forked from fionnbharra/nimbupani.github.com
-
Notifications
You must be signed in to change notification settings - Fork 1
/
the-danger-of-story.html
199 lines (96 loc) · 9.54 KB
/
the-danger-of-story.html
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
52
53
54
55
56
57
58
59
60
61
62
63
64
65
66
67
68
69
70
71
72
73
74
75
76
77
78
79
80
81
82
83
84
85
86
87
88
89
90
91
92
93
94
95
96
97
98
99
100
101
102
103
104
105
106
107
108
109
110
111
112
113
114
115
116
117
118
119
120
121
122
123
124
125
126
127
128
129
130
131
132
133
134
135
136
137
138
139
140
141
142
143
144
145
146
147
148
149
150
151
152
153
154
155
156
157
158
159
160
161
162
163
164
165
166
167
168
169
170
171
172
173
174
175
176
177
178
179
180
181
182
183
184
185
186
187
188
189
190
191
192
193
194
195
196
197
198
199
<!doctype html>
<!--[if lt IE 9]> <html class="no-js oldie" lang="en"> <![endif]-->
<head>
<meta charset="utf-8">
<meta http-equiv="X-UA-Compatible" content="IE=edge,chrome=1">
<title>The Danger of a Story | Divya Manian</title>
<meta name="author" content="Divya Manian">
<meta name="description" content="Have you seen this photograph? © Kevin Carter/CORBIS/Sygma I am hazarding, you would think, just as I did, that “Something must be done! …">
<meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1">
<link rel="canonical" href="http://nimbupani.github.com/the-danger-of-story.html">
<link href="/stylesheets/screen.css" rel="stylesheet">
<link href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/nimbupani" rel="alternate" title="Subscribe" type="application/atom+xml">
<link href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/nimbu" rel="alternate" title="Subscribe to Web Development updates" type="application/atom+xml">
</head>
<body >
<div class="container">
<div class="content">
<header role="banner"> <h1><a href="/">Divya Manian</a></h1>
<h2><a class="twitter" href="https://twitter.com/divya">twitter</a> <a class="rss" href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/nimbupani">RSS Feed</a> <a class="youtube" href="http://youtube.com/nimbupani">Youtube Channel</a> <a class="github" href="https://github.com/nimbupani">Github</a></h2>
</header>
<nav class="sitenav"><a href="/">Home</a>
<a href="/archives">Archives</a>
<a href="/about.html">About</a>
</nav>
<article>
<nav class="article">
<a class="previous" href="/blogging-with-drupal-6-part-2.html" title="Blogging with Drupal 6 - Part 2">❬</a>
<a class="next" href="/illustration-friday-expire.html" title="Illustration Friday - Expire">❭</a>
</nav>
<header>
<time datetime="2010-03-06T00:00:00-08:00" pubdate><span class='month'>Mar</span> <span class='day'>06</span> <span class='year'>2010</span></time>
<h1 class="entry-title"><a href="/the-danger-of-story.html">The Danger of a Story</a></h1>
</header>
<div class="entry-content"><p>Have you seen <a href="http://www.arab2.com/picture-worth-thousand-words/images/vulture-child.jpg">this photograph</a>? </p>
<p><img src="http://nimbupani.com/files/vulture-child.jpg" alt="vulture-child.jpg" border="0" width="556" height="404"><br><small>© Kevin Carter/CORBIS/Sygma</small></p>
<p>I am hazarding, you would think, just as I did, that “Something must be done! This cannot be!” <a href="http://uk.answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20080726074246AAJ95qa">This Yahoo Answers</a> thread is a great example of it. If you are enterprising enough, you would look for a website that takes donations to help people in that area or at least attempt to know more about the area where the photo was taken.</p>
<p>The problem with this story is that,it is just that, a story. This photograph can represent a million things. It can as easily be applied to Sudan as to any other country. It can be appropriated by anyone as their symbol of struggle and oppression.</p>
<p></p>
<p>But, here is an <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kevin_Carter#Prize-winning_photograph_in_Sudan">alternative story of this picture</a> which is much less sinister and sounds more probable:</p>
<blockquote><p>Again according to Silva, Carter was quite shocked as it was the first time that he had seen a famine situation and so he took many shots of the children suffering from famine. Silva also started to take photos of children on the ground as if crying, which were not published. The parents of the children were busy taking food from the plane so they had left their children only briefly while they collected the food. This was the situation for the girl in the photo taken by Carter. A vulture landed behind the girl. To get the two in focus, Carter approached the scene very slowly so as not to scare the vulture away and took a photo from approximately 10 metres. He took a few more photos and then the vulture flew off.</p></blockquote>
<p>This is not to diminish the tragedy that unfolded in Sudan, but to simply point out the danger of a story. Stories that fit into a well-known pattern and titillate us with graphic and violent details are especially dangerous.</p>
<p></p>
<p>Stories cloud our perceptions and lead to a mob behavior, frequently seen online (like <a href="http://blog.iso50.com/2009/04/06/save-jon-engle/">this story of Jon Engle</a> which I implicitly believed in before more details came out). Anyone who asks to know an alternate point of view is treated as a “heartless” person or someone who must be in collusion with the devil or a traitor. This is the danger of a story, we get sucked into it without us realising we are reacting to it.</p>
<p></p>
<p>Thanks to the internet, you do not have to work too hard to know all aspects of a story to make up your mind. <a href="http://tedxmidatlantic.com/live/#TylerCowen">Tyler Cowen</a> and <a href="http://www.ted.com/talks/chimamanda_adichie_the_danger_of_a_single_story.html">Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie</a> have spoken much more eloquently on this topic, which I consider essential viewing for anyone wondering about the danger of a story.</p>
<p>As Tyler Cowen states, any story that is simple to understand, or is of the form Good vs. Evil, that translates to a good movie, or is a story that you like to hear, is worth investigating before assuming it to be true.</p>
<p></p>
<p>Make it a habit to never believe in any story reported in any media, until you know enough to form an opinion about it. More importantly, be willing to change that opinion as soon as more facts are known, or when it stops being plausible.</p>
<p>Don’t believe anything I have just said either :)</p>
</div>
<footer>
<p class="meta">This post was posted by
<a href="/about.html">Divya Manian</a>
on
<time datetime="2010-03-06T00:00:00-08:00" pubdate><span class='month'>Mar</span> <span class='day'>06</span> <span class='year'>2010</span></time> in
. If you would like to update this post, <a href="https://github.com/nimbupani/nimbupani.github.com/blob/source/source/_posts/2010-03-06-the-danger-of-story.md">please send a pull request</a>.
</p>
</footer>
</article>
<section>
<h1>Comments</h1>
<div id="disqus_thread" aria-live="polite"><noscript>Please enable JavaScript to view the <a href="http://disqus.com/?ref_noscript">comments powered by Disqus.</a></noscript>
</div>
</section>
</div>
</div>
<aside id="articles">
<p><img class="avatar" src="/assets/divya.png" height=50> <a href="http://twitter.com/divya">Divya Manian</a> is a Web Developer in Seattle. <a href="/about.html">More about me ❭</a></p>
<h2>Posts on Web Development</h2>
<ul><li><a href="/html5please.html">html5please</a></li><li><a href="/mustache.html">mustache, hogan, handlebars</a></li><li><a href="/redesign-notes.html">Redesign Notes</a></li><li><a href="/summary-of-various-exciting-css-drafts-and-proposals.html">Summary of various exciting CSS drafts and proposals</a></li><li><a href="/this-revolution-needs-new-revolutionaries.html">This revolution needs new revolutionaries</a></li><li><a href="/some-css-transition-hacks.html">Some CSS Transition hacks</a></li><li><a href="/safe-css-defaults.html">Safe CSS Defaults</a></li><li><a href="/unplugged-2011.html">Unplugged 2011</a></li><li><a href="/bokeh-with-css3-gradients.html">Bokeh with CSS3 Gradients</a></li><li><a href="/making-pure-css3-demos-better.html">Making "Pure CSS3" demos better</a></li><li><a href="/web-opener-at-opera.html">Web Opener at Opera</a></li><li><a href="/current-color-in-css.html">Current Color in CSS</a></li><li><a href="/css-vocabulary.html">CSS Vocabulary</a></li><li><a href="/active-web-development.html">Active Web Development</a></li><li><a href="/sexy-css3-buttons.html">Sexy CSS3 Buttons</a></li><li><a href="/accessible-css-barcharts.html">Accessible CSS Barcharts</a></li><li><a href="/svg-is-coming.html">SVG is coming!</a></li><li><a href="/wee-marquee.html">Wee! Marquee</a></li><li><a href="/vignettes-with-css3-box-shadows.html">Vignettes with CSS3 Box Shadows</a></li><li><a href="/drop-shadows-with-css3.html">Drop Shadows with CSS3</a></li><li><a class="btn" href="/categories/web-development/">More</a></li></ul>
</aside>
<footer role="contentinfo"><p>
Copy to your heart’s content 2012 - Divya Manian -
<span class="credit">Powered by <a href="http://octopress.org">Octopress</a></span>
</p>
</footer>
<script type="text/javascript">
var disqus_shortname = 'nimbublog';
var disqus_developer = 1;
var disqus_url = 'http://nimbupani.com/the-danger-of-story.html';
var disqus_identifier = 'http://nimbupani.com/the-danger-of-story.html';
(function () {
var dsq = document.createElement('script'); dsq.type = 'text/javascript'; dsq.async = true;
dsq.src = 'http://' + disqus_shortname + '.disqus.com/embed.js';
(document.getElementsByTagName('head')[0] || document.getElementsByTagName('body')[0]).appendChild(dsq);
}());
</script>
<script src="/javascripts/octopress.js"></script>
<script>
var _gaq=[['_setAccount','UA-97188-1'],['_trackPageview']];
(function(d,t){var g=d.createElement(t),s=d.getElementsByTagName(t)[0];
g.src=('https:'==location.protocol?'//ssl':'//www')+'.google-analytics.com/ga.js';
s.parentNode.insertBefore(g,s)}(document,'script'));
</script>
</body>
</html>