Why we love riots

Cable news networks really ought to send a thank-you card to North Africa.

Seemingly infected with the world’s longest tapeworm, a 24-hour news network is constantly starving. Whether it’s Fox News, MSNBC or CNN, they all require a steady diet of political scandals, human rights violations, brutal murders and the like.

It’s not their fault; it’s simply a matter of self-preservation. After all, if they can’t find something to feed upon, they cease to exist. As we’ve seen, if they can’t find a story, they will resort to supplementing their diet with a Balloon Boy.

That’s why the recent protests and revolutions in North Africa are such a gift.

It started with the Jasmine Revolution in Tunisia a few weeks ago. Tunisia had promise: Riots make excellent video, dictators are easy to vilify, and the dramatic self-immolation of the young Mohammed Bouazizi was a powerful image that not only served as the spark for the uprising, but was also a spectacular aspect that could draw in viewers. It had all the elements of a good story, and the media grabbed at it hungrily.

While Tunisia was a wonderful stocking stuffer, Egypt became the best present any cable news network could ask for, thanks to two crucial factors: name recognition and the technology angle.

Unlike Tunisia, Egypt means something to the average American (even if that “something” is an image of pyramids, pharaohs and the animated movie “The Prince of Egypt”) . And as notoriously geographically-challenged as we are, Americans can sometimes even find Egypt on a map.

As the icing on the multitiered cake for the famished cable networks, the Egyptian case even obliged by tying in the one thing the media loves to ramble on above all else: technology. As soon as Egypt imposed the communications blackout, things got personal. Americans might find it hard to comprehend tear gas or dictators, but they do understand Facebook.

The setting is identifiable, the story is great (an oppressed people rising up against a dictator), the cinematography is wonderful (flames leaping from buildings, protestors emerging from smoky clouds), and thanks to the wonders of technology, the viewer sitting at home watching the riots on TV feels connected to thousands of Egyptians because he too has a Twitter account.

It is the perfect story, and you can hardly blame the media for enjoying their new toy. It has given them something to talk about for days, and with good reason. The events in Egypt and the rest of North Africa will have real consequences, and perhaps, if we can ever move past the spectacle of it, we can begin to consider them.

In the meantime, we’ll await more videos of cars in flames.     


E-mail: mebinder@indiana.edu