Blog 7 - The month of baby related train incidents. Coincident?
Besides the big natural disasters--earthquake, that caused many to be frantic and worried, these baby related train incidents are shocking events as well, at least to me.
On the 16 October 2009, a six-month-old boy had miraculously survived a train that was seen slamming into his stroller after it rolled off an Australian railway platform. The collision happened when the train pulled up to Ashburton station, in a Melbourne suburb. It was captured that the boy's mother actually took her hands off the stroller's handles and failed to notice as it slowly edged towards the tracks.
Credit : MrCapellad, youtube
Another event which dated 8 October 2009, reported that a newborn baby had slipped through the discharge chute and falling onto the tracks after being delivered in the toilet of a moving Indian train. Fortunately, she survived and remained unhurt.
Media as always, consists of the agenda setting function; for these cases, it is to caution people of such incidents so as to prevent them from happening again. There are actually ways for the media to set their agenda. In this case, an unobtrusive issue is chosen as it will have a great effect on the public, especially relating mostly to those families who have babies. Another method to act upon is the tone of media coverage. For these issues, it is essential that the tone must be serious in order to highlight to the public that this is not a joking matter since it concerns life and death.
Personally, I think that it is evident to a large extent that the application of theory of media determinism founded by Marshall McLuhan is appropriate here. Although I agree that these issues themselves are sufficient to grab people’s awareness, if the avenue used to send this message across to the public is not sufficient or good enough, the majority will most likely remain unaware. For instance, if the medium, in this case, television and online videos, were to put these 2 incidents side by side, then the importance of the message will be intensified and thus, it will be more effective in increasing people’s awareness of such incidents. Hence, it is very true that the medium is vital as the saying goes “The Medium is the Message”.
posted by charlenetan at
2:21 AM
15 Comments:
I believe that such baby incidents occur in many places and it is not published in the media.These are only a few cases brought out to catch people's attention.
I do believe that media is a very influential way to grab peoples' attention due to the fact that most people will watch the news everyday.It will influence people positively and hope that they will not repeat such mistake again.Furthermore,there is a moral story behind it.
However, the media could be a disadvantaged if there is many negative influences and this could be disastrous.For example,information post on the web may not be totally accurate and there are people who use media to create tension and uncertainty among people.
Hey HQ, thanks for your comment! xp.. Well, it depends on the country you are talking about. Singapore definitely will not allow people to take advantage of the media to create tension and uncertainty amongst the people; the Singapore governement plays a huge role in ensuring that this will not happen.
Hey Charlene! The media is indeed very important since it is very influential, especially in countries where the people are not very educated. The media can easily manipulate the people's mindsets, which can be very dangerous actually.
<3 Denise
Yo Denise! I totally agree with you. That is who I, too, pity those who are manipulated by the media, yet do not know about it at all. That is tragic actually. Those people have already accepted what is fed to them through the media and what they perceive things to be, thus, even if other people were to educate them on what should be right, they probably will not want to change their mindsets.
I agree with Hui. I believe that there are actually a lot of other such incidents out there but news are filtered daily. Eventually, leaving with these more attention-seeking ones. Even through filtering, it shows the media agenda setting function.
It's me again! Media is ever so complicated. It could consist of agendas such as manipulating real events by spicing it up; even the simplest news. Thus, it is very crucial that everyone has to be able to distinguish what's right from wrong; not just accepting what the media feeds us.
It's regrettable that the video has been removed due to violations. Still, it does reflect on how a small thing can be blown up, or how something big can be covered up. That has always been how the media works. The media agenda works along with higher power, in this case.
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Clouds, thanks for commenting! Media as always, is very influential. No matter what news it is, the media is able to make the news look significant if that is its agenda. Thus, media must be conscious of the way it presents its information.
Sunny, thanks for your comment. That is why the media is usually the one that has a big role in impacting the world.
Luna, thanks for your comment. This is one of the reasons why people nowadays have to go through high level of education to learn to distinguish, besides that, we have to learn to interpret information too. This is also very crucial.
the baby is a miracle! :)
the agenda of the media can have both effects; good or bad. the media normally utilise its influence to highlight certain issues to the public. what what about the people who has no access to the media? like no TVs, no radios etc.
Hi Van! the people that do not have media such as TVs and radios are usually easily manipulated by the others as they are oblivious of what is happening around them. In such a way, the media can be even more influential to these people.
Phew! Luckily these babies were unharmed. I think media is a strong platform to caution such incidents. More people would then know about the seriousness of such matters and pay more attention to them.
Yu Han, thanks for your comment! Yes, media plays a big big role indeed. :)
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