Media Disproportion

Two weeks ago on Wednesday, January 7th of this year, a terror attack in Paris, France lead to the death of comic artist Charlie Hebdo along with twelve others. The attack was carried out by a Muslim extremists group (No not ISIS) that are part of Al Qaeda in Yemen. Video footage shows after the attack on the office as the men were escaping, they came across an officer on the ground wounded from gunshot. The officer was quickly killed and the terrorists finally escaped. Police are still looking for the men who did this. The video is available online but is graphic in nature, so a warning is issued if you go to watch it.

Now, we all know this is a terrible thing. And how people say “blah blah” all Muslims shouldn’t be treated like these people and these men need to be brought to justice. But the outlook of most people about this situation: Life goes on.

There is a different story in Africa. For these people, life doesn’t go on.

Nigeria, northern country side. Here, multiple villages were the next target for another brutal muslim extremist group named Boko Haram. This is the same group that captured girls from schools and convert them to Islam. These men approached the village of Boga and started mass killings and eventually raising the village in the name of Allah. Death toll as WHO (World Health Organization) claims is estimated to be at 2,000 people. The entire village was wiped out.

Later that week, 60 girls were found to be kidnapped and lots of children orphaned that were later found in the country of Chad’s Refugee camps that fled to survive. Their leader, Abubakar Shekau claimed responsibility for the attack in Boga and stated “This is just the tip of the iceberg, more attacks are coming.”

I’m not sure about the people reading this, but last time I checked, the news was still talking about Charlie Hebdo killings or the situation involving ISIS and the Japanese hostages. While I still think these things need to be talked about and should never have happened in the first place, entire villages are being burned to the ground. It seems as if no one is talking about it. Or if they do it’s brief and to the point. Why you may ask? Well it’s a pretty easy concept and motto I still think the news lives by today, “If it didn’t happen in the first world, who cares?”

Before you get your cinemons in a twist, yes the news does report in the way it does for a reason. That’s a discussion for another time. What reason would there to be not to report on this? You can argue…

“It’s in the continent of Africa, I don’t care.”
“It’s hard to get valid information from Africa.”

Imagine this: The population of Weedsport is close to 2,000 people according to the 2013 census. Imagine if all of them died in one day. Everyone,including your family, friends, and loved ones. They had nowhere to go or run and the men responsible for this are still at large and no one has really done anything about it. Instead of this being told the public, this atrocity that you lived through is being pushed under the table so the news can cover what is trending on social media.

It’s pretty sad how little the outside world actually knows.
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