Follow the Pictures

In 1963, the 16th Street Baptist Church was bombed killing four young girls. The act of terrorism was horrific but not uncommon in the city known as "Bombingham" by many Civil Rights leaders. Those four beautiful black girls' faces were seen in news papers across the country. The event was resounding and today would have sent media alerts to the entire nation's cellphone, but in its time it felt somewhat distant. A sixteen year old girl several hours away, in the city of Montgomery, described the terrorist attack as "far away". Fifty-six years later, the same girl (I will let you do the math) described terrorist attacks in Paris, Brussels, and New Zealand as "in her backyard." Her testimony begs the question, "What is the real impact of a larger media giant?" Richard Nixon led John F. Kennedy in polls across the country until the first nationally televised presidential debate. Nixon was recovering from illness and appeared on camera as feeble and sickly. Historians have argued that this was a turning point in the election and the polls support their claim. Pictures shared hundred of thousand of times on Facebook brings the entire free world to the front lines of tragedy. Media giants such as CNN and Fox News have been accused of fearmongering by politicians and celebrities alike. These accusations do not represent the first time the elite have got it wrong nor will they represent the last. Media's great influence in our society is not arousing fear but rather presenting the ugly truth that we have too long ignored. Comments by a president that incite racial hatred in hateful people. Warnings of an economic downturn. A gunman killing children in a school. A victim of police violence begging for air. Evil has always existed, and it always will. The expansion of the news media has just allowed us more in-depth access and more exposure to the problems with which we are faced. We have to look into the eyes of victims claimed by our ignorance. Photojournalists use pictures to tell the story.  Those four girls were on the nation's conscience. The street in Paris lined with police showing the world the seriousness of ISIS. The youth of JFK compared to the sickness of Nixon. The masses will deny the validity of new stories until they lose their voice, but when you show them the photograph of the young child weak and starving behind bars at the border they cannot deny the truth. I challenge you to follow the pictures, embrace the media, and change the evil rather than blame technology for showing you the evil. Just a thought.