CES 301 Concepts and Race

The recent (un)natural disaster in Haiti devastated the poorest country in the western hemisphere, and although the media attention allowed a way for the country to get help, it also became a way for public opinion to be voiced. Christian televangelist Marion Gordon "Pat" Robertson was quoted as justifying the Haitian events as acts of god. Check out this YouTube clip of Mr. Robertson's own words. "

Pat Robertson's very public and very Christian driven comments on the Haitian tragedy (as well as his comments on Katrina) attached god to the disaster placing the blame on the people who suffered. All social responsibility for the conditions of Haiti were thus wiped away because god divinely punished through retribution.

Besides news stories like this, Haiti has become a way to market products. Corporations have taken to mass advertisement to promote their products coupled with the consumers being able to donate. All of these companies have chosen to advertise their product through their announcements of donations to Haiti.

• Tide
• Time Warner
• The Red Cross
• Bank of America
• Google
• HP
• Target

Commodity fetishism was discussed on the first day of class and defined to mean an exchange of cash and/or credit for use of resources.
http://www.wsu.edu:8080/~dee/MODERN/FETISH.HTM
This definition relates to the concept of race in media because media revolves around the exchange of cash for the resources of those seen in media. When those in media are rarely people of color, it hinders the chances for more people of color to be portrayed in media.

After the earthquake the media did everything within it's power to show as much footage as possible. After a few days however many media outlets chose to do human interest coverage versus raw coverage many originally focused.

Adoption and celebrity involvement in Haiti became the new norm for news coverage. Check out http://www.haitiadoption.org/ to see a website focusing on Haitian adoptions after the earthquake.

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