Emotional sensationalism?

Since my paper exclusively focused on newspaper coverage, I decided to explore other ways in which these disasters were represented. I found this video that envisions the story of the Delhi gang-rape using sand-art. It describes the incident, and follows on to the aftermath – depicting some of the protests and reactions of the public.

I think that representations such as this provide yet another avenue to explore in disaster representation and audience reactions to media coverage, and it would be fascinating to study how people react to a video like this – one that was clearly designed to evoke an emotional reaction from spectators. Would this classify as sensationalism, and if so, does it uphold Moeller’s argument or the converse? Were people moved, perhaps to the point of action, by memorials such as this, or were they inured into looking the other way? When we take into account the motives held by the person who made the video, and all the subtle strategies they used – the emotions on the faces of the sand-portraits, the music, the sound clips of protests in Delhi, it becomes clear that there is an intermingling of factors that all come together to influence the spectator. And depending on additional factors that are intrinsic to the spectator as well, reactions may well vary across different viewers.

Sources: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oFntieHGpes