CM1009 Koen Glotzbach (345346; Group B) 23-3-2011 1

Extra assignment: summaries

Lecturer: Joye, words: resp. 329 and 299, online version: www.scribd.com/doc/51422559

The discourse of global compassion: the audience and media reporting

of human suffering (B. Höijer)
Global compassion connects four groups; politics, humanitarian organisations, media and the
audience/citizens. It is generally believed to be an emotion of pity (involving both rational and
emotional reflection) about the suffering of others.
Global compassion is increasingly important in all four groups, both in appearance and
discussions about it, despite little academic attention: Politicians give conflicts and wars more
attention, seeing them as a threat to international security; Media coverage of wars increased
and changed (military to human aspect; more shocking visuals), making images of suffering
part of peoples’ perception of conflicts/crises; NGO’s grow in number and membership and
become more important; Humanitarian sponsoring emerges.
There is no one ‘cause’ of global compassion, yet media are a driving force (especially
television due to its reach and images) by affecting the public and politicians. Political reaction
is not assured by media coverage due to other factors as geopolitical interests. Some say the
driving force behind media, in turn, is commercial interest or war propaganda.
Whether and to what extent people feel compassion depends on many things. First,
there is the definition/perception of violence and victims, depending on social, historical and
cultural circumstances. Some victims are depicted as worthier than others (related to age,
gender and the offence), some are not even qualified as such by the media or politics: Women,
children and elderly evoke most compassion. Secondly, gender and age matter: Men feel less
compassion due to social roles, identity and moral values and so do younger people. Lastly, it
depends on visuals: Images are perceived as truth, interpreted and shown repetitively.
Four types of compassion exist, yet they may occur simultaneously: tender-hearted
(sympathy/pity for victims); blame-filled (anger towards the one responsible); shame-filled
(feeling of ambivalence) and powerlessness-filled (feeling of impotence).
Also four types of distantiation exist, by stating that all is propaganda (hence staged),
news in general is commercialized, ‘they are different’ (dehumanizing the sufferers) or by
becoming numb or immune due to repeat, powerlessness and/or lacking background
information.

Summaries cbna KOEN GLOTZBACH 2011; original texts © their RESPECTIVE AUTHORS
CM1009 Koen Glotzbach (345346; Group B) 23-3-2011 2

Mass media and new media technologies (M. J. Breen)

New media are media which evolved ten to 15 years ago, as digital satellite and podcasts. New
media technologies are advances in technology with direct bearing on generation, location and
consumption of mass media content. New media (technology) may be both transformative and
radical, providing non-commercial possibilities as blogs, although it is mainly the domain of
commercial interest. Many research is done on this topic.
More media come in the hands of fewer owners, along with presence in different
industries, although still with substantial internet presence. The emergence of the (initially
military) internet provided individual agency nor institutional control, making it suitable for
anarchic purposes. However, now social convention and big media players have great
presence: Only blogging still performs counter-hegemonic views, which, combined with reader
feedback, maybe allows for a public sphere. Common and in producer’s interest are
technologies as RSS (automatic content downloading) and mobility (in work and content
storage). Related is the important technology-led change from publishing to content provision.
Internet provides hybrid (textual, visual & aural) content, contrasting traditional media.
Mobile devices allow content to be consumed anywhere, leading to adapted presentation of
content and more selective consumers (representing critical change in consumption patterns
towards non-linearity).
Through internet much information is available to everybody (except for cases of
censorship), which makes users needing search techniques (consequently being aware of
favouring algorithms). Still, it is questionable whether the public is better
informed/discursive/aware, because audiences are selecting based on personal entertainment.
It possibly endangers democracy, yet domination by major news corporations may be of more
risk.
Convergence and technological development will remain. Logically at financial costs, but
possibly of bigger importance are hidden, social or cultural costs as lost writing skills or
unnoticed, Orwellian (social) control. Equally dangerous is internet dominance by existing
conglomerates, questioning net neutrality.

Summaries cbna KOEN GLOTZBACH 2011; original texts © their RESPECTIVE AUTHORS