Top Five Stories the Media Isn’t Sharing With Us

By Azadeh Aalai

We all been guilty of it: spending time reading (or writing) about the latest celebrity scandal instead of focusing our attention on more pressing global concerns. For a number of reasons, the media has undergone a series of dire changes that is leaving consumers of news less informed than we should be. Many scholars today refer to the culture of American media as purveyors of "infotainment," serving to entertain rather than inform. In an attempt to reverse this trend, and raise awareness on issues that are not gaining enough media exposure, I would like to present my list of the top five stories that our media has been neglecting:

1. Sex Trafficking. It's the second most profitable illicit business worldwide, and yet, for most of us, what little we know about sex trafficking comes from our exposure to Hollywood movies such asTaken. Sex trafficking is defined as, "[a] modern-day form of slavery in which a commercial sex act is induced by force, fraud, or coercion, or in which the person induced to perform such an act is under the age of 18 years" ("Sex Trafficking", n.d., para 1). Before you stop and assume that this is a problem that happens anywhere but in America, read on:

"In our attempt to truly understand this dilemma, we must delve into some sex trafficking statistics and facts. To date, there are over 32 million people enslaved around the world, and out of that number 80 percent of the victims are forced into sexual servitude. It is estimated that 50,000 to 75,000 victims are trafficked into America for sexual servitude and that is not factoring the 100,000 to 300,000 American children forced into prostitution under our noses. These sex trafficking statistics and facts show that this is not just a minor issue taking place." ("Sex Trafficking", n.d., para 2.)

Clearly this is a major issue, and yet, who among us has seen any kind of pervasive exposure to this topic? The numbers are actually larger than this when human trafficking is considered not exclusive to the sex trade but also for any kind of forced labor.

2. Tibetan Monks Are Burning. Other than a small blurb buried on the inside of newspapers constituting less than a paragraph, I have yet to encounter any full paged articles from major newspapers discussing the ongoing self-immolations of Tibetan monks in protest of increasingly harsh sanctions by Chinese authorities. To date, 11 attempted suicides by fire have been documented among Tibetan monks or former monks and/or nuns this year (Burke & Branigan, 2011). In fact, there were sevensuicide protests in the last four weeks alone (Burke & Branigan, 2011). Such brazen acts are desperate attempts by angry Tibetans who have seen so much of their culture undermined by harsh Chinese rule. It would be harder to justify our government's increasing economic dependence and partnership with the government of China if greater attention was brought to their gross violations of the rights of occupied Tibetans.

3 & 4. (Because it's that important!) Genocide Continues to Occur. In the aftermath of World War II, the Nuremberg Trials had the world collectively gasping "never again." Since that time, the U.S. government has actually never actively intervened to stop genocide (Power, 2003). For example, the genocides in Bosnia (1992-1995) and Rwanda (1994) happened after the Cold War while American supremacy and awareness of the lessons of the Holocaust were at their height. Incidentally, both also occurred during Clinton's much lauded administration, showing that American presidents can obtain storied reputations as political leaders even when they are completely inactive in the face of genocides occurring worldwide under their watch.
More recently, the Obama administration has formally petitioned for immunity on behalf of Rwandan president Kagame, despite allegations that he was the mastermind behind the 1994 genocide in Rwanda and the ongoing wars in the Congo (Garrison, 2011). This petition, however, has received nary exposure in the mainstream news. Historical analysis shows that one of the most powerful deterrents to escalation of atrocities that occur during genocide is exposure by the media. But when the media fails to keep its citizenry informed, civilians are left without access to information they would need to compel their politicians to act in the face of ongoing and unspeakable atrocities. Take the fact, for instance, that in 2004 ABC news only allotted a total of 18 minutes on the Darfur genocide in its nightly newscast, despite that innocent civilians were and continue to be slaughtered every day (Slovic, 2007).
Similarly, in the same time span NBC only had five minutes of coverage of Darfur while CBS had only three minutes (Slovic, 2007). Meanwhile, the case of the missing American girl in Aruba, Natalie Holloway, became a story that the media was fixated on (Slovic, 2007). One wonders today what stories are being neglected when the media was transfixed on the Casey Anthony trial, or even more recently, the trial of Michael Jackson's doctor, Conrad Murray.

5. Suicide Greatest Threat to U.S. Soldiers. For the second year in a row, more U.S. soldiers killed themselves than the number that died in combat. This fact speaks for itself.
To read more about the growing number of soldiers dying by suicide versus combat, and to have access to other links elaborating on this dire statistic, please refer to: projectcensored.org.
Burke, J., Branigan, T. (November 10, 2011). ‘Burning martyrs': The wave of Tibetan Monks setting themselves on fire. The Guardian. Retrieved November 14, 2011 fromhttp://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/nov/10/burning-martyrs-tibet....
Garrison, A. (September 14, 2011). Obama Requests Immunity for Kagame re Rwandan Genocide and Congo Wars. Project Censored. Retrieved November 14, 2011 fromhttp://www.mediafreedominternational.org/2011/11/07/obama-request... .
Power, Samantha (2003). A problem from hell: America and the age of genocide. Perennial: New York.

To learn more about human trafficking and sex trafficking in particular, including links to other relevant and accurate articles and resources, visit this helpful PBS website:http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/slaves/etc/stats.html.
"Sex Trafficking: What is Sex Trafficking?" (n.d.). Retrieved November 14, 2011 http://istoptraffic.com/.
Slovic, Paul (2007). "If I look at the masses I will never act": Psychic numbing and genocide. Judgment & Decision Making, 2(2), 79-95.
Copyright 2011 Azadeh Aalai