I decided to discuss the coverage of what is being called the Love Parade disaster. The Love Parade is a popular music festival and parade that occurs annually in Germany. On Saturday, July 24, 2010 techno music fans from all over Europe travelled to Duisburg, Germany to share the Love Parade experience. But unfortunately the day took an unexpected turn when panic lead to a deadly stampede which took the lives of 19 people and injured 340. I have taken a close look at how Saturday’s events were reported from 5 different news sources: The New York Times, BBC, USA Today, CNN and Deutsche Welle. I was able to access all the news sources via the web, which made it easier to do the research as well as get up to date information because of the “Breaking News” system that the web sites provide.
One of the main differences between these sources is whether or not they choose to give the reasons why this transpired and who is to blame for this tragedy. The New York Times article written by Judy Dempsey gives an overview of what occurred from the perspective of the police, who seemed to be her main source, without trying to explain why this happened: “It was unclear exactly what set off the panic among the throngs of young people squeezing into the tunnel leading to festival grounds.” This article seems to focus more on the fact that this was a tragedy by describing the atmosphere: “It’s a horror situation, especially because rescuers cannot get through to those injured… There were piles of injured on the ground, some being resuscitated, others dead and covered with sheets”.
The BBC article quoted several attendees, which gives it the people’s perspective. It quickly lists all known facts then begins to delve into the investigation being launched to determined why this happened and this becomes the main focus of the article. Their approach is unbiased as they take a close look at the decisions made by the event organizer and the city officials.
CNN focuses on the discrepancies between what the witnesses felt occurred and what the police are saying: “Witnesses also told NTV that police were warned at least an hour before the incident that the underpass was becoming dangerously crowded. NTV reported that there were 1,400 police offers on hand…. Police President Duisburg, said more than 4,000 police officers provided security for the event.” Another discrepancy mentioned in the CNN article is that according to NTV 1.4 million people showed up for the festival while organizers were only expecting 700,000 but according to the police the area could only hold between 250,000 and 350,000 people and at the time the stampede began the area was not filled to capacity. Although the CNN article doesn’t directly place the blame on the police they plant the seeds in the minds of readers that there is a possibility that the police dropped the ball.
USA Today provided the densest reporting of the unfortunate event while it’s focus is parallel to that of CNN. The article examines the finger pointing: the police are blaming organizers and city officials while the witnesses are pointing the figure at the police and private security staff. This article also takes a look at the aftermath of Saturday’s events (i.e. the future of the Love Parade).
Deutsche Welle, which is the only German news source of the five, focuses more on the people attending the Love Parade. It paints a picture of diversity: “Sixteen victims have so far been identified, including a Dutchman, an Australian, an Italian and one person from China.” The article also mentions that all the victims of the stampede were between the ages of 20 and 40. As far as who is to blame this article seems to be leaning towards the organizer. The article quotes the police union’s regional chairman who believes that the 19 attendees killed were victims “of the material interests of an organizer”.
These different perspectives show us that the same event can be reported in similar and conflicting ways. Clearly, the basic facts are the same (i.e. the number of victims, the location, the date and time etc…) but the reasoning and responsibility is up for debate and it depends on whom the News Source chooses to indentify with. The BBC is definitely the most objective of the 5 focusing more on the facts and the feelings of those who witnessed the event. While the New York Times, who also stated the facts, seem to represent the feelings of the police and city officials. USA Today and CNN presented the viewpoints of both the people and the police/city officials. Deutche Welle, focused more on the accountability of the organizer and the end of this annual gathering.
Hi LLeigh,
ReplyDeleteThank you for your story. It's so tragic and sad. Panic is always the worst and I think the officials were irresponsible in this situation. I like the way you wrote your story, it was easy to understand and you defined the major differences between all five sources. Usually, when we hear or read the news we don't read about it in five different sources and we don't realize that the same story can be told in so many ways. When we actually happen to notice that it's surprising. Every news channel or newspaper has it's own views on the story and sources of information. They all compete with each other to have a better and more interesting story. It's even obvious, the more people the more opinions. It probably makes our news more interesting, because in every article we can read about some new details, interviews, different points of view and then make our own opinion about the situation. It would have probably been boring to hear exactly the same story on every newspaper and every news channel. However, we have to be aware that media might exaggerate or twist the story, we have to be media literate and check different sources in order to get the full real story.