On January 12, 2010, a magnitude 7.0 earthquake struck Haiti. Its epicenter was a mere 15 miles away from Port-au-Prince, the capital of Haiti. In just a matter of a few seconds, the earthquake took the lives of 217,000 people and left 1.5 million homeless 2.
Immediately, there was an outpouring of support for the victims of the earthquake. Non-governmental organizations, national governments, and others flocked to Haiti to help out. However, now, after four years of supposed rebuilding, there remains much to be done. As of the fourth anniversary of the earthquake, 150,000 people still live in tent cities without proper shelter and sustenance and vulnerable to theft and rape 4.Coverage of this disaster and the following reconstruction has varied greatly. While some journalists are hopeful, others mock the idea of progress. While some describe the victims’ plight very intensely, others ignore it completely, citing other important issues with the process. According to my research, the liberal magazines The Nation and Mother Jones were focused more on the plight of the victims, while the conservative magazines The American Conservative and The Weekly Standard were focused more on the US government’s role in the recovery. As a result, I concluded that readers of the liberal magazines were more likely to empathize with the victims of Haiti and support them, whether through donations or other measures.
One aspect that I did not include in my paper was what the two types of magazines had in common. Both disapproved of the non-governmental aid organizations and their strategies and progress in Haiti. Many articles from both conservative and liberal magazines pointed out serious flaws in the operations of the international aid organizations- which is surprising considering everyone initially was so keen in helping these unlucky people…
- http://www.delish.com/cm/delish/images/Haiti_Quake_Map.png ↩
- Eichelberger, E. (2013, January 11). 3 Years After Earthquake, Haiti Still in Shambles.Mother Jones. Retrieved from http://www.motherjones.com/mojo/2013/01/haiti-earthquake-third-anniversary ↩
- http://www.humanosphere.org/2010/11/debate-on-haiti-aid-grows/ ↩
- http://www.npr.org/2014/01/12/261723409/four-years-after-earthquake-many-in-haiti-remain-displaced ↩