Keeping Up With COVID-19 Globally
By Samantha Demogenes, Yasmine Cardenas, and Lucy Keroglyan
Mary Keshishyan
After the interview I had a call with Mary Keshishyan, I was left asking for more. I called her the next day and we discussed a little bit more of her life story. It turns out that she was born in Armenia, when she was four years old she moved to Israel to be closer to her grandparents who had moved there after World War 2. She told me crazy stories about her life in Ireasli before moving to America when her mother married an American citizen. One story that stood out to be the most was having to meet up in the town center to exchange their gas mask. All citizens had to have a gas mask available to them in case of attacks. She explained how it was a normal thing for everyone. She said, “people seem to be taking it more lightly in Israel.”Amongst the attacks, the people of Israel endure often, a virus isn’t too concerning. She pretty much said that they have big fish to fry. And that a little virus was the least of their worries.
Sara Abramyan
Sara Abramyan was born in Canada but her family is Armenian. But when she was very young she moved to the United States. Like her current friends, she considers herself as an American-Armenian. Like most young adults Sara’s age, they don’t care about the news. When I talked to Sara over the phone she explained that when she’s bored she logs into twitter and scrolls down. “Honestly, I get most of my news from Twitter. Whatever’s in the top trending is usually all about world news.” I asked her if the news was the primaryreason she downloaded Twitter, she shamefully denied it. She downloaded twitter to be able to “stalk” the ex-member of One Direction Harry Styles a little bit easier. I asked if she’s uncomfortable with reading the news due to the Covid-19. But she’s like “Nah, I don’t care that much”.
Pinyo Prasertwit
The coronavirus is being handled in many different ways depending on where you live. Angela Vega interviewed Pinyo Prasertwit. From my understanding, they are from Thailand. When asked which country’s news was more trustworthy, they said American. But when asked what the Thai news was saying, Prasertwit said, “Their fear. Yeah. They’re panicked more than Americans.”
Kimi Onega
Many of the interviews I was reading had many things in common. But what stood out to me the most was Facebook. Facebook has become such an important part of everyone’s society. Yuki Kodo had interviewed Kimi Onega who is from Japan. Onega said, “I am in contact with my family in my home country through social media such as Facebook and Instagram. They are getting their news from TV and Facebook.” Pinyo Prasertwit also mentioned she gets her news from Facebook. She said, “it’s a Thai newspaper from Facebook.” Facebook is helping information be spread to all parts of the world, whether or not it is true.
Chris Ordonez
Chris Ordonez is a CSUN student from El Salvador. Like many other immigrant students, Chris keeps in touch with his family and friends from El Salvador. They mainly communicate over the phone or through Facebook Messenger. Regarding COVID-19 news coverage in El Salvador he said,”I honestly see most of the news from El Salvador through Twitter because the president of El Salvador has a Twitter account and he uses it frequently to inform the people what is going on in the country.” Social media is important for keeping people up-to-date with world news. Young people like Chris often get their news from social media rather than traditional news outlets. The President of El Salvador is Nayib Bukele. Before the first case of COVID-19 broke out in the country, Bukele placed a lockdown and closed the borders. He is quite active on his Twitter account and even received a mention from Donald Trump. Chris also believes that the information between the U.S. and El Salvador is pretty different with only difference being that El Salvador’s news is written and broadcasted in Spanish. He didn’t mention which one he thought was more trustworthy, but he did mention that there is a news source called “Noticias 4 Vision” which is mainly where the news is broadcasted there and is the most trustworthy.
Hengame Abassi Sirchi
Hengame Abassi Sirchi is a CSUN journalism student from Iran. She has spent her life living in Iran, Germany, and the United States. In addition to her journalism career at CSUN, she has experience doing Iranian radio. She has been following the COVID-19 news coverage in Iran. Hengame said, “As a journalism major student I have to follow the world news and of course the news from my country, Iran, not only for my personal interests, but also because my country is currently in the news headlines. She gets her news from NPR, The Los Angeles Times, and KRIN670 which is an Iranian radio station. As an Iranian-German citizen living in the United States she has family living in all three of these countries. She tries to keep in touch with her family through phone calls, WhatsApp, telegram and Facebook messenger. It’s interesting that each person’s interaction and experience with media and news coverage is different, especially during such an uncertain time.
Yoshikazu Ysa
Interestingly enough, Yoshikazu Ysa’s experience with COVID-19 is similar to Hengame’s experience. As a Peruvian immigrant with family living in Japan, they are hearing two different things as the situations are completely different in each country.“The situation is different in my home countries. For example, in Peru you can’t leave your house from 8pm to 5am and the military is out on the street catching people if they are out around that time frame. In Japan, for example, in the city where my family lives, there are only three cases that have been contained.” With Hengame Abassi Sirchi she was hearing three different things. She was hearing information from Germany, Iran, and the United States and in this case Yoshikazu is hearing from Peru, Japan, and the United States. It seems as though Peru has a growing number of cases which could be why they’ve enforced the military for the stay at home order. Peru has 45,928 confirmed cases whereas Japan’s number of confirmed cases is significantly lower with 14,877. News coverage is different everywhere regarding COVID-19 and those who have homes or connections to their home country are experiencing different situations regarding the pandemic.
Jessica Galbussera
Jessica is a 24 year old from Milan, Italy. She has a few family members who live in the United States, but most of her family remains in Italy. Coronavirus has had an incredibly negative impact on Jessica, as Italy saw the major effects this virus had on people prior to most of the world. When asked about the news surrounding the virus in Italy, Jessica said “Because the virus is so bad in Italy, the news is definitely different. Italy really got hit with the virus before America did, so I think people were just more aware of it”. While she does not believe that either country is more “trustworthy” than the other, she said, “I wouldn’t say one country is more trustworthy than the other, I just think Italy is more aware of how serious it is”. Jessica said she keeps up with her family from Italy through text and Facebook, and receives most of her news via social media. Her parents try to discuss the virus with her as little as possible, as they do not want her to get worried. She does, however, receive a lot of news from her friends in Italy, who keep her up to date on what is going on.
Benny Sommerfeld
Benny Sommerfeld is 60 years old, and while he has called America “home” for over 30 years, he was born and raised in Sweden. He still has quite a bit of family that remains in his home country. Benny said while he is briefly following the news surrounding COVID-19 in Sweden, it is not nearly as big of a deal there as it is here, so American news takes priority for him. He gets most of his news from back home off of Facebook, as well as a news source called “The Local”. When I asked Benny if he believed the news he was hearing from Sweden was different than the news we are hearing in the United States, he said, “The news is definitely different in Sweden, because they are not on lockdown. It seems to be a lot more intense here, and they’re kind of just doing their own thing over there”. Benny keeps in contact with his brother over Facebook, and while the topic of COVID-19 does come up, it is not frequently or with much urgency.
Ricardo Herrera
Ricardo Herrera Visoso is a business owner from Mexico. He is very up to date with the news going on back home, so much so that he checks in every half hour to see if there is any sort of update. He uses Milenio (a TV news station), Google, El Impercial (local newspaper), and Whatsapp. Ricardo remains in constant contact with his family through Facebook and Whatsapp, and has done so ever since the first few cases of Coronavirus emerged. When asked about the main difference between the news in America and Mexico, Ricord said, “The main difference in news might be the tone. The Mexican government is trying much more to keep from alarming the general public”. However, the Mexican government only recently asked everyone to remain inside and practice social distancing, while the United States has been practicing this for quite a few weeks now.
