In my ASTU class, we have just finished reading a book called Safe Area Gorazde by Joe Sacco. Sacco is a journalist who travels to Gorazde, where he is able to interact with the civilians living there and listens to their stories about the Bosnian war. Many of the people living in this area view America as a perfect place and when Sacco arrives in Gorazde most of the community treats him and the other journalists as celebrities because they are American. Sacco shows how good and bad journalists can effect the worlds view of an event.

Near the beginning of the book, Sacco draws numerous reporters, including himself, entering Gorazde. Sacco draws himself differently than the other journalists, I think he does this because he doesn’t see himself like them. The other reporters seem uninterested in what is actually happening to the people in Gorazde, it is as if they don’t want anything to do with it and want to leave as soon as they can get their story.  Sacco, however, stays with the locals and gets to know them on a personal level. I think this portrayal of the media shows how little citizens of America really know about other countries. Not just citizens of America but many people all over the world in developed countries know very little about what problems third world countries are facing. The media that we tend to see is focussed a lot on celebrities and local drama, we vary rarely get a sense of what happens overseas. Sacco is able to show how little effect reporters actually have on the greater population. Many people nowadays don’t give a second look at what is going on as long as it doesn’t affect them.

By showing how little time and energy reporters put into their stories about Gorazde shows how little time and energy most people put into learning about what actually happens in countries other than their own. Sacco draws himself differently to show how he’s different from most people because he will take the time and effort to learn what happened. He takes a different approach to get to know the people to show that we can make a difference in peoples lives and we should stay and try to help them. Unlike the other reporters, Sacco stayed and gave hope to the citizens living in Gorazde that one day their lives will get better. At the beginning of the book when Sacco draws the reporters underachieving at their job, represents the consequences the media has on the people they report on. However, Sacco represents the good that the media can do if they put time and effort into the stories they report about.