Coronavirus may have spread from China, but given that it is now a worldwide problem, why are so many news outlets continuing to use photographs of Asian people to illustrate their reporting? Is this adding to the issues regarding xenophobia since the outbreak a few months ago?
This question is raised by Nylah Burton over on Vox who argues that the Covid-19 outbreak has led photo editors to a tendency to veer towards racist tropes when choosing images to accompany articles. As she explains, “the outbreak is not confined to — nor can be blamed on — Asian people.”
Various examples are cited, including one instance where a story about an outbreak in Manhattan was illustrated using a photograph of an Asian man wearing a face mask in Queens. Given that the outbreak has gone far beyond Asia and that xenophobia and racism have surfaced as a result of the virus’s origins, there’s a good argument that news outlets should take steps to avoid further stigmatization.
Twitter was quick to cite multiple examples:
Burton is not suggesting that editors and outlets are racist, but it raises the question: does the visual culture of news reporting contribute to xenophobia, and would a change in reporting help to create a sense of unity in fighting coronavirus rather than engendering a feeling of them and us? Leave your thoughts below.
Because China is still the hardest hit BY FAR? Korea is fourth today. Iran second, Italy third.
Korea has 5.6 times less fatality rate then China.
South Korea has been very proactive with testing and their hospitals haven't had to triage patients due to their medical infrastructure being able to meet the demand.
Fan of Heinlein?
That's assuming the numbers from China are anywhere near correct or credible which is questionable since it's become a sensitive topic in the fundamental xenophobia of China's ruling apparatus, and that everyone is measuring lethality the same way (turns out that's not trivial either). It looks more like China has simply stopped reporting, and it could work out either way.
In early statistics, Iran started out with a case lethality of almost 15%.
What did you expect me to say? Everyone except you are racist? :)
I'm pretty sure that because this is where the virus originated from, as well as the fact that there is still by far the most cases and deaths in China. If I was a gambling man, I'd bet these reasons could contribute the their use of these photos?
And as the propoganda grows with the first place to get hit being China, the vast majority of content produced that is now just circling around gaining traction was first created in light of, yep, it origin.
Because it originated in China and the media wants to place the blame on them?
I think they do that without consciously intending to. They know that scare stores about China sell well.
When was the last time an Asian country (e.g., China) improved the sanitary conditions of their wet markets, which is where these viruses emanate? When was the last time a US news outlet blamed the wet markets?
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I guess it would really depends on WHEN the photo editors edited the images. If it was 2 months ago most would be Chinese faces, but if it was yesterday, they would be Italian faces. Is Nylah Burton keeping stats of when these images were edited?
Why not ask the photographers or the entities that they work for instead of injecting racism into the equation? This is just typical of the world we live in. Wake up, scan the news, look for a reason to be offended....it's an industry now. Good grief!
Exactly!!
So true. Need any toilet paper? If so ring me up and I'll send you a roll or two. Be nice to turn on news and see a happy story time to time. Don't think anyone has to look far to be offended.
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i don't think this has anything to do with racism. it shows images of people with a mask so it quickly relates to the virus. Still today you can walk in Paris centre and almost no one wear a mask. So I guess showing an image like that would speak less to the audience.
They're doing this because they're churning out scare stories as fast as they can, on a 10 minute news cycle, and don't have time to even think about what they're doing, let alone what photos they're using.
I agree there's no reason to blame Chinese people for the outbreak at least not totally the poor hygiene practices in china didn't help but the lions share of the blame sits on the shoulders of the Chinese communist Party. They refused to acknowledge the virus and arrested whistle blowers in the most critical time of the outbreak. Without the heavy handed censorship of the authoritarian Chinese government this could've been contained to just Wuhan and not a global pandemic as it is now....
Not to make this political, I agree with you and this is proof communist socialism kills those who have no voice. We will all pay for this one way or another and yet none of us asked for this. Not sure about you or others, but i am already feeling the effect in my business as people are panicking and cancelling the scheduled work already. Going to take a major hit in the wallet and may put me out of business due to the fear mongering the MSM keeps broadcasting. Stay calm and practice good hygiene people. Hold strong people.
And yet here we are in the USA with an administration the is muzzling healthcare institutions, failing to take action (testing), blaming other countries and outright lying, causing more panic.
You go ahead and run with that. It's an old, tired, empty argument. You guys have got to find another obsession. The only panic that's being created is by people like you. We've had 40 deaths and 17 of those were in a retirement home in Washington. Calm down, go nuzzle with your toilet paper stock pile.
This admin is and was trapped between a rock and a hard place. On one hand quick action is needed but NOT creating a panic (the media is responsible for the panic) is important for mobilization. As far as blaming other counties let me make this clear NOTHING WOULD'VE NEEDED TO BE DONE IF THE CCP DIDN'T DROP THE BALL. This is 100% the fault of the Chinese government. You would have an easier time blaming trump for the sun exploding.
To remind me to bookmark Petapixel?
I used to come here to get away from the news and read about my hobby instead.
Agree. It's pathetic the crap this site churns out.
It's called selling the sizzle...not the steak. Make it about them, not us and sensationalize it.
Who wears masks to protect themselves even if there is not corona virus in the streets? Chinese people do, and that is a fact since as I live in Vancouver BC you could see it even before , not that frequently like now but yes, it is Asians who do so. Had a meeting downtown yesterday there was not a single caucasian person in the street wearing it around me, Chinese were... Does this answer your question Andy? It is because it is a fact you can see around in the streets and there are masses of them in certain regions doing so, so that it is why they are in the most pictures. This is 1+1 grade 1 math answer.
Guess if I lived in China with such poor air quality I to would wear a mask or a filtered fresh air respirator.
I have no idea. Have you asked them? Or did you just write the article to get a rise out of the readers. For me, this is definitely fstoppers jumping the shark. You guys are so hard up for traffic that you feel forced to write these crappy articles. It's either politics or some social justice crap to get people to comment, thus driving up ad revenue for the article. It's pathetic.
What the hell is happening to Fstoppers? Stop the damn political post articles on this group. What next SJW photography classes. I joined this site for photography. Get woke, go broke will be the downfall of this site if it keeps up this lame direction. WUHAN Virus originated in China. Quite trying to throwing race into the damn mix.
And sexist. Can't forget sexist. Damn white cis-male imperialist pigs!
Oh, that's a great idea. They would sell a video series called "Social Justice Warrior Photography from Around the World". Brilliant!
Because their disgusting appetites for disgusting, disease filled animals led to this.
Bernie, I am not sure if you lived in Communist country before but China as it is last couple decades is far from being communist anymore. Corporations took over, the party is just using their money flow to get stronger, and richer and greed got them where they are. Read description of Communism on wikipedia and you will see that a very important part cannot be achieved in China anymore, living without MONEY - "absence of social classes, money" stated at WIKIPEDIA :) Happy shooting everyone
You are right on an economic level, to a degree. But on the political level, Communism is very much alive- the Communist Party is still the only leading party and controls everything, communist satellite organizations now are mandatory of even foreign enterprises in China. Also Oil and gas and other industuries are state monoplis. These are socialism measures.
Jozef Povazan: You obviously know little of China. China is run by a communist regime. It does practice capitalism, but the government is communist. The wet markets, where the viruses emanate, were originally begun to help feed the masses since socialism doesn't work. Today, a lot of rich Chinese eat exotic animals gaged in these filthy markets. The Chinese Communist Party wants to stay in power, so they are now blaming the USA for the Coronavirus: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/13/world/asia/coronavirus-china-conspira...
And you know this because of your epidemiological expertise?
No because he can read. You don't need a friken degree to know that bat soup is disgusting and to know that those markets in China are about as sanitary as an outhouse.
Thank you Marty, for replying to this idiot so I don’t have to.
Someone I worked with in China contacted me via Linkedin to see if I wanted to buy some masks today!
For everyone concerned there is a good vid from mathphotographer about Johns Hopkins website regarding viral spread:
https://youtu.be/dGfmkFBx6p8
In any case I'd bet it's easier to find Asian people wearing these masks. They have quite a long tradition of using them to make sure they don't transmit diseases to others. So cliché or not, they are bound to end up over-represented
China I don't know but supposedly that's the motivation in Japan. At least according to our geography teacher in the nineties... damn, that's about 25 years ago!
Because it's visual shorthand for lazy people who don't want to think. You see Asian people and your mind immediately thinks that it's probably a COVID-19 story.
“the outbreak is not confined to — nor can be blamed on — Asian people.”
I think we can all safely blame China, not for having traditions which include catching and eating wild animals which carry all sorts of viruses and diseases. Not for a lack of public hygiene standards (people clearing their noses and spitting and defecating in the streets.
But for their governments attempts to suppress any news about the virus being spread amongst their population within the first month. For lying to their population about the severity of the virus. For not stopping people from travelling until nearly 2 months after the first case was discovered. And for lying to the rest of the world about their numbers of infected and dead.
I don't blame Asian people, I blame the Chinese government.
However the medias portrayal is making the average person more wary of Asian people, which is not fair. I don't think any Asian people have been infected here in the UK. So showing photos of Asian people in masks here would be pretty unjustified.
I have a better idea. I would blame ignorant people and ignorance in general. Oh well...
The CCP aren't ignorant, they knew exactly what they were doing
Seems you're still around, though. I guess they're not going broke anytime soon.
If more people use ad blockers on their site they will. I can guarantee you that if they don't stop with the politics and start writing meaningful articles about photography they will. They're not getting a dime of ad revenue from me.