Compassion Fatigue, by Susan D. Moeller

Book Review of a Recommended Title for Journalism Students

Aug 25, 2009

Compassion Fatigue is an ambitious analysis of the how the media sells disease, famine, death, and war in the last two decades of the twentieth century.

Compassion fatigue, also known as a Secondary Traumatic Stress Disorder, is defined by Wikipedia as a psychological term that refers to a gradual lessening of compassion over time. It is common among victims of trauma and individuals that work directly with victims of trauma. Sufferers can exhibit several symptoms including hopelessness, stress and anxiety, and a pervasive negative attitude. These symptoms can have detrimental effects on individuals, both professionally and personally, including the development of new feelings of incompetency and self doubt.

Compassion Fatigue, The Media, and the American Audience

Susan Moeller uses this affliction to describe the American audience's response to international events that fit into the biblical "four horsemen of the apocalypse" scenarios as reported by mainstream media. In her opening chapter, she bluntly states, "It's the media that are at fault. How they typically cover crises helps us to feel overstimulated and bored all at once."

Moeller is the Director of the International Center for Media and the Public Agenda (ICMPA) and Associate Professor of Media and International Affairs at the Philip Merrill College of Journalism at the University of Maryland, USA. Compassion Fatigue was published by Routledge; 1999, ISBN-0-415-92097-3.

She writes, "Just as the overuse of antibiotics has made people immune to their benefits, the constant bombardment of disasters, with all their attendant formulaic, sensationalist, Americanized coverage, has made the public deaf to the importuning of news stories and relief agencies."

Moeller explains, without excusing, the many factors that editorial decisions are based on:

She is careful not to become black and white in her blame as well, and effectively portrays the inner conflict that journalists and editors face with deadlines, audience apathy, budget limitations, advertiser demands, corporate editorial influence, among other things.

At first, the book reads as a jumble of facts, dates, headlines, and global situations scattered over the 20th century. However, into the third chapter, a method begins to emerge. She seems to be fighting the temptation of being formulaic and sensationalistic herself, while still respecting the reader's need for organized ideas. Although loaded with credibility and research, her writing style feels academic.

How International News Stories are Reported

Some of the most well-known international crises are categorized into four chapters; pestilence, famine, death, and war. Each of these chapters details how the media handled the kinds of stories coming from locations like Bosnia, Rwanda, Israel, Pakistan, India, Somalia, Sudan, among others. For each topic, Moeller provides:

By the end of the book, readers are wondering, is it history that repeats itself, or those tasked with recording it?

Final Thoughts

Moeller ends the book with a challenge. "The solution is to invest in the coverage of international affairs and to give talented reporters, camerapeople, editors and producers the freedom to define their own stories," she writes.

If there is anything to add, perhaps it is advice to the audience itself. Possibly, the success of journalism in reporting events should not be measured by how much money is donated to an associated cause. As has been proven time and time again, throwing money at the problem does not always solve it. That is not to say that charitable giving is not an important outlet, but it is not the only one.

Other solutions exist that promote self-care, a strategy that psychologists endorse to deal with the symptoms of compassion fatigue. These self-care ideas can be as involved as volunteering with refugees that have arrived in a new country and including them in social activities, or even as simple as renting a light-hearted comedy or buying a musical work by an artist from an associated country. There are many ways that people can empower themselves without adding stress, while also professionally and personally developing themselves, but feeling pity, helplessness, or wlllful denial probably does not lead down the road of self-efficacy.

Another missing component is the explosion of the blogosphere and its impact on the way information is delivered in the ten years since the book was published. It would be interesting to see a follow up analysis from Moeller that takes into account the prevalence of citizen journalism in the twenty-first century and its influence on how crises are being reported.

For more J-School recommended reading reviews see:

The copyright of the article Compassion Fatigue, by Susan D. Moeller in Political Science Books is owned by Anna Reitman. Permission to republish Compassion Fatigue, by Susan D. Moeller in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.