Compassion Fatigue: How the Media Sell Disease, Famine, War and Death (Library Binding)

by Susan D Moeller (Author) "1991 was a bad year..." (more)
Key Phrases: sensationalized language, formulaic coverage, compassion avoidance, United States, The New York Times, The Washington Post (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly
"Compassion fatigue"?the dulled public sensitivity toward crisis?isn't inevitable, asserts Moeller, director of the journalism program at Brandeis. But formulaic and sensationalistic news coverage promotes it, she claims. In four worthy but somewhat belabored case studies, Moeller analyzes major American media coverage of recent crises, such as the Ebola virus, Ethiopian famine, the assassinations of Sadat and Rabin, and "death camps" in Bosnia. In these stories she found certain things were emphasized, others ignored: coverage of sensational disease, she notes, obscures more ordinary killers; images of starving children overshadow political causes for famine (and famines without photo opportunities are often ignored); the "Americanization" of assassination emphasizes that killers are crazy, rather than politically motivated; and lack of a simple heroes-and-villains story line obscured the Kurdish tragedy. The solution, she argues in an earnest but pollyannaish conclusion, is for the media to invest in international coverage, aiming for nuance and quality over sensationalism. More valuable for its analysis of what's wrong than on how to make it right, Moeller's book could have been made more helpful still through a brief comparison with media in other countries.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review
Moeller's patient dissection of media is a penetrating analysis, concluding that after more and more death and war, disease and worse, consumers just get tire of caring. Change is needed. -- Morton Times-News
...thought-provoking...an important resource for journalism schools... -- The Evening Post
[Moeller] provides challenging detail and analysis [and] raises uncomfortable truths in a readable, provocative manner. -- The Australian
Compassion Fatigue is a reportorial and moral success... [Moeller] demonstrates, in great detail and with tremendous discernment, how [our] self-absorption has served as a prophylactic against understanding. -- National Post
Criticism of the press for its foreign coverage is hardly novel, but in this unrelenting, uncompromising book, Moeller manages to cast a fresh, unwavering eye on the problem...That Moeller's suggestions probably will not be acted upon should not diminish the accomplishment of this impressive book. -- Columbia Journalism Review
Her exhaustive analysis of coverage is a great accomplishment, as is her own retelling of these events. She helps us understand how the media shape our view of the world--and thus shape future events. -- Philadelphia Inquirer
With careful scholarship and nuanced argument, Moeller presents the image of media that have simply stopped doing their job. -- Kirkus Reviews
This is a very important book. Criticism of the American press--broadcast and print--for its foreign coverage is hardly new but Professor Moeller does a masterful job of exposing the causes and the result of this failure. Her work should open the public's eyes, and, indeed, those of the press itself, to the danger to our democracy if remedy is not forthcoming. -- Walter Cronkite
The challenging premise of this well-written book will be of interest to both students and consumers of the media. -- Library Journal
[A] penetrating analysis of an aspect of current media superficiality... -- Booklist
Compassion Fatigue excels in its careful dissection of the institutional, philosophical, and logistical obstacles that prevent the media from effectively monitoring this planet. -- Charlotte Observer
A fascinating exploration of how crisis reporting impacts public opinion and how this affects future coverage. -- William Small, former president of NBC News and United Press International, professor emeritus at Fordham University
Compassion Fatigue is a calm but unflinching look at some of the most desperate stories on the planet. Susan Moeller has engaged the press in exactly the right terms: formulaic performance, sentimentality, missing context, not fighting hard enough to do a story. When these charges are backed up fairly (as they are in Compassion Fatigue) the press will listen. Eventually. -- Thomas C. Leonard, Assoc. Dean, Graduate School of Journalism University of California, Berkeley
For graduate, research, and professional collections. -- Choice
Compassion Fatigue demystifies the editorial formulas which lead to homogenized, Americanized and unconscionably-thin international news coverage. In this important work, Susan Moeller holds American news moguls, editors, journalists and their audiences accountable for failing to overcome public apathy and to assume the unprofitable responsibility to accurately report and measure the human significance of epidemic, assassination, massacre and famine. -- Scott Armstrong, former Washington Post reporter and co-author with Bob Woodward of The Brethren, Inside the Supreme Court

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