CNN - HOLIDAY BAD TIME FOR CRISIS COVERAGE

HOLIDAY BAD TIME FOR CRISIS COVERAGE

Television coverage of the terrorist attacks in Mumbai exposed the weaknessof the broadcast and cable networks in responding to major events over aU.S. national holiday, several media critics have maintained. They wereparticularly critical of reports suggesting that the cadre of attackers hadtargeted U.S. and British citizens. In fact, of 183 known dead as of Mondayevening only 18 were foreign nationals, five of whom were American (three ofthem killed at Nariman House, a Jewish center operated by the Brooklyn-basedChabad organization) and one British. Ray Wadia, a media consultant andformer CNN International executive producer said in a webcast from Mumbaithat local residents who watched CNN coverage were disgusted by the emphasison Western casualties. "This is an attack on India and Indians first andforemost," he said, On the website of the South Asian Journalists Assn., onewriter said that the news media ignored the horrific attacks on the VT trainstation, where the slaughter began. "A lot of innocent commuters frommiddle- and lower-income families were gunned down in cold blood, but Iguess the news companies did not find it news worthy enough when compared tothe high profile Taj [luxury hotel]. By the same token, Pakistan's mediaoutlets were complaining that Indian journalists were portraying the attacksas being supported by Pakistan. Pakistan's The News said, "Indian[TV] anchors and analysts with one voice analyzed the incident purely basedon the figment of their imaginations." Numerous writers mentioned the factthat TV coverage often relied on persons at the scene of the attackssubmitting video taken with cell phones and camcorders. "The witnesses aretaking over the news," veteran TV critic Jeff Jarvis, now a journalismprofessor at the City University of New York, wrote in Britain's Guardian newspaper. "That will fundamentally change our experience of news, therole of witnesses and participants, the role of journalists and newsorganizations, and the impact reporting has on events." In the New YorkTimes , Brian Stelter and Noam Cohen wrote "The attacks in India servedas another case study in how technology is transforming people intopotential reporters, adding a new dimension to the news media." MeanwhileIndia's Ministry of Information and Broadcasting said it would look intocharges that Internet and TV coverage provided vital information to theterrorists. For about a half hour the city's deputy commissioner of policeimposed a blackout of TV news channels. The blackout was lifted afterrepresentatives of the news media filed a protest. (Several outlets ignoredthe blackout order.)

01/12/2008