The featured blog here is called "Haiti Earthquake Stories" and can be accessed by clicking HERE.
About the Blog
The blog author is James Lea, a freelance photo/video journalist from the USA.
His goal in writing his blog is to inform his readers of the conditions of Haiti, post-disaster, as well as of the efforts of volunteers who have generously sacrificed their time in giving aid.
(Refer to his introduction *here*)
Featured Posts
BRINGING HAITI ORPHANS TO THE US *Click here to get to post*
This post talks about how the Haiti disaster did not only affect people in the local Haitian community but it also changed the lives of some Americans. People in America offered help, not only by providing physical aid e.g. rations and donations, but also by adopting Haitian orphans. This shows us how disasters have positive outcomes to it, especially after disaster relief efforts are carried out.
AN INTENSE DETERMINATION TO SURVIVE *Click here to get to post*
In this post, the author gives a different perspective about the situation by sharing the experiences of the Haitian people instead of merely reporting facts. He is playing the role of a journalist while also grabbing the audiences' attention through a more casual way of describing the effects of the disaster on the people.
VIDEO STORY *Click here to get to post*
As the saying goes, "seeing is believing". Apart from merely writing about the earthquake's aftermath, the author has also posted visual representations of the effects of the disaster. Though reading about the situation in Haiti is helpful, people are more likely to be impacted by seeing through photo or video evidence what exactly is going on. The video demonstrates the aid provided to the victims, especially medical aid, and gives documentation to the things that relief workers and medical personnel are actually doing to offer their help to those in need.
Conclusion
This journalist uses a blog as his resource to effectively get word out about the Haiti disaster. His role in the media is important because he is able to inform people of what is actually happening there, and by posting stories and videos of victims, survivors and relief workers, his readers are able to truly grasp the situation through his in-depth and first-hand, personal experience. On top of that, his being a journalist gives him credibility. This makes his reports and stories more believable to most readers.
However, his posts do have their downsides. They are pretty much from an American's point-of-view, so it doesn't tell us what and how other countries are doing to help Haiti in its time of need. This demonstrates that, as always, media can be biased. So, readers have to be cautious and get more information from more than one source to get the full story.
Taking a closer look at Haiti in its current state, it is clear just how big of a toll the earthquake took on this country, not only in the initial disaster, but even more in the aftermath.
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We encourage you to explore the other posts in the featured blog, construct your own opinion of it and the Haiti earthquake, and give us your input via the comment box to further facilitate discussion.
Written by Dallas, Jina, Jordan, and Syn Dee
I found the blog to be a new and interesting presentation of the disaster in Haiti. It is rather refreshing to hear it from an "Average Joe" than some NBC or CNN news anchor. He describes some of the problems that need to be taken care of immediately. However, I found another problem not from the blog but from Haiti itself.
ReplyDeleteI'm was rather disappointed of what the child asked for when the blogger was in Haiti. Under the title "An Intense Determination to Survive" a child apparently asked for an iPod. I found this to be rather shocking especially after such destruction. Why would they not ask for an actual necessity such as food or clean water? Has globalization changed society so much that to sooth ourselves after such a hard-hitting disaster we must have a material object to ease the pain? I just found this to be rather interesting and I would like to see your guys' opinion on the subject.
I definitely agree that that remark is interesting.
ReplyDeleteI think there's two ways it can be taken. In one aspect, your comment is completely reasonable. "Beggars can't be choosers," right? And an I-pod is far from being a necessity.
Then again, just because this child is from Haiti doesn't change the fact that he is a child. Children aren't very reasonable and they ask often for things that are barely attainable or take large sacrifices to attain.
The way the blogger wrote about it, he used it as a sign of normalcy.
So in the end, the question comes down to: are you disappointed in the child's remarks because it was a dependent asking for too much or because children as a whole seem to be getting more and more materialistic?
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteIn my opinion, the child asking for an ipod doesn't necessarily means he considered the material desire to be the first priority after went through such a devastating case, he must still need the objects such as food and drinks to move on.
ReplyDeleteHowever, he might just view those necessities as daily essentials (even if there's shortage going on) and probably won't regard those items as the answer when a question came to what he wants.
Although it's slightly abrupt to hear an ipod being the answer, but as Jina mentioned, children would be children, he might still wanted to get a trendy thing no matter what. i think at the moment, the boy wanted to have something new besides daily supplies to attend to, a thing he thinks it's fun to play with. A trendy electronic product such as ipod seems to be a good answer for himself then, though it's really unnecessary.
From my point of view I think after all he just need an item, but unfortunately the product he chose probably make Kyle and some other people feel sort of disappointed, but the act itself should be more of a child's behavior, not all to do with materialistic thoughts. :)
Haiti was a devastating disaster, so it could be that the child needed some sort of distraction from it all. Necessities are one thing but who knows, he might still be in some sort of traumatic state and to "get away" from it, the iPod he wanted might have been his escape. His desire for an iPod may have also occurred from the fact that the people he comes across(the crew members) are Americans. And he might have associated the American 'toy' with them. Perhaps thinking that all Americans own an iPod like it is a necessity.
ReplyDeleteI would like to briefly talk about the ipod comment. I can definitely see where you are coming from in thinking that it is greedy of the boy to ask for something so insignificant in light of the Haiti disaster; but I also believe that the boy is trying to find a sense of normalcy in life. For example, when my grandma used to take me shopping for a program where you buy needy kids gifts for the winter holidays, she would say that we should buy necessities that the children would need for winter to keep warm and that they could not otherwise afford. However, my mom pointed out that sometimes the kids may just want something to keep them occupied and to have fun with, since after all they are kids. It is hard to say that this child was being greedy when most privileged kids ask for expensive items on a daily basis that are not really necessities. Most kids are very materialistic nowadays and the boy asking for just one nice thing is not that unrealistic.
ReplyDeleteAnother question I have for bloggers is if you believe the author is biased in any way or do you think that his "average joe" stance is appropriate?
Most of us may get the details about this earthquake from the report on TV or newspaper because the local people were mostly out of contact to outside world after disaster. As it mentioned in the blog, the writer's aim is "to tell the stories of victims". From these stories, we obtain the first-hand information about the local people which makes us have clearer view of the disaster. The stories are moving to let readers know the local people need a lot of help for a long period after the earthquake to cure not only the injury, but also the mental hurt from the terrible disaster.
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