| Alexlee,
You brought up an interesting point. The TV reports vs. grassroots accounts from people who actually live there. TV and magazines and all other media are in the NEWS business. They strive for sensational events or the sensational aspects of an event. If there are killings, death, destruction, injustice, etc., the news reporters and editors get on them like a cat catches on to fish. Events that end up being normal, pleasant, uneventful, or satisfying will never get noticed by the media. The direct hit areas by this typhoon got covered by reporters, Shanghai might have gotten very little (probably a lot of reports before the typhoon on preparations but none after it). From Jian Shuo's post we get a sample of personal, truthful accounts from Shanghai. Imagine two TV reporters. One writes, typhoon only brought Shanghai rainstorms and street water and many people actually feel kinda pleasant. The other reporter writes: typhoon hit Shanghai hard, many people - four - got killed, streets are flooded, nobody can be seen outside, Shanghai is virtually shut down (or is he talking about all Air Cons shut down?). The first reporter's piece will never make it to the TV screen. If I were a good, responsible editor, I would question which report described the truth. But if I were a mediocre or a greedy editor, guess what, I would of course choose the second guy's bleak report, thus starting a vicious circle of media frenzy, in another word, lies. I salute Jian Shuo for painting the typhoon picture from his personal experience and telling his true feelings. |
Different Views on Typhoon