The Politics of Natural Disaster - Essay Example

?Introduction Social construction is intrinsically linked to broadly distributed network of social relationship of people with environment within which they live. The acquisition of knowledge provides them with necessary tool to widen their area of experience and to use it for the development of society across the globe. The language therefore becomes the vital means of propagating knowledge and information across broader panorama of human influence. Indeed, languages were created primarily for effective communication (Berger, 2005). Through the times, language with exhaustive vocabulary became the most powerful instrument to influence paradigms of socio-political relationship across the globe. In the current times, words are used to give special slant to the content and influence readers in ways which would give them some vested benefits. Today, nothing has remained sacred for media which uses language and words as major tools to gain political mileage in their reporting of events. A case in point is the reporting of hurricane Katrina which had devastated district of New Orleans, US in 2005. Three press reports are used to show how language had been manipulated to shape the readers’ attitudes toward the victims of this disaster. The paper would describe how the following words were used to convey myriad meaning with political connotations in the news reporting of Katrina relief work: Words: Refugee, evacuee, looters, everybody’s store, beleaguered people, apocalyptic desolation, black people, diehard and communes. Language as major tool of communication Media is essential part of social structure that is profusely used to disseminate information and report relevant news from all corners of the world and covering all spheres of human concern. Indeed, their importance to the people cannot be denied. Reporting of natural disasters like hurricane Katrina becomes hugely pertinent to the world at large as help can be garnered from across the world to give relief to the victims. Thus, style of reporting natural disasters often becomes more complex as language becomes rhetorical and words are used as lethal weapon to emphasize issues. Such events are also often used to politicize the vested interests of some people or bring forth the apathy of government and raise important social issues which are in the wider welfare of society. How words can give special slant to the meaning MSNBC (2005) had used ‘Looters’ in its headline and ‘Everybody’s store’ in its content to convey the reigning anarchy in the aftermath of Katrina which had left a huge trail of destruction, death and helpless people. The common man had become a looter who went on spree of looting stores with total disregard for the other people or their property. The shops and convenient stores had become everybody’s stores! Even police helped themselves to medicines without making any payments. Though of course, they said that ‘this is for the sick’! Mike Pesca (2005) of NPR was quite prolific in using the term ‘refugee’ and ‘evacuee’. He seemed pretty fascinated by it and defined evacuees as those ‘who heeded warnings and had the wherewithal to leave town before Katrina hit’. According to him, all the rest of the victims were refugees! Refugee word had become quite controversial as it was found to have demeaning connotations and lowered the status of legitimate citizens of the state to that of ‘refugee’ within their own country of birth! It had given a political twist to the word and provided the politicians with strong tool to gain political leverage even during national calamity. Interestingly his use of the word ‘beleaguered people’ was apt because the victims were harassed by the state itself and were desperately seeking relief that was not coming. They had indeed become refugee in their own country. Christian Parenti’s article has been most impressive as he has used strong words to describe ground reality of the relief work after Katrina had hit the city. There was total chaos and government machinery had completely failed to safeguard people and their property in the aftermath of the disaster. ‘Apocalytic desolation’ fittingly described the scene as that of total destruction, extreme feeling of helplessness and gloom as if the end of the world has come. The people were doomed to suffer further from the lack of support from the government. ‘Black’ was used to emphasize the racial discrimination that was apparent in the attitude and actions of the relief workers, especially the federal and state agents. The corpse of black person was not removed for more than 5 days even though it posed serious health concern for other victims. Parenti has also given a new meaning or rather literal meaning to ‘diehards’. People who had preferred to stay in the city rather than board buses which were taking people to other places, supposedly safer than this place, were termed as diehards. Later their decisions was justified as places, where victims were taken, was equally bad. If they have die, they might as well die in their own hometown! So diehard was the right word. He has also used ‘commune’ word to give impression of situation where open crime was conducted in well-defined and organized manner. Commune’s literal meaning is group home which is organized. After Katrina, hotels had been turned into communes by criminals who looted the city and its people of their property in a systematic manner. The stark reality of the aftermath of great natural disaster was evoked through words which left long lasting impression on the minds of the readers who had not witnessed the harrowing experiences of the victims. Conclusion Words indeed play crucial role in describing situations and experiences which significantly impact the psyche of the readers. They also relay huge information in succinct manner but which may carry implicit and explicit information that can be interpreted in many ways. The reporting of hurricane Katrina was highly effective in exposing the apathy of federal and state agencies. It was also able to raise the social issues like racial discrimination. Most importantly, natural disaster had become important platform to politicize social issues and government mechanisms for relief work where their own citizens had become refugees! (words: 1007) References Berger, Charles, R. (September, 2005). Interpersonal Communication: Theoretical Perspectives, Future Prospects. Journal of Communication, 415-447. MSNBC. (August 30, 2005). Looters take advantage of New Orleans mess. Retrieved from: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9131493/ns/us_news-katrina_the_long_road_back/t/looters-take-advantage-new-orleans-mess/ Pesca, Mike. (September 6, 2005). Are Katrina’s Victims ‘Refugees’ or ‘Evacuees’? Retrieved from: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4833613 Parenti, Christian. (September 26, 2005). The Big Easy Dies Hard. Retrieved from: http://www.kersplebedeb.com/mystuff/katrina/parenti_26_09_2005.html Read More