Enjoying a good disaster

An article by Elahn    1 Comment

An interesting article from news.com.au.

David Southwell offers a reply (“Not enjoying the cynic view of disasters”) to Sydney Morning Herald journo Ross Gittins’ story titled “The punters love a good disaster“. In short we, the audience are entertained by media coverage of disasters, natural or otherwise in the same was we are entertained by horror films or teary eyed romantic dramas.

Ross Gittens writes -

The unspeakable truth is that most people enjoy a good natural disaster. We’re fascinated by the misfortune of others. It’s a form of entertainment, just as people find weepies and horror movies entertaining. As part of this, audiences want as much personal, intimate detail about the victims’ trauma as possible, and the media deliver.

The media, he says, compete to attract a larger audience than the competition and therefore it’s no wonder they offer their wares to stir emotion in the market. Do they go over the top? Is the reporting too in depth? Do we really have to hear every detail of suffering and survival to get the larger picture? Are we city-folk emotionally drained that we use these events to drive our own sense of humanity?

David Southwell counters -

There is some honesty in all this, although it is difficult to measure what “over the top” coverage means when Australia has suffered its worst peacetime disaster in terms of lives lost in a single day.
Naturally media outlets, who compete against each other, do try to give people what they want.

Is this what we really want? Are we that voueristic?

Tell me what you think.