• ℹ️ Heads up...

    This is a popular topic that is fast moving Guest - before posting, please ensure that you check out the first post in the topic for a quick reminder of guidelines, and importantly a summary of the known facts and information so far. Thanks.

Boston Bombing

Very sad to hear this, my thoughts are with the people who have been injured/killed and their families

:(
 
While this is highly shocking even to me, it pales in comparison to the bombs America has dropped in Iraq. Unfortunately Iraq isn't developed sufficiently to have CCTV everywhere so you don't see it and ignorance remains bliss.

I'm not defending or mitigating against anything before people paraphrase.

NEVER forget perspective.
 
Filmed live, in high-quality professional footage.

This is spectacular, and that's the idea. Terrorists are becoming more and more savvy, ever since the second plane hit the tower live on TV, about the usefulness of filmed spectacle, filmed disaster.
 
Absolutely gutted for the loved ones lost, the loved ones hurt and the loved ones many family and friends affected by this.
 
Tom said:
While this is highly shocking even to me, it pales in comparison to the bombs America has dropped in Iraq. Unfortunately Iraq isn't developed sufficiently to have CCTV everywhere so you don't see it and ignorance remains bliss.

I'm not defending or mitigating against anything before people paraphrase.

NEVER forget perspective.
Click to expand...

Fair point to bring up, although I wouldn't go as far as to suggest that people are ignorant to what has been happening in Iraq. If anything, I feel people have become somewhat desensitized to the atrocities in that region due to the frequency of them. That doesn't mean to say that death in one country compared to another is any more or less significant, it's just that this type of incident in Boston makes bigger news in the western world because it's so infrequent comparatively.
 
Unfortunately the large level of exposure of incidents that happen in America is because of the country where they've occurred. Basically terrorism thrives on exposure to spread fear and the Western media play into their hands time and time again.

Ironically, if five people were shot in London and two died as a result of a bomb in America, I'd suggest that the BBC would run that latter as their top story.

Returning to Boston, the correspondent on Newsnight has just said that early indications suggest "home grown" problems as opposed to the conclusion of Islamist militants many will have jumped to.
 
At least 29 dead in Somalia today due to bombings. At least 31 dead in Iraq today due to bombings.

Both cases far more severe than Boston. For whatever reason the media in the Western world likes to play more of a dramatic effect on what's closer to home (as opposed to reporting world news). Another plus for them with this is that we are surrounded by far more technology here. Resulting in social networking, mobile cameras, security cameras, television cameras etc... all playing an important role in the 'dramatic' news.

Quite sad really how the media does not really report real news, they report news, blow it out of proportion and ensure people flock to their websites and tv channels to find out the latest. It's more of a drama platform.

Although I think discussing this may be more suited to it's own topic?
 
James said:
At least 29 dead in Somalia today due to bombings. At least 31 dead in Iraq today due to bombings.

Both cases far more severe than Boston. For whatever reason the media in the Western world likes to play more of a dramatic effect on what's closer to home (as opposed to reporting world news). Another plus for them with this is that we are surrounded by far more technology here. Resulting in social networking, mobile cameras, security cameras, television cameras etc... all playing an important role in the 'dramatic' news.

Quite sad really how the media does not really report real news, they report news, blow it out of proportion and ensure people flock to their websites and tv channels to find out the latest. It's more of a drama platform.
Click to expand...

Not as simple as you're making out. Bombings happen in Iraq daily, and very frequently in Somalia. These are very common occurrences. Bombings occur in Boston extremely rarely. It's not the be all and end all, but the scarcity factor does give the Boston bombings a higher 'news value'.

Tom said:
Unfortunately the large level of exposure of incidents that happen in America is because of the country where they've occurred. Basically terrorism thrives on exposure to spread fear and the Western media play into their hands time and time again.
Click to expand...

Charlie Brooker has some interesting thoughts on this issue...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PezlFNTGWv4#ws
 
But unfortunately the events that happened in Boston are closer to home because it is a country we are politically and culturally aligned with, and it's also a politically stable country where you don't expect this to happen.

Yes, it's a sad state of affairs that Somalia and Iraq are both countries where bombings are nothing to remark on, but that doesn't mean they aren't viewed as sympathetically
 
It's sad that the bombings occur so often in countries like Somalia and Iraq, however the sad and unfortunate truth is that they occur so often that the media doesn't have a lot coverage/news compared to when similar events happen in more politically and economically stable countries.

As with such a big city like Boston, these types of things very rarely occur and thus it is such a big shock when something like this happens. As with places such as the United States, they have a lot more stuff to quickly communicate like social networking that the news can quickly spread to other countries such as the UK.

Whether it be Iraq, Somalia, or Boston all of today's bombings were very tragic and no one deserved to be injured/killed. My thoughts go out to everyone who has been effected by the tragedies.
 
600,000 die every year from heart disease in one form or another in America and theyve spent what on war?
110,000+ have died in Iraq since the war started and accomplished what?
12,000 die every year related to gun crime in America.

Yes its wrong that the bombings in iraq didnt get the same coverage and intent to stop loss of human life like they are somehow worth less. We all know it is, its just human nature. This I think could be something to do with gun restrictions? At a guess...

Lets face it, americans are idiots. Civilised society my arse, theres nothing civilised about carpet bombing countries, being a war machine, allowing gun ownership like they do, the race and class discrimination, lack of an NHS, the open corruption in politics and their manipulation of the world. Truly barbaric
 
Whilst frequency is most certainly a contributing matter within what news reports on, there is also a political agenda to suppress stories that are not in the interests of the media and corporates.

That's not some crackpot conspiracy, it's just fact. There are endless cases of where slaughter brought upon or supported by countries like the US and UK get largely ignored because it doesn't serve the profitable purpose of these capitalist countries. One case that springs to mind is that of the Indonesian invasion of East Timor which was seen as an opportunity to sell arms by western countries. East Timor was a very technologically primitive country with no-way of defending itself, so the citizens were slaughtered and the land decimated. This was never reported on in any great way and was ignored by all the mainstream media. This is because the mainstream media who have the capitalist profit-before-morals principle knew that it if they made as big a deal as they ought to out of the story, then there is a good chance that the public would challenge these ideals.

So the persistent Western created massacres that take place in Iraq, or the Islamic fundamentalism nature of a huge portion of the Syrian rebel forces that we are arming, or how Shell has openly stated that they see the melting of the polar icecaps as an opportunity to drill for more oil, amongst many other stories shall never get the airtime that they deserve. However, the media always finds time to report on the death of British soldiers in the middle-east, the tyrannical behaviour of the Syrian government, and disruptive Green Peace protesters tying themselves to oil tankers. And so they should, but so often we only see what the news reporters want us to see, not the whole picture and that's the problem.

Having said that, I think the immediacy of peril that people feel in issues affecting rich western countries certainly motivates more interest in 'consumers of media' and is therefore identified as a priority by the commercial news outlets also.
 
I think there will be some security companies rubbing there hand together after this. as when people feel scared they spend money in an attempt to feel safer again.

I wonder who is in line for justice the USA is taking about. maybe some where with oil. my mate craig is betting me that it will be North Korea :eek:
 
Thing is in countries like Iraq, Somalia, Afghanistan, a lot of the bombs which go off are internal, and detonated by more radical religious groups which targets people of other religious groups in the same country. Islam has always been at war with itself through the middle east. I dont think it will ever stop no matter how much the US, UK and the West like to think they can bring stability and democracy to such countries.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top