On The Media: Offer a Helping Hand Instead of a Voice

“A 3 year old boy in a red shirt and short pants, a sweet face pressed into the sand and surf; drowned.” That is the quote that was used by Brooke Gladstone as she posed the question, ‘how does a photograph enrage a world unmoved for so long after Europe’s refugee crisis after so many dead?’ She explains if wasn’t the fact that he was a child but simply that it was a single child. Studies show that we are moved to help when we see the image of one desperate child but the urge quickly shrivels when we’re exposed to two or more children but we feel more connected when the child looks identical to us. It’s nothing new, we have seen this before and she provides another example with bringing up Vietnam and all the deaths that occurred there but say people were shocked when a pictured leaked of a little girl scorched by napalm running naked in the street. Gladstone accessed that some editors choose not to include the photograph in their piece but she believes it should be seen because it provides a “drop of injustice” as quoted by Brooke that reigns down on all of us as a society. Over time, being exposed to more unfortunate pictures like these should finally have the roof cave in and add some relief and open our eyes.

I always have a feeling of uneasiness when it comes to graphic photographs like these because I rarely have the stomach for it and it forces myself to open my eyes and realize that I am truly blessed to live the life that I am currently living. Living here in the U.S. I feel like we all at times take advantage of our freedom and we’re still complaining to have more. When I see tragic and distraught pictures, me personally want to offer a helping hand rather than having a voice by saying, “That’s unfortunate but we should ourselves (Americans) first” or “I wish I could help out”. It kind of irritates me when I hear people say that because we need to help EVERYBODY, not just Americans, we are all human but we still act like being divided by a border or a certain race separates us. Now I know not everyone is in the position where they can help out but when people say they wish they can then go spend their money on unnecessary garbage then they’re becoming a hypocrite of their words. I wish we didn’t have to portray pictures of children dying but if that’s the way it’ll alert people than so be it.

Physical: Elan (3 year old boy) happened in Europe’s Refugee Crisis and little girl scorched in napalm in Vietnam.

Psychological: Being exposed to one helpless child will open up people’s sentimental side but once there are two or more in the pictures, people feel threatened.

Cultural: This unfortunately happens way too often and when people are exposed to these graphic pictures then we’ll act like it’s nothing special by maybe saying, “That’s sad” and continue to move about our day.

Social: Nobody talks about the situation, people just think if they can avoid this sickening subject than they won’t have to worry about anything. That right there is the problem, if people would stand up and talk to each other about and try to find solutions then we as a society could maybe prevent less of it from happening in the future.

Temporal: Religion sometimes will get in the way of our perceptions and force us to think that that’s what happens in that country and there’s nothing you can do. To me, that’s just an excuse to be lazy because we might have to go through the same thing as long as it has nothing to do with “our” family.