The Quake That Disappeared
On October 8th, a 7.6 magnitude earthquake hit South Asia. It is "believed to have killed at least 79,000 people, mostly in Pakistan's portion of Kashmir, and to have destroyed the homes of more than 3 million people," according to the Associated Press.
Compared to some other recent tragedies – and there's no question that we've seen a number in the past year – the South Asia quake has not gotten much attention. During the week of Oct. 10-14, according to analyst Andrew Tyndall, the quake was the most covered story on the nightly newscasts, but the following week, it slipped to #7 – behind Hurricanes Wilma and Katrina, Iraq, the CIA leak case, Harriet Miers, and avian flu. The Southeast Asia tsunami, which killed more than 230,000 people at the end of last year, remained a top story for weeks. Hurricane Katrina and the other hurricanes also dominated news coverage for a long period. But despite the fact that "the aftermath of the Pakistan earthquake…is worse than the tsunami last year," according to the United Nations, it seems many Westerners have forgotten the quake. Not suprisingly, "donations for victims of the recent earthquake in Pakistan and India have not come close to the giving for the tsunami and Hurricane Katrina," according to United Press International.
The situation led Umair A. Khan, writing in Chowk, to observe, "beyond Pakistan's national news media, [media] coverage is a silent movie playing out on inside pages (if at all)." As the death toll rises and many of the homeless are endangered by the impending winter, he implores people to literally scream in order to bring attention to the situation. "And when others…see and hear this, and ask if you are feeling alright, tell them about the earthquake: about the helicopters, the tents, the winter, the 100,000 dead, the 100,000 to save, the 3 million homeless, the injured, the amputated, the NATO refusal, the silent media."
Why has the story lacked staying power? According to Tyndall, the media tends to "concentrate on one natural disaster at a time," and Hurricane Wilma is now holding their collective attention. Another factor, says CBS News foreign editor Chris Hulme, is that in Kashmir there "wasn't much infrastructure to operate with one team for more than a week or ten days." He says the area is "terribly difficult to cover," adding, "the only way you can get to some of these places is helicopter. But all the helicopters are being used for relief work. So you try to get a ride on a relief helicopter, but that isn't always easy to do." The tsunami, by contrast, was relatively easy to cover, since many inland areas were left untouched and the affected countries had far better infrastructure to begin with.
Other possible factors explaining for the dearth of coverage: Unlike in the tsunami, or the hurricanes, no amateur video emerged of the quake with compelling images of the devastation. The quake did not take place in an area Westerners had visited or were terribly familiar with, unlike New Orleans or Thai tourist resorts. And it hit at a time when many people may have been feeling disaster fatigue following a string of tragedies.
Last week, the CBS "Evening News" did not mention the quake at all. Both NBC and ABC did features on it. Hulme says he is keeping an eye on the story and may go back to it. "the weather's getting worse, and the death toll has gone up since we left," he says.
The lack of attention paid by the rest of the world has also become a part of the story. On Oct. 19, UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan said in a statement that more money, helicopters, trucks, heavy-lifting equipment and tents were desperately needed. ``A second massive wave of death will happen if we do not step up our efforts now,'' he said.