Media Coverage Of Haiti Earthquake 2010 And Its Devastating Effects

The dramatic power of mother earth’s destructive capabilities suddenly stuck the nation of Haiti. This tragic natural disaster hit Port Au- Prince, Haiti causing devastating damage and loss of life that has been rarely seen before. On January 12th, 2010 the people and country were hit with a massive 7. 0 magnitude earthquake that caused city wide devastation and destruction. The earthquake crippled the country’s infrastructure, people and ability to function. This was especially devastating as Haiti was already a fragile and economically deprived country. Many of lives were lost in the initial earthquake, however, this was just the beginning. The people of Haiti were later hit with several aftershocks, which caused even more damage and death. The country was not equipped to provide medical care, water, food and electricity to all those affected by this tragedy. This led to the death toll and devastation to continue to rise over the following days and weeks. The magnitude of this massive earthquake was said to have killed nearly 250,000 people and left millions of people homeless and hopeless. Many local businesses, homes, schools, hospitals, churches, as well as the main airport, were destroyed. The earthquake occurred for less than a minute but managed to cause severe destruction to the city and its inhabitants that has been remembered since the day of the disaster and will not be forgotten for many years to come. Two tectonic plates caused the earthquake, one being called the Caribbean plate and the other being the North American Plate. While the two plates were sliding past one another they got stuck, causing the movement of both plates to halt. After remaining stuck for a while, an enormous pressure had been built by the two plates trying to force past each other. Once the pressure reached a certain point, the plates broke apart suddenly and forcefully, and moved rapidly to where they would have been had they not gotten stuck. The rapid movement of the North American tectonic plate is what caused the massive earthquake to happen in Haiti. This is referred to as a convergent earthquake.

Throughout the news, as well as researching scholarly studies, many of the topics we covered in class played a big part in the media and in the scholarly studies I researched. Things like frames, topics related to our readings we did in class, as well as well as things like mitigation and devastation were all presented in the media as well as various studies. Helplessness was a big theme covered in the media as it played a similar role as devastation, many lives were lost and the destruction of the earthquake was so severe. People were left hungry and homeless as the earthquake nearly wiped out an entire city. People remained stuck under structures for days after the earthquake hit. People lost their partners, mothers, fathers, children, and friends. The future was called into question, many people unsure of what to do considering all that was lost, and many were very afraid of the fight for survival that often accompanies tragedies similar to this. Solidarity amongst the world was immense, as all the other countries were so willing to help this desperate country in need. Humanity and empathy mobilized the world. A number of organizations and governments provided massive amounts of aid and assistance. Care packages, financial donations as well as food, clothing and other donations were being shipped in. World leaders such as President Obama made a speech on January 13th, 2010, where he addressed the tragedy as a whole but was also offered full support for the ones in need. A quote from the speech follows “The people of Haiti will have the full support of the United States in the urgent effort to rescue those trapped beneath the rubble, and to deliver the humanitarian relief- the food, water and medicine that Haitians will need in the coming days” (Obama). This shows the support that the USA at the highest level and was willing to offer as well as how they were there for them throughout it all. Many doctors, volunteers, people from all over the world flew in to help this cause. This covers the frame of solidarity that we discussed in class.

The song “Wavin’ Flag” by K’Naan was remade shortly after the earthquake struck Haiti, to raise awareness of the earthquake for people around the world and provide a means for gathering donations for those affected. The remake was recorded and performed by Canadian artists as they all collaborated to create a special song in memory of those who were lost. There was a strong meaning behind every line including a phrase that was constantly repeated. “When I get older, I will be stronger they’ll call me freedom just like a waving flag”, that shows the potential of the future and how they aspire to be free. It raised around 1 million dollars for the victims of the Haiti earthquake, the song showed significant solidarity, as popular artists all came together to raise awareness for something as devastating as this. The lyrics are emotional and touch all sorts of audiences listening to them. After the earthquake hit, several news headings included the word devastation in the title. The entire earthquake as a whole was devastating for this dense population of Haiti. Bodies were everywhere, and millions of people were left homeless as the destruction was so severe. Out of everything covered in the media, the topic of “devastation” got the most coverage, as so many things about this crisis were quite heartbreaking. A huge factor for the reason this earthquake got so much coverage is due to the death toll being so high, although the destruction was massive, over 200,000 lives were lost which makes it a highly reported as well as very emotional for everyone involved. In the news, it was reported as the major damage and destruction was caused by the poor infrastructure of buildings all around the country. Haiti is a very financially disadvantaged country and did not have the resources to create buildings to the standards of most first world countries which exponentially magnified the devastating damage. The Red Cross reported the disaster a similar way as news channels, and said the cause of damage was due to the lack of infrastructure which left around 2. 3 million people displaced.

The Red Cross donations put a large percentage of the donations towards the rebuilding of homes and buildings. They spent 173 million towards rebuilding homes, which lead to over 143,000 people with safe housing and a better chance at making a quick recovery. This is related to mitigation and how Red Cross is helping Haiti rebuild, but also helping build safer dwellings and creating an overall safer and stronger living environment in case of another earthquake. Unfortunately, prior to this natural disaster, Haiti didn’t have the proper resources to help mitigate the damages caused by an earthquake or survive the aftermath. The Red Cross was a vital leader in organizing donations helped them mitigate for future natural disasters. An article from Oxford journals estimated the economic damage that the disaster caused, based off of 2000 catastrophic events from the past. They compared the deaths, number of people, GDP per capita, population of city, people missing as well as the dollar amount. They estimated that if the death rate was around 250,000 that the economic loss would be around 8. 1 billion. But in saying that, it’s hard to estimate the exact amount as every natural disaster is different. As reported in the balance article, the damages were likely between 7. 8 billion and 8. 5 billion, they also believed that it could reach 13. 9 billion over time. These numbers are between media studies and scholarly studies are somewhat similar but do contradict in a way. A difference between the scholarly sources and the media sources is how they present their ideas and work. In scholarly studies, the main difference is they are a lot less personal and a lot more science and facts of the topic being discussed. In media sources, the authors are often more sympathetic and express emotions in their writing to connect to the reader. It affects the reader as reading the news about an event like this is emotional, rather than reading a scholarly article which is not connected to the emotions. In the article “Frontline in Our Backyard”, they talk about how the reporters resonate articles with the audience and want to make the news stories hit home and connect to the reader. That’s a main difference between scholarly sources and media sources, media sources have more of an emotional connection with the reader and they are more effective in evoking emotions from the reader, rather than scholarly sources, which are more scientific and facts. The damages were a major theme reported in the media as so much got destroyed and the repair cost was severe. Roads, homes, businesses, schools and churches were all destroyed. The damage reports were conflicting, depending on the news source but it was said to be around 8 billion dollars done in damage.

Part of the large destruction was due to the fact that one story built up more than half the cities infrastructure. If they had stronger buildings and focused on details it would of potentially lead to less damage. ” A Wake up Call for Haiti shared, that compared to the other social classes, the wealthier part of Port-au-Prince had fewer casualties compared to the overpopulated, lower income neighborhoods. The major cause of deaths was due to the construction of homes and infrastructure of buildings throughout. The difference between media news and scholarly news is you don’t get information like this on the news. You hear about the deaths and what caused the severity but not anything about social classes and how it relates to the deaths around the population. I think people, governments and nations around the globe felt the impact and devastation that the people and country experienced. I feel the media really shifted from reporting the global disaster, devastation and death and influenced people to see the situation and support it. It’s is unfortunate it takes such a devastating event to mobilize media, people and governments to help at times, though it is nice to see the world come together to help and support people in distress and restore faith in the good of the humanitarian spirit.

The way scholarly articles and media studies present their work differentiated majorly, they both had effective ways of presenting their ideas but it differentiated in the emotional side of the reporting. They also conflicted in some parts relating in the number side. Although the media presented different topics, one of the main topics discussed was devastation and the damage that was caused.

Works cited

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