Knowing the name for what it is that is wrong with you doesn't always make things easier, it seems.
It also seems like I'm about to fizzle out into oblivion like I always thought I wouldn't but feared I might, because the effects of media consumption have been made more manifest in my day to day life than all that I learned about in my 3 years of undergraduate studies.
Let me explain...
Between deadlines, other headlines and worrying about family and friends back home, I absentmindedly participated in online campaigns for the #BringBackOurGirls movement that seemed to seize social media near the end of April. Retweeting, reblogging, liking and sharing, but rarely ever engaging, barely discussing, hardly understanding, never questioning, not writing and knowing fully well that I'd be 'over it' soon. And so would the rest of the world.
Now as a Nigerian in diaspora, my first reaction was that it must be as a result of being removed from the situation. If I was back home, in the thick of it, perhaps I would have been more engaged with the situation. I had to cut short that train of thought, because though it rang true it provided no solutions for my current dilemma. So what if I am removed from the situation? It is the very nature of things that I'll find myself removed from much of what is considered breaking news at any given time. But as a journalist, in fact as global citizens, it is of utmost importance and with increasing urgency that we should find ways in which to engage with issues in our world, regardless of how otherly or remote they may seem. In reality these situations affect us all. Whether we choose to admit it or not doesn't change that simple fact.
Standing now at the precipice of the month and looking back, I realise that there is much I have failed to engage with, even though I was aware:
This is where 3 years of journalism and communications studies comes into play. I remember a tutor using the phrase 'compassionate fatigue' to describe the world's reaction to violence and bad news in the press. We have become so used to seeing all these things happen that we sort of switch off to it. This isn't merely suspension of disbelief. We know that it's real and it is happening. But it happened yesterday, and the day before that. It'll happen tomorrow again, maybe somewhere closer or further away. There is nothing new about the news anymore. On the rare occasion that something does capture our attention, we lose interest quickly and substitute reality with mind numbing television. Anything to escape the truth of the world around us.
Unfortunately globalisation is upon us and the world will suffocate you so snap out of it. There is no running away from reality. Our world is getting smaller and smaller for many different reasons.
So maybe you don't care about what's going on in Pakistan but the girl in your economics class does because those are her people. And maybe a bunch of missing girls don't bug you but your Nigerian boyfriend can't get them off his mind. Perhaps women's rights has never been a topic of interest, but your best friend could have been Elliot Rodger's victim. It might be that religion is something you'd rather not discuss or debate, yet Meriam Yahia Ibrahim had to give birth in jail. What do you care about protests in Brazil? You just want to see some football! You don't care, but your Brazilian neighbours just might.
It also seems like I'm about to fizzle out into oblivion like I always thought I wouldn't but feared I might, because the effects of media consumption have been made more manifest in my day to day life than all that I learned about in my 3 years of undergraduate studies.
Let me explain...
Between deadlines, other headlines and worrying about family and friends back home, I absentmindedly participated in online campaigns for the #BringBackOurGirls movement that seemed to seize social media near the end of April. Retweeting, reblogging, liking and sharing, but rarely ever engaging, barely discussing, hardly understanding, never questioning, not writing and knowing fully well that I'd be 'over it' soon. And so would the rest of the world.
Now as a Nigerian in diaspora, my first reaction was that it must be as a result of being removed from the situation. If I was back home, in the thick of it, perhaps I would have been more engaged with the situation. I had to cut short that train of thought, because though it rang true it provided no solutions for my current dilemma. So what if I am removed from the situation? It is the very nature of things that I'll find myself removed from much of what is considered breaking news at any given time. But as a journalist, in fact as global citizens, it is of utmost importance and with increasing urgency that we should find ways in which to engage with issues in our world, regardless of how otherly or remote they may seem. In reality these situations affect us all. Whether we choose to admit it or not doesn't change that simple fact.
Standing now at the precipice of the month and looking back, I realise that there is much I have failed to engage with, even though I was aware:
- Rumours of Edward Snowden's growing relationship with the Russian government
- The Russia-Ukraine 'conflict'
- The Thai Coup
- The US keeping tabs on North Korea and China via Japan with their trustee drones
- The South Korean ferry tragedy
- The Vietnam-China unrest
- Brazil's world cup woes
- The "honour killing" in Pakistan
- The Sudanese woman charged with apostasy because her estranged father was Muslim even though she was raised a Christian
- The current Egyptian elections
- The mentally ill misogynist killer
This is where 3 years of journalism and communications studies comes into play. I remember a tutor using the phrase 'compassionate fatigue' to describe the world's reaction to violence and bad news in the press. We have become so used to seeing all these things happen that we sort of switch off to it. This isn't merely suspension of disbelief. We know that it's real and it is happening. But it happened yesterday, and the day before that. It'll happen tomorrow again, maybe somewhere closer or further away. There is nothing new about the news anymore. On the rare occasion that something does capture our attention, we lose interest quickly and substitute reality with mind numbing television. Anything to escape the truth of the world around us.
Unfortunately globalisation is upon us and the world will suffocate you so snap out of it. There is no running away from reality. Our world is getting smaller and smaller for many different reasons.
So maybe you don't care about what's going on in Pakistan but the girl in your economics class does because those are her people. And maybe a bunch of missing girls don't bug you but your Nigerian boyfriend can't get them off his mind. Perhaps women's rights has never been a topic of interest, but your best friend could have been Elliot Rodger's victim. It might be that religion is something you'd rather not discuss or debate, yet Meriam Yahia Ibrahim had to give birth in jail. What do you care about protests in Brazil? You just want to see some football! You don't care, but your Brazilian neighbours just might.
