same week in different countries. Just a day before, in Beirut, over 40 people were killed in an urban area of south Beirut. on Nov. 17, suicide bombers killed at least 19 people at a funeral for members of the Peace Brigades in Baghdad. The same day as Paris, an earthquake in Japan left many dead.
Yet, with all this tragedy, monuments around the globe lit up with the colors of the French flag to be in solidarity with Paris after such tragedy. Facebook added a feature to profile pictures so that everyone could put a blue-white-and-red coloration over their photo. The whole world stood with France, and the media really concentrated on that. So why were the tragedies in Beirut, Baghdad, and Japan seemingly ignored while the world stood with Paris?
The same thing happened with the media just this past month with the attack at an airport in Brussels. ISIS claimed responsibility, politicians around the globe commented on the airport's security measures, and the headlines concentrated on the tragedy in Belgium.
The list of terrorist incidents in 2016, however, is much longer than the media tends to share. A car bomb in Libya, suspected to be the work of ISIS killed 60 and wounded 200. A suicide bomber in a cafe in Muqdadiyah, Iraq killed another 20. In Istanbul, Turkey, 12 were killed and 14 were wounded by a suicide bomber. Similar things happened in Pakistan, Cameroon, and Indonesia so far in 2016. The United States media is so focused in on the Western World that a lot of tragedies happening in other places get glossed over.
Why do we know so much about ISIS attacks in Europe? Even refugees, fleeing from war zones are getting more attention than the people stuck in those war zones. The media constantly tells us updates about the investigation in Brussels, and when the airport will open up again, but they fail to inform us about how governments in the middle east and even United States troops over there are progressing in their pursuit to stop ISIS and keep innocent citizens safe.
Beyond ISIS, the media is significantly quieter about other terrorist groups. Boko Haram has done significant damage to parts of Africa, and even more so than ISIS. Yet, the media does not recognize the tragedies as fully. In January 2016, killing in Nigeria and Chad left over 50 dead and countless more injured. An article from the Guardian stated that, "Despite claims late last year by President Muhammadu Buhari that Nigeria had “technically” won the war against Boko Haram, the group has kept up a string of attacks. The group, which seeks a hardline Islamic state in northern Nigeria, has killed around 17,000 people and forced more than 2.6 million to flee their homes since 2009."
The world proclaims their solidarity with Paris and with Brussels after the terrible events that happen there, then spends the next day filming an empty podium where Donald Trump will eventually show up, instead of keeping citizens informed about the tragedies that are happening every day. They need to show their solidarity with every single being affected by terrorist events and not just the select few.
This is not to say that the media should not have paid attention to Paris and Brussels - rather that they need to be more aware of how the whole world works. They do not need to report every tiny event that happens--because that would be nearly impossible--but they need to do a better job at standing in solidarity with the rest of the world.
Instead of writing editorial after editorial about the controversial things that this and that politician said, the media needs to try to reach a wider audience. The day the media tells me more about what is going on all over the world, both good and bad, is the day I will be more dedicated to reading the news. Until then, Google searches give me better results than reading the top articles pages of news sources.
