Project 2: Final Draft
Life Over Oil: A Comparison of the Media’s Coverage of The UK Living Crisis
Many countries, in example England, all over the world are experiencing harsh conditions for the less fortunate, and those who do not make an elite salary. While media continues to glaze over the effects on the lives of those trying to live paycheck to paycheck, they continue to feature stories such as Queen Elizabeth’s demise, and what Kate Middleton wore to the procession. Each one of these artifacts and media outlets take a wildly different approach to the subject, and each have faced backlash and questioning from those not included in these struggling groups. Often if the community themselves don’t experience it, it is thrown out of view. Looking at the viral video of the Just Stop Oil protesters in London posted by the Washington Post, “Climate protesters throw soup on Van Gogh painting”, as well as NPR’s review of the London living crisis, “One thing is top of mind for many young Brits, and it’s not the royal family” we’ll be provided with two different approaches to awareness via very public media outlets.
On October 14th, in the London National Gallery, the infamous “Sunflowers” painting by renowned artist Vincent Van Gogh came under attack by a group of climate activists, known under the group “Just Stop Oil”. This group focuses on the impact of fossil fuels and fossil fuel production on the lives of the people of the UK and worldwide, as well as the detrimental environmental impacts. The two protestors who go unnamed were filmed in the National Gallery, throwing two cans of tomato soup on to the canvas of the Van Gogh, while being filmed
and recorded. They then glued their hands to the wall of the gallery, supposedly to prevent harmful removal so they could speak their piece. While the protestors were using emotions and shock of those in the gallery and watching to provide their point, the impact of the actual medium they used has spread this worldwide, beyond England. The YouTube video of the political protest is something we have seen being very effective with the rise of social media throughout the years, many using the reach of a YouTube video to reach those in other countries. This video show cases many tradition genre conventions of a political protest, including monologue, unfortunately destruction, as well as showcasing an important subject for the people around this, this being the living crisis and food necessity. While there are constraints when it comes to the effectiveness of using the genre of video of political protest, such as interpretation and wrongful intention as people perceive it, these protestors played into peoples’ emotions and the shock value of the destruction of such an important painting, to show just how important their topic is. The topic being the current UK living crisis. The group begins to use their verbiage as their rhetorical appeals, using strong words to describe the hunger and downfall of the livelihoods of people around them, to apply to the emotions of those watching. As discussed by the protestors as they monologue, the one on the left, who is the only one to speak in the video, says “Fuel is unaffordable to millions of cold, hungry families. They can’t even afford to heat a tin of soup.” (Washington Post, 0:59-1:02). As we have seen in recent developments, the UK is facing a scene of crises, as fuel costs rise, and many are forced to choose between food, and heat with the coming cold winter months as we enter mid-late October. The irony of wasting perfectly edible tins of soup while protesting living conditions was not lost on many viewers of the protest. While many understand the impact, they would like to see, they cannot begin to understand the choice of exigence, in the intended destruction of such a world-renowned painting. There are
many constraints to think about when it comes to media, and this video’s may have been the interpretations of their actions.
National Public Radio is a news broadcast channeled based in the Washington, DC region of the U.S, however, this story from across the pond deserved the utmost coverage from the news outlet in this interview news article written on the U.K living crisis. The text-based media took a more traditional route that we see interview-based thought-provoking articles take, where they choose a side of an argument to cover, in this case the evidence of a living crisis, and then they interview those on that side and appeal to peoples’ emotions and logic by showing real life persons struggling through the issue. The title itself is thought provoking and is meant to highlight the lack of thoughtfulness from the Royal family at a time like this. The title, “One thing is top of mind for many young Brits, and it's not the royal family” comes after the unfortunate demise of Queen Elizabeth, and the mourning that familied. For many families, they were unable to focus on mourning their beloved Queen, because they are being faced with choosing where to live and whether they can make it through the winter with the amount of fuel they can afford. Generally, a respected genre style, news articles that are heavy on interviews can face certain constraints as well. While interviews are one of the main genre conventions, or traditional elements in a news article, they can leave some people hanging, waiting for the outcome of a certain person’s story. Specifically for NPR, it is a lesser-known news outlet, and having been based in D.C. we cannot be too certain that it’s reach to those that can make an impact is successful; while it does inform those in the states and worldwide, it serves more as an informational and emotional tactic for people to then act off different sources to seek help. While the intended audience is those in the United States to spread awareness, the hope is that those with a higher power like the newly appointed Prime Minister of England would see this and
realize their response is not being taken lightly. The exigence of the article certainly has a focus in the emotions of the audience, and of those interviewed. In an emotional interview, Rachel Treisman the author says “’How am I just going to live?’ asked 22-year-old Atiya Chowdhury, a recent master's graduate who spoke with NPR over the weekend. ‘I feel like a baby that's come out of an egg and the sun is too bright, and that sun is the cost of living.’” (Treisman, 2022). The rhetorical appeals used, the emotional responses of those living through these crises and their personal accounts of what it is like, give more of a purpose for the article to spread this information. Overall NPR allowed for those without access to the real-life experience of this crisis, to hopefully assist the U.K. with representing the help they need.
While both artifacts provide a good understanding of the crisis in the U.K., and the impact on the people of London specifically, there are vast differences in how that purpose was accomplished. While both rely on pathos, and the emotions of the readers, NPR was ultimately more successful in that they did not need to resort to destruction, or food waste, to push their point across. The genres themselves being non text based and text based, are going to have similarities and differences throughout. NPR focuses highly on the audience, using people inside their communities, and their experiences to separate news article, from actual experience. As one of the constraints of both genres, the use of emotion can your downfall or your savior, and for NPR they hit the mark. The protest video from the Washington Post however hit many factors that might deter people, such as for example, food waste. The main difference is in the eye of the beholder for this circumstance. Unfortunately, I believe it comes down ultimately to who can reach the audience in a more productive manner.
It is my opinion that NPR’s analysis of the U.K. living crisis will with time be much more effective. The video from the Just Stop Oil organization does not provide any concrete
facts or interviews from people living through this issue. That is one of the constraints of a nontext-based video, where they are unable in the time allotted to provide records from those living through this crisis, like the article from NPR was able to. They used concrete interviews from real life people. The shock factor at the potential for a destroyed Van Gogh drew lots of attention to the first artifact, however it did draw in negative attention, as some say they are being hypocritical in using food waste and destruction to explain the wasting away of the planet, and unfair wages and living costs. The video of the Just Stop Oil protest has been sensationalized for all the wrong reasons, and for this reason in the long run, the NPR article will be a better historical reference to the feelings and effects on the people of the U.K. when we look back on this time of crisis.
Works Cited
“Climate Protesters Throw Soup on Van Gogh Painting.” YouTube, Washington Post , 14 Oct. 2022, https://youtu.be/BN-C5N60u_M. Accessed 18 Oct. 2022.
Just Stop Oil. “Just Stop Oil .” Just Stop Oil – No More Oil and Gas, Oct. 2022, https://juststopoil.org/.
Treisman, Rachel. “One Thing Is Top of Mind for Many Young Brits, and It's Not the Royal Family.” NPR, NPR, 20 Sept. 2022, https://www.npr.org/2022/09/20/1124027196/cost-ofliving-crisis-uk.