Peshawar Tragedy: representation in the media and fear of expanding Trauma

The life changing tragedy happening on December 16th has changed the very life perceptions of people living in this city. The show of solidarity from all segments of Pakistani society and the rest of the world is very comforting. The local and mainstream media’s response to the tragedy is laudable. People in the city of Peshawar felt to be part of the larger human habitat after a very long break. Media persons went through a personal trauma while covering the horrible event. This really showed the human side of journalists and journalism, which showed how this professional group owns the audience and how much they are part of it. At this point of our national history it is important to look at the way this incident is being presented and how it will affect the audience as well as the working journalists. The spot coverage of the event has exposed the very weakness of the media to deal with certain incidents. In an era of break neck competition and breaking news, it is difficult to manage live coverage. This has remained a long-standing ethical question, yet to be dealt with by the national media as an intuition. Asking critical questions form the victims, who were waiting to see whether their loved ones were alive or not, added to the grief of the parents and relatives on the spot. It has but also affected viewers across the globe. Then came the next day when media persons asked questions from relatives, mostly parents, in their homes or hospitals. Here again, most of the time, the limits of professionalism were extended beyond the ethical conscience of the journalists themselves. In hindsight, even the journalists covering the unfortunate incident and its aftermath will see that they pushed the interviewees too far. This brings the ethical question of making a clear policy on covering such gory incidences and capacity building of journalists on issues of trauma on a personal level as well as an understanding of the effects of their work on the audience. The second issue that is very important in media representations is “the follow up”. Follow-ups are mostly the repetition of the same day’s images and audio-visual presentations on the media. There is no question about the fact that the media and media professionals mean well and do their best to keep the audience up-to-date on the happening, and its aftermath. The audiences do need these follow ups to know about and deal with the tragedy. But the repetition of graphic presentations has a traumatizing effect on the audience, especially children. In the present case the very victims of the incident were children. This makes it even worse for the audience. Children looking at children, endlessly, seeing their misery, and identifying themselves with them, makes the whole media exposure extremely traumatizing to the worst limits. The media needs to look into this issue. It is not easy to adjust to unending tragedies and the professional requirements, professional and market pressure, and many other seen and unseen pressures on the individual journalists as well as media organizations. But at the same time, it is important to have a serious check on presenting and following up on tragic incidents. An audience-focused media is the need of the hour. It is high time to look into the needs of the audience and see to the effects of the media representations on the audience. An audience-focused media will strive to safeguard the best interests of its audience. Spreading trauma through a well-intended, but faulty, product is not a service. The line should be drawn to avoid any such impact. A debate on trauma and how to avoid its spread through the media product is immediately needed. And immediacy means right now, not any debate in the near future. We don’t have the time for such drawing room decisions.

Peshawar Tragedy: Some basic fact checking, the Media Monolith tends to ignore

The whole world is busy explaining the events from yesterday in Peshawar. We all have our own ways of expression at individual and professional levels. In fact, individual expressions beamed on the media become collective images. I see an anchor arriving from Karachi and hovering at LRH, looking for interviewees. His prime target is to find a loved one who has lost a loved one and make him/her cry in public. He couldn’t find many and had to remain content with doctors and someone whose loved one escaped death with minor physical injuries. There were others who did follow their prey to homes (these were the local guys) and had a good rating by making the viewers cry. Well, this is media. And this is what most of people in this business call a human touch. Let me tell you guys, its NOT! I think breaking a few stereotypes/misconceptions would be great for a beginning. Images that we just built last night with the help of the global media enterprise in our effort to be “global”. First, Army Public School was a school where kids, like any other school going kids, studied. It was not a military school. It was a school where kids of military men went along with other civilian kids. And again all the kids did not belong to military officers. In the services there are also lower ranks where parents have similar problems as any of the lower middle class, poor ones with little incomes. Fees were lower for the forces’ kids, while civilian kids used to pay more. But the fees were affordable enough and the education was at a par with other private schools, at times better than many. And last but not least, the parents’ preference to get their children educated at this school was not due to any misplaced notion of hobnobbing with the brass. It was just good quality education. So much for the simple fact of defining the school. Now where is it located? It is not simply about military area, which is highly secure. This is not a solely military inhabited area. Warsak road leads to Peshawar’s suburbs, a number of villages. This road also has the largest number of private schools where most of the kids of the same age as the ones died on Tuesday go for leaning. And the talk about adjacency to the tribal areas is another misconception the Pakistani mainstream creates in collusion with the global media industry. Peshawar University and Hayatabad are nearer to Khyber agency than the area where this school is located could be to Mohmand Agency. Adding spice to demography to make it sellable at the cost of basic facts is extremely unethical by any standards. And the majority of the private schools being here and parents being satisfied with their children studying there is a testament to the fact that it was not situated in the middle of the wild west of Pakistan. Checking basic demographic facts is always good. Google mapping amidst drumming is no journalism. Its not even good story telling. The next question is whether people would be feeling safe to send their kids to any school at all, or to the ones in this area, let alone Army Public School? It is the future of education in this city that is at stake. The narrative of “we are united” is not worth. The politicians gathering in Peshawar won’t be there forever. And even if they are, it will merely add to the city’s security load at a time when its security apparatus should be least bothered with VIP security. The way ahead should be the immediate topic, not the rotten word juggling with the same sordid faces who change mantles like stage performers to earn their “dishonest buck”. And last but not least, the city is in shock and this is not symbolic. The rotten narrative of Pashtoon bravery should be kept aside and the real fact of everyone feeling afraid for today and tomorrow of their children should be the discourse. Getting images from schools from Punjab and Sindh with slogan chanting kids won’t change the reality on the ground. The false hope this city has developed during the last few months is no more. The fear of uneasy calm being the harbinger of a huge storm has proven right and now we are all right in its eye. By “we” I mean people of Peshawar and KPK (FATA included). The rest can surely praise us for our bravery and we appreciate it. But we know that in reality we are all alone amidst all this. This is the sad reality we need to understand and others, to acknowledge. Pakistan has yet to grow beyond provincial boundaries of ethnic divide. Until then, every unit stands alone amid the empty rhetoric of unity.

Peshawar in Grief: A Cynical View of its Represntation in the Media

It is a field day for writers, journalists, experts, mediapersons, media managers, and all who sell news and views. The diversity of the genre has been expanded beyond recognition with the social media and every status upload we all make. Amongst us are those who produce for different media, having different perspectives, and at times different agendas. They have this space in different media and also enjoy the luxury of using the social media, amongst so-called friends. Thus, comments, likes, ego inflation as “servers of truth and saviors of humanity”. We all have a day. And what a day! I am just looking at all that is being said on individual, national, and international levels. It is amazing how concerned the whole world is. How people are gathering to show their sympathies and showing solidarity with the innocent victims of yesterday's massacre. But when we carefully look at all this, we don't see the children. We see agendas: local, national, international, global, just name it and there is an angle; except the human one. Those who are talking about the grief of the parents don't really know what such a loss could be. A personal loss is a personal loss. Its very important we stay with the people in pain, but are we? We always have a statement, an agenda. We are using the incident as a peg to hang our prejudice on. We shouldn't do it. Sharing someone's loss isn't conditional, it doesn't need a slogan. I know all those sharing the grief mean well, but we are so mediatized that we have got into a habit of "marketing our love", proving it "fits into a format, a frame". We need to unlearn this habit to remain human. Now lets look at the media, the grief selling industry, the rating machine, and the interest-marketing monster. Since yesterday I am looking at the national and international media. The national one is analyzing first and reporting later. The typical exercise of using our tears as bait to lure us into an analysis where fixed agendas could be served on the table. The benefit of such a scheme is that no matter how bitter these seem to a sane person, these sell good in moments of indecision. To a careful eye the whole action seems premeditated. It is not premeditated in the sense of the media having the knowledge of the event. It’s rather the frame it has for its own audience. It is furthering the existing prejudices. One of the great myths of "what is positive in the tragedy"? "We got united." We didn't. And this is the unity we always have on the media scene. But did it ever help in the long run? It never. So, please don't beat the beaten path. And most importantly, if this leadership is united at such a cost, I think it is not worth. And what would be the outcome of all this unity and meetings we are pinning our hopes onto. Lets wait and see. We all know the results. Do the media managers know? Yes they do. Then why are they doing it? Either they are incapable to doing a sound analysis, or they just don't have it on their agenda. Now lets have a look at the international media. Shameless, as it is all the time. Fitting Pakistan into the frame of the terror haven is what they are doing. Well, many would argue this is what it is! Well, lets buy this for a moment. But would they do it to their own people if such a tragedy happens? They won't! It’s for us. Cobbling an image through naming all acts of terror that have taken place in the region and using the image of innocent children to prove the point is criminal. Be human for a moment. Think about the innocent loss of lives in this Godforsaken part of the earth. When a guy kills dozens in Norway, the country is not painted as racist. It is just a lone guy gone mad. And Pakistan bashing is not difficult. You get more than one chance every day. Just close the shop for one single day. You don't want to accept us as human beings, just leave us alone for a day, at least. Just let your frames rest and keep your hands off.