Media study essay.(asia-pacific media systems)

Media Study Essay (asia-pacific media systems

2006

2004 - Indian Ocean tsunami

The 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake , which had a magnitude of 9 .3 triggered a series of lethal tsunamis on December 26 , 2004 that killed approximately 230 ,000 people . The disaster was extremely huge in terms of geographical magnitude as well the areas affected by the tsunami ranged from the immediate vicinity of the quake in Indonesia , Thailand and the north-western coast of Malaysia to thousands of kilometers away in Bangladesh , India , Sri Lanka , the Maldives , and even as far as

br Somalia , Kenya and Tanzania in eastern Africa . Measured in lives lost this is one of the ten worst earthquakes in recorded history , as well as the single worst tsunami in history

I decided to start the narration of the aftermath events from my impressions I had after getting the massive news through all the channels , newss , radio and internet research during one year after the tsunami occurred

The story of the Western Mass Media

It was the biggest tragedy in the world , it took more than 200 .000 lives , most of which from Indonesia and Sri Lanka . A lot of foreigners who spent their Christmas holidays were affected by the disaster . Many European families were lost , a lot of children were orphaned and those tourists who survived were in terrible psychological condition . Local victims of the tsunami were also featured in the western Mass Media Huge amount of humanitarian aid was dispatched to the affected regions and the delivery , as well as emergency assistance was professionally and fairly organized by a number of international humanitarian organizations UN , Red Cross , Oxfam , WHO , Save the Children , etc

There was a huge danger that the tsunami will strike again , the tsunami was followed by serious shortage of food , water , shelter , as well as a number of infectious diseases which could turn into a massive epidemics And the last , the Indonesian Government and the arming groups in Aceh were hindering the delivery of the humanitarian aid to those who needed them

These were the messages that prevailed in the western Mass Media . And this is what the western audience is aware of

During the research I came over several very interesting articles and studies that revealed some of the hidden stories ' of the post-tsunami reality and criticized western news agencies , as well as the humanitarian aid agencies . Thus , I had to enlarge the scope of my research and compare three parties western Mass Media , western criticism and Asia- Pacific Mass Media

Criticism and Untold Stories

Time after time the stories of the western part have varied from each other , so that the headlines of popular dailies would contradict to each other leaving the reader in confusion which one is right

An article on Choire Sicha , HYPERLINK "http /www .choiresicha .com www .choiresicha .com , dated December 31 , 2004 says Perhaps some of this morning 's front page headlines are true ' and brings 21 dailies with contradicting headlines following one another

The rhetorical questions of...