How Western Media Reinforces Dehumanizing Views of People of the Global Majority

I am writing this on Wednesday, October 29, 2025 from Ontario, Canada. Yesterday, the worst hurricane in the history of my beloved Jamaica hit the country. A category five hurricane is incredibly rare and never in the history of our country were we ever faced with such a dangerous storm. Hurricane Melissa was the strongest hurricane in recorded history in the Atlantic to make landfall. Those of us in the diaspora, (and there are literally MILLIONS of us), likely have memories of living through at least one hurricane and understand firsthand what the impacts are like. For this reason, we stayed glued to media to help us with tracking what was happening on the ground in Jamaica since the internet service out of Jamaica was spotty due to the severity of the winds related to Melissa. Western media continues to show their biases, complete disregard for cultural competency and presenting fair, truthful and balanced stories of what is happening on the ground. While this sort of sensational and inaccurate reporting is rampant in the social media space, traditional media have a professional ethic and responsibility to do otherwise. There have been some glaring failures covering hurricane Melissa in Jamaica.

As my readers all know, I have a hard time staying quiet about things that outrage me. This time is no different. What many of you may not know is that I also hold a Master of Arts degree in Communication Studies and as such, have a background in media and communication. It is from this lens that I am writing this today, because I actually know what is supposed to underpin reporting by the media as well as its responsibilities to the public it is supposed to serve. That was NOT in evidence during their coverage of hurricane Melissa.

This post will be a little more academic than most of my other ones but, I assure you it is for good reason. It helps to contextualize the source of my outrage as well as highlights the clear biases in the reporting by “news” organizations like FOX News, BBC, CNN, and others of their ilk. Two media theories come to mind as I look at what has unfolded in the manner in which North American media has presented, (or has not), international events – Agenda Setting Theory and the concept of Ideological State Apparatuses.

Maxwell McCombs and Donald L. Shaw introduced to media studies the concept of agenda setting. This refers to the manner in which an issue is presented in the media directly impacting the level of importance given to it by the audience. When we met this theory in our Masters programme, it was summed up as “the media does not tell you what to think, but what to think about”. The whole theory is underpinned by the idea of “gate keeping” whereby editors in media houses decide what makes it to the news and what does not. Media houses are expected to “set” the agenda or reflect the prevailing agenda. But this is always to be done in the public interest in a fair and dispassionate manner. That is the role of the fourth estate.

This theory proposes that there are levels to this gate keeping. In the second level of this approach, (often used in political, and public relations campaigns), sensationalism is used to stoke public interest. Or, in the case of something else, skew the views of the audience to or away from an issue. Using the example of hurricane Melissa, anyone who watched FOX News, CNN and BBC would genuinely believe that the almost three million people on the island of Jamaica were about to be annihilated by the hurricane. Words like “unsurvivable” were thrown around as if it were a done deal that thousands of people WILL die. (Clip here). The excitement and anticipation of the demise of people in Jamaica was utterly disgusting to watch. (Yes, there were the obligatory calls to take precaution and shelter in place but, there was noticeably a lot of sensational language used). The comments section called them out on this insensitive reporting as have several Jamaicans on social media. This type of reporting exposes the hidden agenda of the news media; to portray countries like mine as poor, lacking in infrastructure and waiting for “White saviours” to rescue us incapable Black people. This is embodied here.

The other point of intense irk for me is the presentation of Jamaica as a “poverty stricken” country where citizens live in absolute poverty and zinc shacks. This fits a narrative that Black countries cannot be prosperous. The first lie there is that Jamaica is a poor country. We are NOT. The World Bank categorizes us as an upper-middle income country and Harvard University agrees. Jamaica does have functioning infrastructure including world class airports. Skytrax, a travel rating organization gave Sangster’s International Airport in Montego Bay at 3-star rating. Our VIP lounges, (both Club Kingston and Club Mobay) are among the best in the world. I can personally attest to this as I love me a VIP lounge when I am travelling and none thus far have compared to those in Jamaica, (definitely not even the Maple Leaf Lounges in Canada).

Jamaica has been hailed as one of the best performing stock markets in the entire world, (article from Bloomberg) and occupied that position for the five years preceding the writing of that article in 2019. In that year, the New York Stock Exchange flew the flag of Jamaica alongside theirs to recognize this.

Standard and Poor rating agency in September of 2025 upgraded Jamaica’s rating from BB to BB+ stating  “The positive outlook reflects S&P Global Ratings’ expectation that continued primary fiscal surpluses will let the government meet its fiscal responsibility law debt target, likely ahead of schedule.” Does this really sound like a backward, destitute country with no infrastructure to you? Jamaica is also the first country in the world to insure itself against a natural disaster with an immediate payout in case something catastrophic happened, (details here). This is a first for the rest of the entire world to follow as it ensured the fastest recovery time without the need for a lot of bureaucratic red tape. This is testament that Black leaders are perfectly capable of creating solutions for their people without the need for the White people to save us.

Yes, Jamaica has its share of social problems but so does every nation on earth. Right here in Canada, there are homeless people, rampant addiction, inflation, and every other problem that Jamaica faces. Having worked as a therapist in the non-profit space, I came face to face with what poverty looks like in Canada. However, we do not focus on that as a defining characteristic for an entire nation of people so why do we do that in Jamaica? The poverty level in Jamaica is at 8.2%, a historic low. In the United States, it is 10.6% and in Canada it is 10.2%. This means that Jamaicans are less poor than Americans! This is an excellent example of Jamaica outperforming the first world.

All this “creative presentation of reality” falls under Louis Althusser’s ideas about Ideological State Apparatuses. Very simply put, Althusser suggested that institutions like schools and the media are used to promote a dominant ideology. This means that whatever the prevailing view of that society should be, the media will function in a reinforcing capacity. A perfect example of this is “American Exceptionalism” wherein we hear things like “America is the greatest/best country on earth”. It isn’t.

There IS the view that a society like Jamaica is poor, underfunded, under-educated, violent, anarchistic, and two clicks from being declared a failed state. NONE of this is true. We were JUST declared as the leading Caribbean destination by the Caribbean World Travel Awards, (see here). However, the view that Jamaica is a terrible place to live and visit is reflected in the utterances of reporters from the United States specifically. Thankfully, I have not observed this approach in Canada and I have been looking for ten years.

The Jamaican in me is completely disgusted but, the therapist in me is also deeply concerned. As a consumer of media, I noticed my level of anxiety skyrocket yesterday as I listened to US reporters who flew into Jamaica to cover the storm that was supposed to make Jamaica “unrecognizable”. Given the fact that I still have friends and family there and I live in Jamaica for half of the year, I was naturally in an emotionally charged place psychologically. What these reports did was to cause unnecessary psychological distress that reeked of poor ethics. One would expect better as the same media outlets have reported on disasters in tornado alley, Hurricane Katrina, Hurricane Andrew, the recent fires in California et al from a more humanistic and fair position. One thing is certain. Mother nature does not discriminate when it comes to devastation and creating human misery and suffering so why should the reporting?

It is not that I think the media should avoid broadcasting the images of what is happening, that is definitely in the public interest and would fall under the first principle of the ethics code the Global Charter of Ethics for Journalists (see here). Instead, I am upset about the TONE used by these media houses to something that had not even happened yet. When I spoke with other Jamaicans, both clients and people known to me personally in the diaspora, all of us reported feeling very dehumanized by the undertone of morbid curiosity.

What was clear is that those insensitive reporters never considered the vicarious trauma they were unleashing on Jamaicans at home as well as people who are part of the Jamaican diaspora with no other access to information about their relatives back home. It showed a complete and utter disregard for life and the desire to instead put the suffering of people on display for the economic agenda and spectacle. Culturally, Jamaicans are upset that they seemed to be wishing death upon our people and that is the source of our ire.  Thankfully local media in Jamaica presented the story in a more fair and factual way. Jamaica outperforms the first world again.

Worse, those media houses referenced insulted the entire population by suggesting they simply “evacuate the whole island” as if there were some magical place of safety for almost three million people to go to. As some social media personalities have asked, were they then expected to just die since they cannot leave? Others rolled their eyes at the suggestion that the island will be wiped off the map and took to social media to bash these obviously tone-deaf foreigners. I have to say that seeing those posts made me proud.

As we start to tap into the resilience that categorizes us as a nation, I wanted to share a resource to help those affected by the hurricane here. I also wanted to remind my fellow diasporic Jamaicans that you can subscribe to 1SpotMedia which is the RJR Communications group, and the IRIE FM app. Eventually, that is exactly where I turned for my news about Jamaica. I watched Jamaicans comment on a Jamaican problem from a place of calm and fact giving. In future, I will be turning there first. This too shall pass and we will rebuild better and stronger. However, let us reject the presentations that other lesser educated people have of us. We know us best and we can simply call them out when they do it until they stop or better yet…tune them out.