How quickly the vast behemoth we call the modern media changes focus. The revolution in Libya and the unrest in the Middle East was subject to saturation coverage over the last few weeks, almost to the exclusion of all else.
Now, the tragedy in Japan caused by the earthquake and subsequent tsunami has knocked the Middle East dilemma off the map completely....not just as the top story....but completely. Even the BBC, that paragon of good broadcasting, has lurched from wall-to-wall coverage of Libyan unrest to wall-to-wall coverage of the aftermath of the natural disaster in Japan, like the Eye of Sauron searching for the Hobbits. There seems to be no middle ground. Lybia barely gets a "and now for the rest of the news" mention.
The disaster in Japan is tragic. Death and destruction on that scale is awesome and terrifying in equal measure. Mother Nature has stirred and reminded us just how much She is in charge, and not us. We are no more than an irritant on her skin, to be swatted or scratched from time to time.
But the disaster in Japan is a point in time and no matter how awful it is right now, it has very little long term impact on humanity, on society and on the future of the human world we all live in. It deserves our attention. It deserves our symathy and help. It deserves extensive, but not exclusive media coverage.
The happenings in the Middle East, on the other hand, are fundamental to the way a large portion of the world will work in the forseeable future. They deserve more than a mention at the end of the news.
Why does the media get this so wrong?
I'm afraid to say that even such respected institutions like the BBC and CNN are out for sensationalist headlines. The Lybian conflict has reached a stalemate. Gaddafi has survived (for now) and is fighting back. For news organisations looking for the next big headline, this is a disaster. It's just a shame that another disaster has to be the vehicle for them to get out of the doldrums they find themselves back in the fast current of sensationalist journalism.
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