Amid the devastation of the US-Israeli war on Iran, what’s apparently of enough concern to make the headlines of multiple newspapers is that Britons’ Easter holidays to affected regions, including Dubai and Cyprus, are “at risk.”
Naturally, the success of a newspaper is heavily contingent on publishing stories relevant to its readership. In pitching articles for this newspaper, I too look for ideas that I think other students would be interested in; in the same vein, British newspapers are marketing to British audiences. But of all the ways for the headlines to highlight how this war will affect Brits – the impact on oil prices, for example, and therefore on energy bills or fuel costs – the focus on cancelled holidays is the most tone-deaf I’ve seen.
I’ll concede it might grab the attention of readers who are otherwise less concerned with international affairs, but simultaneously it reeks of privilege. Yes, it’s difficult and inconvenient to have your spring holiday cancelled, but it is in no way the height of suffering. To explicitly frame it as a “risk” is, at best, an unfortunate choice of wording and, at worst, an affront to the thousands killed and injured so far and the millions who remain legitimately at risk.
This sort of myopic news coverage does not exist in a vacuum. It is characteristic of a particularly insular, Eurocentric worldview which observes from afar, placing itself at a comfortable material distance from the epicentre of the conflict. Never mind the scale of death and destruction in Iran, or Lebanon, or any of the impacted countries – never mind that you are safe and sheltered in this country – apparently not being able to transit through Dubai over Easter break is the real issue at hand.
If constituents of the British media continue reporting issues they perceive as ‘foreign’ with such detached apathy as this, how can we ever cultivate a more empathetic and globally-minded British society?
Illustration by Kayleigh Yule @you_okayleigh for The Student.
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Forget War: What About Our Easter Holidays?
Amid the devastation of the US-Israeli war on Iran, what’s apparently of enough concern to make the headlines of multiple newspapers is that Britons’ Easter holidays to affected regions, including Dubai and Cyprus, are “at risk.”
Naturally, the success of a newspaper is heavily contingent on publishing stories relevant to its readership. In pitching articles for this newspaper, I too look for ideas that I think other students would be interested in; in the same vein, British newspapers are marketing to British audiences. But of all the ways for the headlines to highlight how this war will affect Brits – the impact on oil prices, for example, and therefore on energy bills or fuel costs – the focus on cancelled holidays is the most tone-deaf I’ve seen.
I’ll concede it might grab the attention of readers who are otherwise less concerned with international affairs, but simultaneously it reeks of privilege. Yes, it’s difficult and inconvenient to have your spring holiday cancelled, but it is in no way the height of suffering. To explicitly frame it as a “risk” is, at best, an unfortunate choice of wording and, at worst, an affront to the thousands killed and injured so far and the millions who remain legitimately at risk.
This sort of myopic news coverage does not exist in a vacuum. It is characteristic of a particularly insular, Eurocentric worldview which observes from afar, placing itself at a comfortable material distance from the epicentre of the conflict. Never mind the scale of death and destruction in Iran, or Lebanon, or any of the impacted countries – never mind that you are safe and sheltered in this country – apparently not being able to transit through Dubai over Easter break is the real issue at hand.
If constituents of the British media continue reporting issues they perceive as ‘foreign’ with such detached apathy as this, how can we ever cultivate a more empathetic and globally-minded British society?
Illustration by Kayleigh Yule @you_okayleigh for The Student.
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