I'm seeing more post-epidemic coverage stories now that the number of Ebola cases is slowing in Western Africa.
Vice News reporter Kayla Ruble wrote a good Act 2 piece about a young woman's life post-Ebola. The woman lost 19 family members, including her husband to Ebola and now has to rely on selling food at a market stall to feed herself and nine children (some hers, some the children of family members). It was interesting to read that men are not only the breadwinner of the immediate family, but also of the extended family. The thematic-leaning frame of this article is a strength. She does follow a central character, but draws from context and stats. The article flows well and includes good context. Her word choice is appropriate and not too sensational. The comments at the bottom of the article were actually kind of offensive, and I'm surprised Vice News allows them to be posted seemingly unchecked. My own reaction to this story is that I'm impressed. I imagined each step Ruble took to report it as I read it. In my opinion, she did a great job with the article. She found an interesting angle, took her own pictures and reported it from Liberia.
Last Wednesday, the New York Times ran an opinion piece by Bill Gates titled "How to fight the next epidemic." His analysis of the global response to the Ebola epidemic is well-reasoned and scary as hell. He writes, "The problem isn’t so much that the system didn’t work well enough. The problem is that we hardly have a system at all." He poses the tough realities that many people seem afraid to consider. What if Ebola were airborne? The fear that pulsed through the American public last fall was essentially unjustified because the fear didn't match the reality. What happens when a disease as deadly as Ebola spreads on droplets through the air like the Spanish flu, Gates asks? Some 50 million died as a result of that strain of influenza. The world is much more mobile today than it was back then. What would a pandemic like that look like today? His critique of the slow response seems justified. Doctors Without Borders is to be commended, but it's a nonprofit. Why should it carry the burden of epidemic on its shoulders, Gates asks? I think his word choice is cutting and intentionally so. He's disappointed with the failure of the response and fearful of a stronger virus during the next round. It's an opinion piece, so the frame is personal and opinion-based. I was surprised to see that no one has posted a comment about this opinion piece. I usually see hundreds of comments on NYT articles.
The other article I read this past week was about the rise in violence against women in Ebola-struck nations. This is another Act 2 article about a unique challenge that Ebola poses: The virus can spread through semen, so people must wait months before having unprotected sex. Julia Duncan Cassell, the minister of gender and development in Liberia, said, "Some men were not respecting the recovery protocol that Ebola survivors should observe and were infecting their spouses and female partners through unprotected sex." The result is a rise in sexual assault in the country. I haven't seen this issue reported anywhere else in the media, so I thought this article from Reuters was noteworthy. The spread of Ebola through semen appears to be confirmed this week. A woman tested positive and her only contact was with her boyfriend who is a survivor. The article also discussed the fact that more women have been infected with Ebola since they tend to be the caretakers. The frame is thematic, because it draws a public health angle, rather than a specific anecdote about gender-based violence. It relies on experts, though, and doesn't have any voices from women. I think it would be stronger with the expert voices as well as a story about a local woman's experience. I didn't see any comments posted.
Reminder to self, focus on: frequency, framing, word choice, social response and my reaction to the coverage.
Vice News reporter Kayla Ruble wrote a good Act 2 piece about a young woman's life post-Ebola. The woman lost 19 family members, including her husband to Ebola and now has to rely on selling food at a market stall to feed herself and nine children (some hers, some the children of family members). It was interesting to read that men are not only the breadwinner of the immediate family, but also of the extended family. The thematic-leaning frame of this article is a strength. She does follow a central character, but draws from context and stats. The article flows well and includes good context. Her word choice is appropriate and not too sensational. The comments at the bottom of the article were actually kind of offensive, and I'm surprised Vice News allows them to be posted seemingly unchecked. My own reaction to this story is that I'm impressed. I imagined each step Ruble took to report it as I read it. In my opinion, she did a great job with the article. She found an interesting angle, took her own pictures and reported it from Liberia.
Last Wednesday, the New York Times ran an opinion piece by Bill Gates titled "How to fight the next epidemic." His analysis of the global response to the Ebola epidemic is well-reasoned and scary as hell. He writes, "The problem isn’t so much that the system didn’t work well enough. The problem is that we hardly have a system at all." He poses the tough realities that many people seem afraid to consider. What if Ebola were airborne? The fear that pulsed through the American public last fall was essentially unjustified because the fear didn't match the reality. What happens when a disease as deadly as Ebola spreads on droplets through the air like the Spanish flu, Gates asks? Some 50 million died as a result of that strain of influenza. The world is much more mobile today than it was back then. What would a pandemic like that look like today? His critique of the slow response seems justified. Doctors Without Borders is to be commended, but it's a nonprofit. Why should it carry the burden of epidemic on its shoulders, Gates asks? I think his word choice is cutting and intentionally so. He's disappointed with the failure of the response and fearful of a stronger virus during the next round. It's an opinion piece, so the frame is personal and opinion-based. I was surprised to see that no one has posted a comment about this opinion piece. I usually see hundreds of comments on NYT articles.
The other article I read this past week was about the rise in violence against women in Ebola-struck nations. This is another Act 2 article about a unique challenge that Ebola poses: The virus can spread through semen, so people must wait months before having unprotected sex. Julia Duncan Cassell, the minister of gender and development in Liberia, said, "Some men were not respecting the recovery protocol that Ebola survivors should observe and were infecting their spouses and female partners through unprotected sex." The result is a rise in sexual assault in the country. I haven't seen this issue reported anywhere else in the media, so I thought this article from Reuters was noteworthy. The spread of Ebola through semen appears to be confirmed this week. A woman tested positive and her only contact was with her boyfriend who is a survivor. The article also discussed the fact that more women have been infected with Ebola since they tend to be the caretakers. The frame is thematic, because it draws a public health angle, rather than a specific anecdote about gender-based violence. It relies on experts, though, and doesn't have any voices from women. I think it would be stronger with the expert voices as well as a story about a local woman's experience. I didn't see any comments posted.
Reminder to self, focus on: frequency, framing, word choice, social response and my reaction to the coverage.
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