Giving a Voice to the Voiceless

As journalists, we have a very important role, which is to set the news agenda for the public. In other words, we’re an informer.

As an informer, we’re expected to provide the news of the day to our audiences. We’re supposed to investigate and be a watchdog. But we also need to give a voice to the voiceless.

We are required to expose the injustices of society- whether they occur in our backyards or halfway across the world. But in the fast-paced world we live in, how do we make time to expose the injustices halfway across the world? How do we convince our new outlets that it serves a highly important cause? How do we find room in the budget to research and report these stories? But most of all- how do we get our audiences to care about the injustices halfway across the world?

Most people living in the U.S. don’t care about things happening outside of their community, not to mention outside of their country or continent. But I think that’s where we- the journalists- come in. We are supposed to make them care. We are expected to find a way to make them care. Because after all, it’s for the good of humanity.

New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof has devoted his time and work to exposing the atrocities in Darfur. He brought the Darfur genocide to the forefront of media attention and governmental pressure. Nichols Kristof began writing about the violence in Darfur in 2003 when almost no other media, non-governmental organization, or governmental agency spoke the word Darfur, let alone genocide. He described the Janjaweed’s tactics of destroying Darfur villages. The Janjaweed’s main strategy was to ensure that the village would be forever uninhabitable so they poisoned wells by stuffing them with corpses of people and donkeys.

Kristof also has heavily criticized Bush and Kofi Annan’s efforts in the Darfur genocide.
I hate to say it, but the way things are going, when he dies his obituary will begin: “Kofi Annan, the former U.N.
secretary general who at various points in his career presided ineffectually over the failure to stop genocide, first in
Rwanda and then in Sudan, died today.”
Kristof also suggests the U.S. should stop the Sudan government from using its aircraft to terrorize civilians by imposing a no-fly zone, force economic sanctions on Sudan’s leaders, and push for an expanded security force in Darfur.

And Kristof has even ridiculed his own profession, the media, for not giving Darfur the coverage it needs. According to monitoring by the Tyndall Report, ABC News had a total of 18 minutes of the Darfur genocide in its nightly news in 2004, NBC News had only 5 minutes and CBS only 3, which is about a minute of coverage for every 300,000 deaths. In contrast, Martha Stewart received 130 minutes of coverage by the three networks. In 2005, ABC had 11 minutes about Darfur, NBC had 5, and CBS only had 2. In contrast, the networks gave the Michael Jackson trial in 2005 a total of 84 minutes of coverage.

The media plays a significant role in agenda setting for the public. Thus, if the media gives more priority to the sex, cheating, and drugs associated with movie stars than Darfur, the public is never going to be convinced that Darfur is something worth caring about. Nicholas Kristof has made a commitment to informing the American public of the Darfur genocide in hopes that someone- anyone will stand up and try to do something before it’s too late.

Nicholas Kristof, “Dare We Call It Genocide?” The New York Times, (June 16, 2004)
Nicholos Kristof, “Reign of Terror”, The New York Times, (September 11, 2004)
Nichols Kristof, “All Ears for Tom Cruise, All Eyes on Brad Pitt”, The New York Times, (July 26, 2005).
Nicholos Kristof, “Helping Bill O’Reilly”, The New York Times, (February 7, 2006)