Man Machine Poem: Viewing the Tragically Hip's final tour through a post-humanitarianism lens

Abstract

In late 2015, Gord Downie, lead singer of the iconic Canadian rock band the Tragically Hip was diagnosed with glioblastoma, a terminal brain cancer. Some eight months later, on August 20, 2016, the band completed its final concert tour in its hometown of Kingston, Ontario. One of the many noteworthy features of the tour was the extensive fan-based fundraising efforts for brain cancer research that accompanied it. In recent years, some commentators have characterized this type of emotional outpouring as a form of ethical ambivalence or post-humanitarianism reflecting a sensibility of pity that valorizes a consumerist oriented form of short-term low-intensity agency as opposed to some more authentic forms of empathy. A leading figure in developing the concept of post-humanitarianism is Lilie Chouliaraki. Her 2013 book, The Ironic Spectator, investigates four different aspects of contemporary humanitarian communication appeals, celebrity, concerts, and news to examine the ethical ambivalence underlying post-humanitarianism. Drawing on Chouliaraki’s claims about the influence of celebrity and news reporting in fostering post-humanitarianism, this Major Research Paper analyzes newspaper reporting of the Hip’s Man Machine Poem tour in order to assess how news reporting of celebrity and suffering is structured when the celebrity is the suffering other.