The detrimental effects of a “single story” — the one sided account of an event — is evident in the portrayal of a suffering country by Western media. As Chimadmanda Ngozi Adichie, a Nigerian novelist, explains in her 2009 TED talks “there is danger in every” “single story,” as it can create misconceptions with devastating impacts on the West’s perception of third world countries. Adichie depicts how repeatedly showing “people as one thing, [ultimately changes the way people perceive them and that] is what they become,” through her examples of the media’s portrayal of Africans as being uncivilized. The single story allows for a group of people to be defined through means out of their control. Adichie expresses that the single stories we are exposed to today come from positions of power. She defines power as “the ability not just to tell the story of another person, but to make it the definitive story of that person.” Western media is a prime example of people in a position of power creating a single story for citizens of many nations in the wake of current events.

 

After watching Western current events in the news, one is often bombarded with examples of single stories. Through repeated images of destruction and loss, we begin to view other people from around the world as victims. For example, when a 7.0 magnitude earth quake devastated Port-au-Prince, Haiti in 2010 the West’s attention focused on how we could help the poor and suffering Haitians. This view of Haitians was reflected in the representation of Hurricane Mathew earlier this year. Through this repeated portrayal in the media, of Haitians as being vulnerable people waiting for western aid, citizens of the West begin to develop a “single story” about this culture. In this article when a “disaster of some kind befalls [Haiti], the Haitian people await help” (Walent). Although the beginning of this article (Haiti being devastated by a natural disaster) is correct, the second part could not be further from the truth.

 

In the West the common representations of Haitians as being those who are in need of our aid, unable to improve their own situation without it, are not completely true. In fact, Wynn Walent depicts a very different image of Haitians. One where they are not waiting around, but instead “sharing resources, information, food and clean water within the most severely affected communities. All this being coordinated with the help from local governments, churches and community groups. In his article in the Denver Post, Walent argues it is “these Haitian people, the helpers, [that] are not often featured in our single story of Haiti, and this is deeply problematic”. Without acknowledging the heroism of the Haitians working to aid their own country, we rely on the single story to fuel our aid efforts. In this model of aid, the West campaigns and raises, although with the right intentions, funds that will go to the wrong people (an example of the West’s corrupt history in relation to Haitian aid is explored in npr’s “In Search of The Red Cross’ $500 Million in Haiti Relief”). We in the West need to acknowledge Haitians as not just victims as they are made out to be by the media who control their single story, but instead as people who will be able to truly help the country to recover. In this case before donating, one should investigate the organization they are supporting.

 

We have a tendency in the West to try to fix the problems of a country that we conceive through the media’s representation of their single story, but then forget about them when the coverage stops. This lack of follow up coverage adds to the media’s ability to write the country’s single story. In the TED talk, Adichie concludes with the statement that, “stories matter” she goes on to explain that stories have the ability to “dispose and marginalize” but they also have the ability to “empower and humanize”.  In order to actually help a country like Haiti rebuild their communities, we must acknowledge that the “single story” the media has ingrained in our mind about Haiti is not accurate; therefore, Haitians should have a larger influence and part in the rebuilding of their country.

 

 

Works cited:

 

“The Danger of a Single Story.” TEDGlobal 2009. Narr. Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. TED Talks: Ideas worth Spreading, July 2009. Web. 5 Nov. 2016.

 

“After Hurricane Matthew, helping Haitians help themselves”. The Denver Post. Wynn Walent. 17 Oct. 2016. Web. Retrieved 5 Nov. 2016.