Neighbors Kill Neighbors as Kenyan Vote
Stirs Old Feuds
When picking up The New York Times on Thursday February 21, 2013 readers were
confronted by a shocking image of a baby swaddled in her mother’s arms with a gash
across the back of her head. This image causes an immediate emotional response
within the reader, causing them to formulate a story of their own, or causing
them to question why such a horrendous event occurred. The story formulated by
the reader is often more horrific than the actual story, however, this is the
reaction newspapers want. They want their reader to become emotionally invested
before they deliver the facts. This technique causes readers to invest more
time and thought to the issue at hand and in turn may cause a response. The
response may vary, it could be that the reader buys the paper tomorrow to
follow the story or it may be that the reader finds some way to help those who
are suffering. Whatever the response may be, it was initially sparked by the
emotional connection to the picture on the front page.
When first viewing this picture,
ones thoughts immediately shift to the nation of Africa and the ethnic wars
that have taken place there throughout history. Unfortunately, this issue is one
that is common to the country and many Americans are used to reports on mass
killing among African people. Some readers may connect this issue to those of the
Rwandan genocide or the continued ethnic battle in the Sudan. Either of these
connections causes the reader to feel sympathy for the child in the picture and
the hardships she has been through. Once the initial shock of the image
subsides the reader can look at the caption. The caption offers basic information
that ties the image to the story. In the case of this image, the reader
discovers that this girl is in fact 9 month old Rahema Hageyo, and that she was
“slashed by a machete when raiders from a rival ethnic group attacked her
Kenyan village in December”. Once these
basic facts have been established, the reader can make new connections. They
now know that the story is one of ethnic issues that have grown violent in
Kenya. With these few facts and the emotional connection to Rahema the reader
now moves on to the details within the reported story.
Currently in Kenya there is an
ethnic war happening between the Pokomo and the Orma. Pokomo elder Elisha Bwora
says there are “three reasons for this war…tribe, land and politics”. Although
the first two reasons are just as important, the most pressing is that of
politics. Kenya is currently in the middle of electing new leaders. The last
time this vote occurred was in 2007 and it had disastrous results, 1,000 people
were dead and the country was in shambles. As the current election goes on,
history seems to be repeating itself. With 200 people already dead the two
tribes continue to fight, accusing each other of “burning villages and birth
certificates”. With past tensions playing out and current tensions fueling the
fire, it is unclear who will win the election and what the following
repercussions may be.
After reading the story it becomes
clear that the issue at hand is political tension that has boiled over into
warfare. Comparing this issue to the United States, the reader may become
confused or even angered since the United States deals with elections every
four years and never has it resulted in warfare. The confusion is created from
the content of the story, but the emotional response is aroused by the original
picture. This emotional response comes from the realization that due to this
political issue a little 9 month old girl was harmed. Rahema is nowhere near
old enough to vote and yet someone decided to slash her across the head with a
machete. The story is about a political issue however, the main message that is
intended to be the focus is the disastrous effects that this issue has aroused.
This picture demonstrates how
newspapers purposely use images to influence the reader’s response to an
article. In this case, The New York Times
used the tragedy of harming a little girl to cause the reader to recognize the
corruption in Africa. Purposeful placement is also used, in that the captioned
picture as well as the story is placed on the front page. Instead of focusing
on the issue of politics the reader focuses on the tragedies that these people
inflict upon one another. The image is the most powerful part of this news
story, and the emotional response it creates is its intended purpose.
Short Essay 2 Workshop-Alexander
Review Questions
1.
Is the image
analyzed in relationship to a larger story, and what is that story?
Yes, it is analyzed in relationship
to a larger story, which is primarily about injuries in Kenya that are due to ethnic issues. The first paragraph of the story already
gives you a gruesome description of an
injury inflicted upon a 9 month old child.
2.
How is the
image analyzed?
She mentions the “ethnic wars” that
have occurred in Africa for decades now and how
that was one of the authors first thoughts.
The author also states how one might gain
a sort of emotional compassion for a little girl who has done nothing wrong.
3.
What do you
find most interesting about the analysis?
I liked how the author supplied us
with a bit of background information on what has
being going on in Kenya and what is causing these ethnic issues particularly.
4.
What is most
confusing or in need of greater attention or explanation?
I didn't find anything confusing or
that needed greater attention or explanation.
5.
Any other
comments or suggestions for revision.
I thought you chose a good image
considering how emotionally stirred some people
might get when they see it.
Short Essay 2 Workshop
Review Questions
1.
Is the image analyzed in relationship to a
larger story, and what is that story?
Yes
the image is analyzed in relationship to a larger story. The larger story is
that two tribes in Kenya, the Pokomo and the Orma, are currently involved in
ethnic war over their different tribes, land and politics. Kenya is currently
in the middle of electing new leaders for their country and this has sparked
increased violence between the two tribes.
2.
How is the image analyzed? (What are they
looking at, how it’s composed, emotional content, etc.)
The
image is first analyzed by what it contains and how this would make readers
have an immediate emotional response. She then talks about how readers will
first create their own stories of why the child is cut across the back of the
head. Then the placement of the image is analyzed and what responses this
causes. Later, the caption of the picture is analyzed and how this changes what
the readers think of the pictures or what emotional connections they make.
Finally, the image is seen as being there to evoke a more emotional response
for the families affected by the violence in Kenya than a political response
for the elections going on there.
3.
What do you find most interesting about the
analysis?
I
like how you talk about how the reader first creates its own story of what happened
to the child in the picture. This relates to the reading we did over images and
their relation to stories, which is a nice touch.
4.
What is most confusing or in need of greater
attention or explanation?
The
response the readers have to the image and to the story are very different.
This makes it hard to understand what the story was actually about (like what
the author wanted you to get from it) and so then it’s hard to understand how
well the image and the story relate. Clarifying that part would help.
5.
Other comments and suggestions
I
thought you analyzed the picture very well and it was easy to read because of
how you broke the analysis down.
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