Critical Investigation (2,000 words)
‘’It took one second for him to ruin my life completely. I was sleeping and he just threw acid on me. My life was destroyed in this room. And nobody was punished at all.’’
''How
do the media raise awareness about women’s rights (and acid attack victims in
particular) in LEDCs through media texts such as the documentary 'Saving Face',
and what is the impact of this?''
There are many unfortunate incidents of Acid attacks taking place in a number of ‘’less economically developed countries’’[1] (LEDCs), ‘’80% of cases’’[2] of acid attack victims are females.
Every year in Pakistan, majority of them women – are known to be victimized by
brutal acid attacks, numerous other cases go unreported. With little or no
access to reconstructive surgery, survivors are physically and emotionally
scarred for life. The short documentary film i.e. ‘a film made about real life’[3]: Saving Face
follows Mohammed Jawad – a London Based reconstructive surgeon who returns to
his homeland to help the victims restore their faces & lives. it ‘’examines
the issue of acid violence in Pakistan against mainly females and the efforts
of plastic surgeon Dr. Mohammad Jawad to improve the victims' lives’’[4].
Saving Face,
is a ‘’perfect representation of the real’’ [5] shows the
victims of the acid attacks sharing their experience, of acid attacks. They
stated how the government is helping them, and to what extent are they helped. Plastic surgeon Mohammad Jawad had flown over to his homeland -
Pakistan, in order to help out and provide surgery for the severe
disfigurements of the hopeless victims. He also ‘’led the burns reconstruction surgery in
the much documented 'Katie Piper Story'’[6].
In this
documentary Females are specifically victimized by acid in Pakistan
because as stated by Judith Butler, "Sex
is biological while gender is culturally constructed" [7] this saying strongly applies in
the Pakistani society, as females are ‘constructed’ to be seen as inferior in
the society, thus can be easily made a vulnerable and easy target. These
ideologies and representations have led to Pakistan being ‘’the world's second-worst country in
terms of gender equality’’[8]. Acid violence is a form of
‘’gender-based violence and discrimination prohibited under
international law’’, it is the act of ‘’an acid attack involves the premeditated
throwing of acid on a victim’’[9] - it is justified as an act to ‘’keep
women in their place’’[10]. In Pakistan ''The acid phenomenon has
been growing, for the past decade, especially in parts of the country with high
levels of unemployment and low levels of literacy.''[11], shows that ideologies of such crimes are based mainly due
to lack of education, money and a corrupted political system.
The media has now advanced to a great extent, allowing us as an audience to pick and choose our media texts, whether that is according to the genre, or platform these texts are receive through. Not only this but user generated content is now being created by ‘’over 51% of current users of the internet, and is consumed by over 70% of the users’’ [12] this does not mean control is in the hands of those who create or view this content. We are shown great sums of news; however what is important is decided by the media institutions we consume it from. Whatever we view or create is controlled and monitored by ‘’the elite’’ [13] and similarly to Pareto’s law: ‘’80% of Italy's land was owned by 20% of the population’’ [14] – media institutions and audiences function in a similar way as ‘232 media executives control the diet of 277million Americans’ this means that 1 media executive i.e. member of the elite controls 850,000 subscribers’[15]. Another example of this is News Corporation owning ‘the top newspaper on three continents’[16] showing that American culture is being forced globally by the dominated media consumption.
In other words, media/institutions ‘’want to maintain
their power & control’’ i.e. have a hegemonic control (Karl Marx) over
audiences and the pleasures they receive. Not only this, but the audience are
manipulated by being ‘’injecting with appropriate messages designed to
trigger a desired response’’ [17] as the hypodermic needle model states. It is arguable that this is done in order to
meet the audience pleasures such Uses and
Gratifications (Blumer & Katz): ‘’diversion, surveillance, personal
relationships and personal identity’’.[18] Either
way, the media are ‘’highly selective in the way in
which they construct and represent the world back to us”.[19]
News
journalism has a broadly agreed set of values, often referred to as
'newsworthiness'[20],
so why isn’t enough being done
to help the women who will have to ‘wait hours in the hospital waiting room’[21] in countries such as Bangladesh, often
‘regardless of third-degree burns’[22].
Values
such as News Values (Galtung and Ruge) are used in order to distinguish the
difference between what is newsworthy, and what is not newsworthy.
Acid attacks in developing countries will not fit many of the news values, such as ‘’familiarity’’[23] as they are in developing countries i.e. the uncivilized east (Edward Said), news editors will see news related with such groups as unrelatable for those in the ‘’civilized west’’. In many LEDC’s acid attacks on females is such a common issue that it is no ‘surprise’. Also, those living in such regions don’t belong to the ‘elite’ therefore the media will chose to only raise a certain amount of awareness about these incidents, as they aren’t fitting into enough of the news values.
Acid attacks in developing countries will not fit many of the news values, such as ‘’familiarity’’[23] as they are in developing countries i.e. the uncivilized east (Edward Said), news editors will see news related with such groups as unrelatable for those in the ‘’civilized west’’. In many LEDC’s acid attacks on females is such a common issue that it is no ‘surprise’. Also, those living in such regions don’t belong to the ‘elite’ therefore the media will chose to only raise a certain amount of awareness about these incidents, as they aren’t fitting into enough of the news values.
Saving Face follows the documentary codes and conventions these ‘’convey meaning based on the agreed social and cultural experiences’’[24] of the audience/users. Voiceover’s and ‘’exaggerated sounds’’ have been used throughout the documentary, as well as ‘’interviews’’ with experts and the subjects i.e. the female victims of domestic violence and acid attacks. The sound was traditional south Asian music, consisting of no lyrics, but instruments such as tabla. This sound used was non-diegetic, and it was added whilst the establishing shots were shown, such as the long-shots of Islamabad Burns Centre, and the nearby areas. There was a generally ‘slow pace of editing’, allowing the audience to build empathy for the victims. However, the culprits of the acid violence (victim’s husband) was shown in long-shots, and the questions he was asked were being able to be heard, in order for the audience to acknowledge the lies he has to tell and how much in denial he is. Other than this, subtitles were added in order to appeal to a mass audience, as the subjects spoke in Urdu, which is ‘’one of the official languages of Pakistan’’[25]. This documentary was first broadcasted on HBO in North America on March 8,[26] and was originally filmed for those in the western society to ‘raise awareness about the acid-violence’[27] and ‘was not meant to be shown in Pakistan’[28]
Mohammed Jawad, who was equivalent to the ‘hero’ (Vladimir Prop’s character narrative theory)[29] to help the subjects was shown in a positive way, as he successfully managed to ‘’help repair the damage done to the victims’’[30]. This challenged the original representations of males that were created in this documentary as they were the culprits. A famous plastic surgeon playing a role in the documentary, aided the success of the Documentary, and its ability to win the Oscars 2012. This documentary being able to win an Oscar, certainly shows how the media is raising more awareness about issues such as acid attacks victims in LEDCs. However, the amount of awareness currently raised about this issue of acid attacks in specific does not have enough of an effect on the audience in the Western world, as issues aren’t reported as much as they should be, and audiences aren’t given enough of an opportunity to ‘’empathize with victims’’[31]. Increasing empathy will increase the viewership, thus raise more awareness amongst mass audiences, enabling them to aid victims by funding charities such as international charity Project SAAVE, which is in place to help those (male or female), undergone acid attacks. Poor quality news leads to the audience being blinded, from what is actually happening in the world i.e. acid attacks and violence specifically against females in LEDC’s. Meaning audiences only view news on reality TV such as ‘Keeping Up with the Kardashians’[32], which is on celebrities i.e. part of the elite.
Acid violence impacts mainly ‘’women in southern Punjab and changes the lives of hundreds of women each year"[33], in Pakistan and over the world, in specifically less developed countries.
Many women around the world are ‘’not even awarded basic human rights’’[34], it may be difficult to see why the media choose to show us only those people who we can relate to i.e. Western society such as in UK/USA or are part of the Elite e.g. politicians. This shows we are still in the first-wave of feminism in some societies. Although issues are discussed, such as the famous Emma Watson United Nations speech, acid attacks victims, specifically against females are still are not brought up in any headlines. There is still not enough being done or any key international foundations created in order to fund the expensive treatment of these victims, and make them feel supported. Despite these scenario’s taking place, as well as successful award winning documentary being filmed following up on acid attack victims, disfigured faces aren’t shown enough on the news – this is the reality, and documentary’s such as Saving Face are there to encourage those in the western society to do all they can to help, as well as raise awareness about the suffering that has to be tolerated by hundreds of acid attack victims. However ''With all the attention on celebrity and glamour at the Academy Awards, it's rare that the award for short documentary film gets much notice.''[35] So although there is some available about these issues, including documentary’s and news articles, these articles won’t make the headlines when they take place.
As the victims are mainly female, the lack of awareness being raised via the media could be due to the fact that the attackers tend to be mainly males in most cases. Such as in countries like such as Afghanistan, where girls ‘’have been targeted by acid attackers (a group of men) for attending school. ‘’[36]Such acts mainly being done by males, leaves those of a collective identity that dominate the media i.e. males. Media institutions are predominantly owned by males, for example Rupert Murdoch, who’s the ’’chairman and CEO of News Corporation’’[37] the man who ‘’owns too many newspapers’’[38], is unlikely to represent males in a negative way, as this can affect their overall representation in the media, as well as in society. There is already so much attention being paid in the media about equal rights and ‘feminism’ so any further enforcement on females being disadvantaged around the world, as well as in the western society such as females still earning less than males in ‘’90% of job categories’’[39] in the UK can make this issue of human rights and men being unfair to females an even bigger issue than it already is.
To conclude the media are raising awareness about women’s rights and acid attack victims, however this is only to some extent for those in LEDCs, and not enough is being done to raise awareness about media texts such as Saving Face. Saving Face has won a number of awards, including the ‘’2012 academy award for short documentary’’[40], it has still not lead to huge attention after these awards, the charity project SAAVE and Saving Face promote each other (similar to synergy: as there’s mentions of Project SAAVE in Saving Face and vice versa). However, this doesn’t mean that the issues covered are promoted enough to raise awareness about them thoroughly.
Words: 2126
[1] "How we
Classify Countries". (World
Bank.) September
25, 2010.
[2] Tom di Castella Aug 2013
[3] ‘Essential Media word dictionary’ - AS/A-level p. 48
[4] Pakistan
Observer (2012)
[5] Nichols,
Bill. ‘’Mode Of Documentary’’ 2001
[6] Jawad Mohammad. ‘’The Katie Piper Foundation’’
http://www.mohammadjawad.com/humanitarian-works/the-katie-piper-foundation
http://www.mohammadjawad.com/humanitarian-works/the-katie-piper-foundation
[7] "Judith Butler
[Philosopher]". Media Edu
[8]
Omar Farooq Khan. 2014
[9] ‘’United Nations Entity for Gender Equality,
and the Empowerment of Women’’. (2013)
[10] Avon Global Centre for Women and Justice at
Cornell Law School (2012)
[11] ibid
[12] Stephen Stills. (2009)
[13] Prof.
Mujahidin Kamran.
(2011)
[14] Pareto, Vilfredo;
Page, Alfred N. (1971)
[15] Ashley
lutz, Business
Insider. June 2012
[16]
ibid
[17] Katz, E. (1957).
[18] Katz, Elihu (1959).
[19] Kruger,
S. Rayner, P. Wall, P. 2004
[20]
Pamela J Shoemaker ‘’News and newsworthiness: A commentary’’ p. 105 Walter de
Gruyter
[21] ‘’BANGLADESH: Acid
attacks continue despite new laws’’ Jan 2009
[22]
ibid
[23] Galtung, J. & Ruge, M. Holmboe
(1965): The Structure of
Foreign News. The Presentation of the Congo Journal of Peace
Research, vol. 2, pp. 64-91
[24] ‘Essential Media word dictionary’ - AS/A-level p. 30
[25]Search/Define: Urdu http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/urdu
[26] Saving Face Official PAGE http://savingfacefilm.com/
[27] Ibid
[28]Faiza Mirza June 2012
[29] David Herman ‘’Narrative Theory: Core Concepts and Critical Debates (Theory
Interpretation Narrativ)’’ – p42 2012
[30] Homa Khaleeli -Feb 2012
[31] Alain De Bottom – Feb 2014
[32] Claire Rutter
Mirror News. March 2015.
[33]
Sonya Rehman November 2011
[34] Manika Mehta Jan 2015
[35] Susan King March 2008
[36] Atia Abawii Jan 2009
[38]
Harriet Harman – March 2012
[39] Tom Bawden, Simon Rogers March 2011
[40] Saving Face Official webpage - 2012
