The End of Muammar Gaddafi - Essay Example

? Journalism, mass media and communication By Due On 20th October the famous Libyandictator, Muammar Gaddafi was shot to death by fighters while he was hiding in a tunnel. Libya took inspiration from the recent Egyptian revolution and the events of Libya were in the talks of everyone all over the world. Muammar Gaddafi attempted to kill the movement by applying force. He had been ruling Libya for 42 years and the people of Libya were in a desperate need of change. The brutal retaliation by Gaddafi was met with a similar disposition. The use of fire to curb a public emotion was condemned all over the world. The death of Muammar Gaddafi served as a denouement for the whole scenario and proved to be an ultimate victory for the democracy-craving people of Libya. This is probably the biggest news of the year so far and the story was promptly covered by all the media. The print media, newspapers and magazines have limited capacity to cover a news story. They need to edit the news more than the broadcast media because they have limited space on paper and they need to put the most important material and refrain from redundancy. These days, it mostly happens that a news story is covered by the broadcast media earlier than the newspapers. When newspapers were the most dominant means of news, the major headline of a news story was, apart from espying, written in a manner that meant to give people news for the first time. These days, it is done by the broadcast media as it they are quicker. The newspapers now tend to make their headlines in a similar manner but add some more information to the news story that the people already know about in the sub-headings. The aforementioned story about Gaddafi’s demise was covered by The New York Times. The front said, “Violent End to an Era as Qaddafi Dies in Libya.” Qaddafi has been a well-known figure world-wide and the story of his death gave very less information about his past as to how he came into power. The news story focused more on the recent events that lead to his death. The rebels were hailed for their efforts to end an era of dictatorship. Their brief interviews were included. The NYT included brief interviews and views of the rebels but they were edited to a great degree. They were edited into succinct remarks. The interview of Omran Shaaban, the fighter who along with his friends claimed to be the first to have found Qaddafi hiding, was paraphrased for brevity. After briefly telling about the death of Qaddafi, the news article shifted its focus to the new political state of Libya. Qaddafi’s death had sent Libya into the hands of rebels it was a chief point of concern for the entire world. The news article presented a picture of new state of affairs and future possibilities for Libya. Then it mentioned the fact that the other rebel groups were very happy with the event and they had congratulated each other. Following the traditional “inverted pyramid” format, after mentioning the important facts, the news article then proceeded to tell the details of the death of Qaddafi. Broadcast Journalism has a capability of reporting the smallest of developments in a very prompt manner. The news of Qaddafi’s death was only a rumor in the beginning. News channels quickly reported that there were unconfirmed reports of Qaddafi’s death. They also mentioned that efforts were being made for the confirmation of the news. They had it confirmed that he had been captured. CNN approached directly to the Minister of Information of Libya to get the details. They kept on repeating the news both verbally and in the news slides. It is done because a great number of audiences do not follow a news story from the beginning. To bring them up to speed, the news reporters repeat the news time after time. Qaddafi’s death was confirmed at last and it was reported at once but it was known at that time that how he had died. It was confirmed that he had been shot but it was surmised that he had been shot in a cross-fire. A video posted on Youtube dispelled this belief. In that video, it was shown that Qaddafi was caught by the fighters and was apparently begging for mercy. A fighter was then interviewed by a news channel who had claimed that he had found Qaddafi hiding. Then it was firmly established that Qaddafi was caught hiding in a tunnel and was shot by the fighters. From the news being a rumor to its becoming a confirmed report, the broadcast media were imparting the news all over the world. The newspapers, on the other hand, mentioned the fact that the news of Qaddafi’s death was just a rumor in the beginning but they gave an outline of the confirmed report in advance. While giving a full account of the scenario, they referred to the Youtube video and interviews of various rebels and explained how the news was confirmed. The audience of newspapers can reasonably be expected to know what had actually happened before the paper came into their hands because of the broadcast media. Most of the audience read the news story to get additional information. Although news are repeated at regular intervals on a given day, there is still a chance that some people might have missed some of the information. The newspapers have it all at one place and an interested individual cannot miss any information. The online media can be regarded as a combination of both broadcast and print journalism. It is because news channels can be viewed on live streaming and newspapers can be accessed easily over the Internet too. In addition, websites like Youtube mostly have recorded visual material concerning any news that is on TV or newspapers. The Internet enables a person to search for news of any particular day and it can be done just by typing the keywords on google.com and giving it search criteria. When Qaddafi’s death news was a rumor, the online news websites were quickly updated. They were as quick as the news channels and every update was given with a reference. The online media can be regarded as the first to confirm what had actually happened because the actual story was not unveiled until the video of Qaddafi was posted on Youtube. The news of Qaddafi’s death was reported variedly with respect to the locality of a certain medium. It is commonly believed that the audience of newspapers interacts more deeply than the audience of broadcast journalism. It is because the audience of newspaper, reader, has to read the paper with concentration to know the full details. The audience of broadcast journalism is not expected to interact with the same level of concentration because most of the audience just hears the news and does not listen to it. The magnitude of Qaddafi’s death’s news was such that it attracted the attention of all the audience. People are of different dispositions and there is a strong possibility that there is a portion of the audience that does not pay attention to the news as others do. Proximity of the reported event to an audience plays a huge role. The audience that lives in Libya or in neighboring countries is expected to listen to the news more closely than the people living in the West. As mentioned before, the uprising of Libya was inspired from a similar revolution in Egypt and now Syria seems to be inspired from the two revolutions too. Therefore, the audience of Syria is expected to pay more attention to the news than other countries because the news has a higher level of relevance of Syria. The newspapers of Syria were a little biased towards Libya. The newspapers are under the influence of the Government condemned what had happened to Qaddafi and the involvement of NATO forces. It is because the Government of Syria feels threatened. The Government of Syria is authorized to control newspapers, books, and radio and television broadcasting because of the state of emergency. Under these circumstances, the Syrian media was not able to impart the news impartially. The newspapers issued articles very close to the news of Qaddafi’s death which condemned the event criticized the rebels. Similarly, the broadcast media aired talk shows in which Government officials or people under gubernatorial influence analyzed the whole situation in a biased manner. The Syrian Government tries to block the online material that is construed as politically damaging to the country. The online media is still very much free from such restraints. It provides access to foreign reviews and articles to the Syrian people. The online media provides the freedom of speech that no other media has yet been able to provide. This is why the recent Egyptian revolution is said to have been brought about by a website called Facebook. Despite the efforts of the Government, the people can still have access to the broadcast media of the West through satellite dishes. These are widely used and the content is not censored. This means that the similar news was available to the West and the people of Syria in a similar form but as the proximity of the event was more towards the Syrians, the level of concentration and concern was more in Syrians despite the fact that the Western media imparted the news by keeping in view the needs and disposition of their own audience and the right of freedom of speech. It does not matter how big a piece of news is, unless it directly affects a certain person, its effectiveness on a person’s mind fades away after some time. Same is the case with the news of Qaddafi’s death. As the news was getting old, the news channels kept on rekindling the issue’s effectiveness by giving news of the activities of the Libyans after Qaddafi’s death. Analysis were made by experts and broadcasted all over the world. Ambassadors of various countries were interviewed to know about their future foreign policy with Libya. The overall affect of the event on the Middle East was repeatedly analyzed and forecasts were made. Almost every news channel broadcasted a brief history of Qaddafi and the newspapers published also published as to how he came into power and what he did throughout his 42 year reign on Libya. This information was already available on the internet but access to this information increased manifold after Qaddafi’s historical demise. The role of NATO forces was also discussed a lot and was both appreciated and criticized on different occasions on different grounds. All the sources of media played a role in the maintenance of interest in the event according to their capacities. The magnitude of the news of Qaddafi’s death was huge. It was all “front page” material and was supplemented with review articles. A news of a small magnitude has a small impact and it is reported only once in the newspaper and its placement also depends on its impact. The allocation of space and amount of editing are also determined in a similar way. A news of small magnitude is repeated after big intervals on a news channel on the day on which it is reported. The online media does not put such news everywhere and sometimes it is hard to find such news on the internet. This is not the case with the news of Qaddafi’s death. It was repeatedly reported on news channels. When the word “Qaddafi” is typed on the popular search engine called Google, the first two suggestions are “Qaddafi is dead” and “Qaddafi killed”. This was news of a great magnitude and the role of media in promulgating it was phenomenal. Every unit of world-wide media did its part to the fullest extent of its capacity in the reporting of the event. References Fahim, Kareem, Anthony Shadid and Rick Gladstone. “Violent End to an Era as Qaddafi Dies in Libya.” New York Times 20 Oct 2011 late ed.: A1. Print. “CNN BREAKING NEWS: Muammar Gaddafi captured in Sirte.” Youtube.com. fndiw. 20 Oct 2011. Web. 15 Nov 2011. Read More