An interesting Essay was written at the Lens-Blog at the New York Times; read also the discussions at the comment section (06.02.2010):

Essay 13

Another interesting article, found at unfreemedia: (28.01.2010)

Rivalry of relief and media groups hampers aid flows

More recent critics on media & haiti coverage: (24.01.2010)

Blog of Rights

and

TomDispatch

Interesting articles, adding some new information I also mentioned in my last Blog-Post. (21.01.2010)

The Disaster Pool | The New Republic.

and

Does Haiti’s Crisis Call for a New Photojournalism? / Foto8

An Uzbek photographer has been accused of insulting her people and now faces criminal charges.

Umida Ahkmedova has been charged for slander after the photographer and videographer produced a book portraying rural Uzbekistan and Uzbek traditions. She faces a possible three-year jail sentence, according to Human Rights Watch.

The photographer is accused of insulting her country, and was charged on 13 January, after an expert panel of ’specialists in the fields of religious affairs, spirituality, and psychology’ found that the images portrayed Uzbekistan in a negative light to Western audiences.

The panel found that ‘a foreigner who has never been to Uzbekistan, but who is familiar with this album, would reach the conclusion that (Uzbekistan) is a country where people live in the Middle Ages.’

The trial is expected to start in the next few weeks. However, human rights organisations have asked the Uzbek government to drop the charges.

Source:
© Incisive Media Ltd. 2009
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How does the media-business work? The best example for exaggeration is the so-called “massive looting” in Haiti. Many NGOs and alternative sources say that the people in Haiti are very calm and that there are – for the dimension of the catastrophe – only few lootings and riots. But often only the “action-photos” are shown, the pictures, which depict chaos and “anarchy” best. But what about picturing the photographers taking images? A great shot can be found at “The Boston Globe – the Big Picture”, shot from Rodrigo Abd from AP Photo(click to enlarge):

More examples of media and coverage here – and how important it is to cover also the other side of the story! (shot from me during the 1.May Demonstration in Istanbul/Turkey 2009 – click to enlarge)

Der Artikel ist etwas älter und sollte letztes Jahr veröffentlicht werden. Da er aber nicht an Aktualität verloren hat veröffentliche ich den Text auch auf meinem Blog.

Vom Jubliäum…

In Zeiten der Krise bemüht sich der Staat meistens darum, durch Jubiläen dass Gemeinschaftsgefühl zu stärken und die Menschen zu einer gleich bleibenden Konsumlust im Inneren anzuhalten.

Nun fallen momentan auf der einen Seite eine der gravierendsten Krisen der letzten Jahrzehnte mit einem deutschem Jubeljahr sondergleichen zusammen: 60 Jahre Staatsgründung des geläuterten Deutschlands, 20 Jahre echte deutsche Revolution und Überwindung der zweiten deutschen Diktatur, auch DDR genannt. Dazu noch einige dutzend weitere Jubiläen; darunter fällt auch folgende Jahresfeier: 60 Jahre Deutscher Schaustellerbund (DSB).

Eli Reed is a member of the Magnum photo agency since 1988. He works as a professor at the University of Texas in Austin. In this video he and others discuss what it mean’s to be black in the USA today, using his photographs as a starting-point for that discussion.