Media Influence On Haiti

Haiti, a country sharing the same borders as the Dominican Republic, is commonly referred to as the poorest country in the western hemisphere. Since its split from France, becoming one of the first free black states, in 1804, it has been very unstable. This is primarily due to the dictatorships and malpractices from other countries they had to endure. After revolting against France and declaring independence, Haiti was required to pay a large indemnity to France. In addition, Haiti was isolated from much of the international community for many years due to the fear of influence on possible slave revolts in countries such as the US. The rest of the world was still trading slaves while Haiti ceased that practice. All of these issues can still be scrutinized for causing trouble in Haiti today. How the international community and media portray Haiti and their citizens has a major influence on how their past history and present is interpreted. Gina Ulysse discuses in her book about an encounter a reporter had when she was on the scene of the earthquake. The reporter was stunned that Haitians were going on with their lives like nothing had occurred. The reporter noticed that some people still had dust and debris from fallen buildings on their clothes and were going on with their day

Haiti is being constantly dehumanized and represented as a poor country filled with people living in poverty. Most would simply interpret and use the representation that these media outlets produce of Haiti and come to assumptions, such as the reporter, that their history must have been filled with poverty and no success. However, this is not the case as Haiti was not always a poor country and did not have such as sad history. Haiti was one of the first successful slave revolts in which slavery was