There has been over a month-long silence on this little blog of mine, while it was assessed for my coursework [MA International Journalism at the University of Westminster, London]… while I battened down the hatches to survive another Christmas far away from the warmth of my homeland… while, in truth and in fact, there was nothing much to say.
Today we rushed through our first Online class, speeding through the rudiments of web design, so that we could wrap up in time to see the inauguration.
We were in News Room 2 which has a big projector screen and four other screens, and people from all over the department, students and staff alike, trickled in to catch a glimpse.
We could hear the echo from the room beside us — another screen was up next door.
We were only a few of the millions that gathered to watch.
“You’ve got a good-looking president there,” I said to my American friend who was sitting beside me.
Her good-looking president represents love, change, and hope for the whole world — dang, he’s got a lot to live up to!
There’s been million of articles written about Obama’s inauguration, but I’ve decided to focus my blog not on the content of the journalism about it, but about the journalism itself:
Obama inauguration trumps THA elections
- In Trinidad & Tobago, we have 3 daily newspapers — The Trinidad Guardian, The Trinidad Express, and the Trinidad & Tobago Newsday.
Newsday’s front page was concerned with THA (Tobago House of Assembly) Elections, with a note to turn to a page inside to see the Obama inauguration story.
Express’ front cover had it half-and-half with their two photos — half about THA and half about Obama.
Guardian was the newspaper that went all out Obama, with just a sprinkle of THA at the bottom:
I found it really interesting because it was not just a humdrum news day in the little island. Elections — huge news appeal!
But Guardian decided (and, I agree with them) that Obama was bigger news that elections in our own country.
This shows precisely how news values work, how the connection with the US is so pertinent to our little country.
…And on top of that, what a photo! What a caption! OBAMA IN CHARGE… of our little island? Or the world?…
Wikipedia information battle about Obama article
- The other thing I found interesting was Wikipedia.
There were loads of corrections made that day, and around 5:00p.m. there was a flurry of them, if you want to have a look: go here.
Can you imagine, how many people around the world, were on Wikipedia that day, just waiting?
People were so anxious to change his information that someone changed it back with the note:
16:26, 20 January 2009 Inigmatus (Talk | contribs) (138,453 bytes) (not yet president. please wait until after 12 noon EST.)
Journalists poised to press the publish button
- Mere seconds after he was sworn in, up popped news articles online — in past tense, of course — about the swearing in ceremony, many of them “colour pieces”, describing the mood of the ceremony, how his head was bent down, and so on.
Wow. This is history in the making — at the speed of light.
These articles had to have been written ages before, with just those “colour” words thrown in right before it was published: imagine the millions of journalists around the world, just waiting for the second hand of the clock!
The bots prove it: something to talk about
Those were just a few newsworthy aspects of the inauguration from a slightly different angle…
Beyond the millions of spectators, beyond the thousands upon thousands of security personnel, beyond his little gaffe about “execution” during the swearing-in, beyond all of it… the numbers prove it, the little bots squirreling around in cyberspace prove what no mere words can fully encapsulate:
Obama is something to talk about. The world over, he is something to talk about.
Congratulations Mr. President 
Child abuse: stopped at delivery room
March 25, 2009He was stabbed in the stomach, smashed against a mirror, forced to eat his own vomit, and had his face smeared in his brother’s dirty diaper.
These were only some of the ordeals Dave Pelzer faced under the domineering thumb of his alcoholic mother, in one of the worst cases of child abuse that California has ever seen.
With the release (24/03/09) of the research findings in Child Abuse and Neglect, and the recent controversy over newborn ‘Baby D’, child abuse is once more at the forefront of news media, just as it was over a decade ago with Pelzer’s autobiographical book “A Child Called It“.
‘Baby D’ has been seized from the arms of his parents within seconds of his birth, in an unprecedented high court ruling that dictated that the parents should not be informed about this decision beforehand.
This was believed to be in the best interest of the child’s safety, though under the Human Rights Act, prospective parents have a right to private and family life and should therefore have been informed.
Role of child protection services
The mother, who is in prison for threatening her young daughter with a knife, had previously told a social worker that her children would be “better off dead than in the council’s care”, reports the Guardian.
This case has demonstrated the “root and branch shake up” of child protection services that Children’s Secretary Ed Balls has admitted is necessary to protect children in the wake of the Baby P scandal.
The devastating end to Baby P’s life, and the media controversy surrounding it, has raised awareness of the issue of child abuse.
Dave Pelzer’s story, “A Child Called It: one child’s struggle to survive”, had a similar impact in the US in the mid-90′s.
‘A Child Called It’
“A Child Called It” chronicles one of the most severe child abuse cases in California’s history.
The first part of his autobiographical trilogy tells the story of Dave’s childhood. The abuse escalated at the tender age of seven, and continued until his ‘rescue’ at the age of 12.
Pelzer was burnt on a stove, had ammonia forced down his throat, put to lie in a bathtub full of freezing water for hours, and made to sit in the ‘prisoner of war’ position.
He was also excluded from family vacations, forced to live in the basement, denied human contact, and starved as punishment.
Child as object
The most powerful part of Pelzer’s story is the point that translates through every story, whether real or fictional, of child abuse: the objectification of the child.
No longer a son, and treated even worse than a slave, Dave’s mother referred to him as “The Boy”, and eventually simply “It”.
Another similar point between Dave’s story and Baby P’s is the involvement of social services: in Dave’s case it took years of suspicion and investigation to result in his ‘rescue’.
Baby P, unfortunately, was never rescued.
Had he survived, at the rate of abuse he had been subjected to, his file would have grown to exceed Pelzer’s in the number of incidents in which his life was threatened by parental abuse.
Abused as abuser or activist
Pelzer has turned his abuse into something positive – unlike in many cases where the abused becomes the abuser, as depicted in the film The Cell, and in the role of T-Bag in the drama series Prison Break.
Dave has won awards for his writing and has accumulated presidential commendations for his work as a motivational speaker.
The world will never know what Baby P could have become.
Has the case of ‘Baby D’ shown a new direction in the role of child services that will change the future of child abuse cases?
Was their decision too drastic a measure… or can this ‘pre-emptive strike’ save a child’s life?
Posted in Commentary, journalism, London, politics | Tagged a child called it, baby d, baby p, child abuse, child protection services, children's secretary ed balls, dave pelzer, human rights act parents, prison break, the cell | 1 Comment »