The Visual Rhetoric of Haiti

I have been thinking a lot about the news coverage of the Haiti earthquake, because it is disturbing to me on many different levels. Lets look at the first and most obvious: this is a complete tragedy. I can't even imagine the heart break that people are going through.

I think recognizing the tragedy and sadness of this event is the most obvious reaction. However the way the story is covered also disturbs me.

I am taking a visual rhetoric class right now, so I have taken a closer look at the images that are being shown on the news. In that class, we read an article by Reginald Twigg, which you can read here. :) I have a crush on this article. This is some sexy sexy writing, and if you have time to read it, do! But its a bit long, so I am going to summarize it, and then apply it to Haiti news coverage. Ready? Ok, lets go! His premise is that photography is always a performance. That you do not just take a picture, but that you make a picture. You choose what you view in your lens, and what you leave out of your picture. You can choose to be looking up at something, or down at something. There are many ways in which someone makes a picture. The brilliance of photography is its "often explicit denial that any active performance" has taken place. Photography appears to be objective reality, when in actuality, it is a performance. You bring your baggage when you make a picture. Ones socially constructed views on reality went into making the photo, thus making it political. Photographs have the ability to erase their own textuality.

Ok, so now that that is on the table lets talk about photographs and observing. I am getting tired and I should be STUDYING for my visual rhetoric test, rather than using its theories for my own blogging purposes, so I am going to go ahead and copy and past this, but lets face it, Twigg can say it better than I can anyway: "The act of observing, which simultaneously performs the discursive operations of looking and classifying, constructs the observer as subject and the observed as object. The "object is subjected to the power implied in the observers gaze. This transformation is performed at the moment of looking where the observer assumes the right to speak for and classify the observed other, which becomes an object of information, never a subject in communication."
--That is why the way the media is covering the Haiti earthquake disturbs me. Because the media is "observing" Haitians and classifying them. Making Haitians passive people who are observed, but rarely invited into dialogue. The dominant images we see on the news are people outdoors, covered in rubble, impoverished, and uncapable. Although Haiti is a poor country, they have hospitals and other things, and they arent COMPLETELY uncapable. Casting them as such, even in the midst of a crisis, is irresponsible and not fair. The images we are seeing are political. If the western media thought that Haitians were capable of taking care of themselves do you think they would be portrayed in this way? Probably not. The images are political. (There is also the problem with journalists motto of "if it bleeds it leads", and using crisis and spectacle for ratings...) Now, as journalists, I realize that they have a responsibility to show people what is happening around the world, but people under rubble, and looting, and the most impoverished people are not the ONLY story, or the full story of Haiti.

This is damaging to the people of Haiti because of their unfortunate past of colonialism. The people there do not need to be controlled, and observed and categorized anymore than they already have been. While I do not want to be completely cynical about this, and say that the media HOPES that things like this happen so that they can profit... they are using the Haitian Crisis for profit, and doing it in an irresponsible manner. This is also damaging for the women in Haiti, because the media is viewing them (as well as all Haitians) as passive and helpless. This argument isn't super articulate because I am exhausted and blogging out of frustration. So I apologize. For other great critiques and articles on Haiti, we can find awesome articles at feministing (duh! haha), and at No Caption Needed and at The Women's Media Center.