{"id":21148,"date":"2022-10-09T08:13:52","date_gmt":"2022-10-09T08:13:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mauritius\/all-news\/when-tragedy-becomes-banal"},"modified":"2022-10-09T08:36:10","modified_gmt":"2022-10-09T08:36:10","slug":"when-tragedy-becomes-banal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mauritius\/all-news\/when-tragedy-becomes-banal","title":{"rendered":"When Tragedy Becomes Banal"},"content":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Mauritius. <\/strong><\/span>When Vladimir Putin launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine by land, air and sea on Feb. 24, 2022, the images of war were conveyed to dismayed onlookers around the world.<\/p>\n

Far from the action, many of us became aware of the unprovoked aggression by reading online coverage or watching TV to see explosions and people running from danger and crowding into underground bunkers.<\/p>\n

Half a year later, the violence continues. But for those who have not been directly affected by the events, this ongoing war and its casualties have been shifting to the periphery of many people\u2019s attention.<\/p>\n

This turning away makes sense. Being attentive to realities like war is often painful, and people are not well-equipped to keep a sustained focus on ongoing or traumatic occurrences.<\/p>\n

In addition, since the war in Ukraine began, many other events have arisen to occupy the world\u2019s attention. These include droughts, wildfires, storms tied to global warming, mass shootings and the reversal of Roe v.<\/p>\n

Wade. As the philosopher-psychologist William James asked, \u201cDoes not every sudden shock, appearance of a new object, or change in a sensation, create a real interruption?\u201d<\/p>\n

Ongoing tragic events, like the assault on Ukraine, can recede from people\u2019s attention because many may feel overwhelmed, helpless or drawn to other urgent issues. This phenomenon is called \u201ccrisis fatigue. \u201d<\/p>\n

Roots of crisis fatigue<\/b><\/p>\n

Malevolent actors and authoritarians are aware of public fatigue and use it to their advantage. \u201cWar fatigue is kicking in,\u201d the Estonian prime minister, Kaja Kallas, said.<\/p>\n

In a speech to marketing professionals in Cannes, France, the president of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, asked them to keep the world focused on his country\u2019s plight.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ll be honest with you \u2013 the end of this war and its circumstances depend on the world\u2019s attention he said
\nDon\u2019t let the world switch to something else!\u201d Unfortunately, many of us have already changed the channel. The tragic has become banal.<\/p>\n

I became interested in the phenomenon of fatigue as a result of my scholarly research into moral attentiveness. This idea was articulated by the 20th-century French philosopher and social activist Simone Weil.<\/p>\n

According to Weil, moral attention is the capacity to open ourselves up fully \u2013 intellectually, emotionally and even physically \u2013 to the realities that we encounter.<\/p>\n

She described such attention as vigilance, a suspension of our ego-driven frameworks and personal desires in favor of a Buddhist-like emptiness of mind.<\/p>\n

This mindset receives, raw and unfiltered, whatever is presented without avoidance or projection. Not surprisingly, Weil found attention to be inseparable from compassion, or \u201csuffering with\u201d the other.<\/p>\n

There is no avoiding pain and anguish when one attends to the afflicted; hence, she wrote that \u201cthought flies from affliction as promptly and irresistibly as an animal flies from death.<\/p>\n

\u201d The sensitivity involved in attending to crises can be a double-edged sword. On one hand, attention can put people in touch with the unvarnished lives of others so the afflicted are truly seen and heard.<\/p>\n

On the other, such openness can overwhelm many of us through vicarious trauma, as psychologists Lisa McCann and Laurie Pearlman have noted. The difficulty of sustained focus on events like the war is due not only to the inherent fragility of moral attention, however.<\/p>\n

As cultural critics like Neil Postman, James Williams and Maggie Jackson have noted, the 24\/7 news cycle is one of many pressures clamoring for our attention.<\/p>\n

Our smartphones and other technology with incessant communications \u2013 from trivial to apocalyptic \u2013 engineer environments to keep us perpetually distracted and disoriented.<\/p>\n

Why audiences tune out<\/b><\/p>\n

Aside from the threats to people\u2019s attention posed by our distracting technologies and information overload, there is also the fact of crisis fatigue leading readers to consume less news.<\/p>\n

This year, a Reuters Institute analysis showed that interest in news has decreased sharply across all markets, from 63% in 2017 to 51% in 2022, while a full 15% of Americans have disconnected from news coverage altogether.<\/p>\n

According to the Reuters report, the reasons for this differ, in part, with political affiliation. Conservative voters tend to avoid the news because they deem it untrustworthy or biased, while liberal voters avoid news because of feelings of powerlessness and fatigue.<\/p>\n

Online news, with its perpetual drive to keep eyes trained on screens, is unwittingly undermining its own goals: to provide news and keep the public informed.<\/p>\n

Taking a new tack<\/b><\/p>\n

How might we recover a capacity for meaningful attention and responses amid incessant, disjointed and overwhelming news? Scholars have made a variety of recommendations, usually focused on reining in digital device usage.<\/p>\n

Beyond this, readers and journalists might consider the following: Limiting the daily intake of news can help people become more attentive to particular issues of concern without feeling overwhelmed.<\/p>\n

Cultural theorist Yves Citton, in his book \u201cThe Ecology of Attention,\u201d urges readers to \u201cextract\u201d themselves \u201cfrom the hold of the alertness media regime.<\/p>\n

\u201d According to him, the current media creates a state of \u201cpermanent alertness\u201d through \u201ccrisis discourses, images of catastrophes, political scandals, and violent news items.<\/p>\n

\u201d At the same time, reading long-form articles and essays can actually be a practice that helps with cultivating attentiveness.<\/p>\n

Journalists can include more solutions-based stories that capture the possibility of change. Avenues for action can be offered to readers to counteract paralysis in the face of tragedy.<\/p>\n

Amanda Ripley, a former Time magazine journalist, notes that \u201cstories that offer hope, agency, and dignity feel like breaking news right now, because we are so overwhelmed with the opposite.
\nWeil, who was committed to the responsibility of moral attentiveness but did not romanticize tragedy, wrote, \u201cNothing is so beautiful and wonderful, nothing is so continually fresh and surprising, so full of sweet and perpetual ecstasy, as the good.<\/p>\n

For More News And Analysis About Mauritius<\/a> Follow Africa-Press<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Mauritius. When Vladimir Putin launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine by land, air and sea on Feb. 24, 2022, the images of war were conveyed to dismayed onlookers around the world. Far from the action, many of us became aware of the unprovoked aggression by reading online coverage or watching TV to see […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":21147,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,9],"tags":[233,245,241,1832],"class_list":["post-21148","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-miscellaneous","tag-africa-press","tag-africa-press-mauritius","tag-mauritius","tag-putin"],"yoast_head":"\nWhen Tragedy Becomes Banal - Mauritius<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"When Vladimir Putin launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine by land, air and sea on Feb. 24, 2022, the images of war w ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mauritius\/all-news\/when-tragedy-becomes-banal\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"When Tragedy Becomes Banal\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"When Vladimir Putin launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine by land, air and sea on Feb. 24, 2022, the images of war w ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mauritius\/all-news\/when-tragedy-becomes-banal\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Mauritius\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AfricaPressTunisiaa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2022-10-09T08:13:52+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2022-10-09T08:36:10+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/mauritius\/sites\/61\/2022\/10\/postQueueImg_15-634287e33b43c.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"920\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"484\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"5 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mauritius\/all-news\/when-tragedy-becomes-banal#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mauritius\/all-news\/when-tragedy-becomes-banal\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mauritius\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"When Tragedy Becomes Banal\",\"datePublished\":\"2022-10-09T08:13:52+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2022-10-09T08:36:10+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mauritius\/all-news\/when-tragedy-becomes-banal\"},\"wordCount\":964,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mauritius\/all-news\/when-tragedy-becomes-banal#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/mauritius\/sites\/61\/2022\/10\/postQueueImg_15-634287e33b43c.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Africa Press\",\"Africa Press-Mauritius\",\"Mauritius\",\"Putin\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"miscellaneous\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mauritius\/all-news\/when-tragedy-becomes-banal#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mauritius\/all-news\/when-tragedy-becomes-banal\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mauritius\/all-news\/when-tragedy-becomes-banal\",\"name\":\"When Tragedy Becomes Banal - Mauritius\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mauritius\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mauritius\/all-news\/when-tragedy-becomes-banal#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mauritius\/all-news\/when-tragedy-becomes-banal#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/mauritius\/sites\/61\/2022\/10\/postQueueImg_15-634287e33b43c.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2022-10-09T08:13:52+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2022-10-09T08:36:10+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mauritius\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"description\":\"When Vladimir Putin launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine by land, air and sea on Feb. 24, 2022, the images of war w ...\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mauritius\/all-news\/when-tragedy-becomes-banal#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mauritius\/all-news\/when-tragedy-becomes-banal\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mauritius\/all-news\/when-tragedy-becomes-banal#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/mauritius\/sites\/61\/2022\/10\/postQueueImg_15-634287e33b43c.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/mauritius\/sites\/61\/2022\/10\/postQueueImg_15-634287e33b43c.jpg\",\"width\":920,\"height\":484,\"caption\":\"When Tragedy Becomes Banal\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mauritius\/all-news\/when-tragedy-becomes-banal#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mauritius\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"When Tragedy Becomes Banal\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mauritius\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mauritius\/\",\"name\":\"Mauritius\",\"description\":\"Just another Africa News Agency Sites site\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mauritius\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mauritius\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\",\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mauritius\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7417380fa9e23b5c57fdbfdaf3fdf92ee478f759a084addda5faa3732853e74a?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7417380fa9e23b5c57fdbfdaf3fdf92ee478f759a084addda5faa3732853e74a?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"cfeditoren\"}}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"When Tragedy Becomes Banal - Mauritius","description":"When Vladimir Putin launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine by land, air and sea on Feb. 24, 2022, the images of war w ...","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mauritius\/all-news\/when-tragedy-becomes-banal","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"When Tragedy Becomes Banal","og_description":"When Vladimir Putin launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine by land, air and sea on Feb. 24, 2022, the images of war w ...","og_url":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mauritius\/all-news\/when-tragedy-becomes-banal","og_site_name":"Mauritius","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AfricaPressTunisiaa","article_published_time":"2022-10-09T08:13:52+00:00","article_modified_time":"2022-10-09T08:36:10+00:00","og_image":[{"width":920,"height":484,"url":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/mauritius\/sites\/61\/2022\/10\/postQueueImg_15-634287e33b43c.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"cfeditoren","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"cfeditoren","Est. reading time":"5 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mauritius\/all-news\/when-tragedy-becomes-banal#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mauritius\/all-news\/when-tragedy-becomes-banal"},"author":{"name":"cfeditoren","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mauritius\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb"},"headline":"When Tragedy Becomes Banal","datePublished":"2022-10-09T08:13:52+00:00","dateModified":"2022-10-09T08:36:10+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mauritius\/all-news\/when-tragedy-becomes-banal"},"wordCount":964,"commentCount":0,"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mauritius\/all-news\/when-tragedy-becomes-banal#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/mauritius\/sites\/61\/2022\/10\/postQueueImg_15-634287e33b43c.jpg","keywords":["Africa Press","Africa Press-Mauritius","Mauritius","Putin"],"articleSection":["all news","miscellaneous"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mauritius\/all-news\/when-tragedy-becomes-banal#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mauritius\/all-news\/when-tragedy-becomes-banal","url":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mauritius\/all-news\/when-tragedy-becomes-banal","name":"When Tragedy Becomes Banal - Mauritius","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mauritius\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mauritius\/all-news\/when-tragedy-becomes-banal#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mauritius\/all-news\/when-tragedy-becomes-banal#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/mauritius\/sites\/61\/2022\/10\/postQueueImg_15-634287e33b43c.jpg","datePublished":"2022-10-09T08:13:52+00:00","dateModified":"2022-10-09T08:36:10+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mauritius\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb"},"description":"When Vladimir Putin launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine by land, air and sea on Feb. 24, 2022, the images of war w ...","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mauritius\/all-news\/when-tragedy-becomes-banal#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mauritius\/all-news\/when-tragedy-becomes-banal"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mauritius\/all-news\/when-tragedy-becomes-banal#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/mauritius\/sites\/61\/2022\/10\/postQueueImg_15-634287e33b43c.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/mauritius\/sites\/61\/2022\/10\/postQueueImg_15-634287e33b43c.jpg","width":920,"height":484,"caption":"When Tragedy Becomes Banal"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mauritius\/all-news\/when-tragedy-becomes-banal#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mauritius\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"When Tragedy Becomes Banal"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mauritius\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mauritius\/","name":"Mauritius","description":"Just another Africa News Agency Sites site","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mauritius\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mauritius\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb","name":"cfeditoren","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mauritius\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7417380fa9e23b5c57fdbfdaf3fdf92ee478f759a084addda5faa3732853e74a?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7417380fa9e23b5c57fdbfdaf3fdf92ee478f759a084addda5faa3732853e74a?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"cfeditoren"}}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mauritius\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21148","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mauritius\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mauritius\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mauritius\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/84"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mauritius\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21148"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mauritius\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21148\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mauritius\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21147"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mauritius\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21148"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mauritius\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21148"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mauritius\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21148"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}