20 May 2009
Overblowing the Flu
The news media continually overblow the latest crisis or distort events in order to gin up public attention to their message. This strategy is central to the media’s business model—Build up concern in peoples’ mind’s eye in order to maintain their allegiance to channels of communication that can generate revenue from selling consumer products through advertising.
Swine Flu is the latest example. This epidemic is turning out to be mild, at least for now; yet schools are closing and the media devote a large percentage of broadcast time to minute-by-minute coverage. The annual seasonal flu affliction doesn’t result in such attention and panic, even though it causes wider illness and many more deaths.
Is it the media’s responsibility to air out all the extreme interpretations of current events, leaving it up to the public to draw its own conclusions? Should the media be held to the more conscientious role of calmly arbitrating conflicting views or is that the job of the leaders who are elected to govern society?
Eventually, wisdom prevailed in our understanding of what happened at the Murrah Building in Oklahoma City and at the Columbine School. The lesson is that we must always be conscious that the U.S. system of information dissemination depends on private enterprise. The media cannot be blamed for distorting the news in order to make a buck. Political leadership, however, should be held to account when it does not recognize that media hype is not the god’s honest truth. Taking steps like closing schools, at the cost of interrupted education and added administrative expense, is a failure of our leadership to perform in the best interest of tax-paying citizens whose children will have to meet globalized competition.
The news media continually overblow the latest crisis or distort events in order to gin up public attention to their message. This strategy is central to the media’s business model—Build up concern in peoples’ mind’s eye in order to maintain their allegiance to channels of communication that can generate revenue from selling consumer products through advertising.
Swine Flu is the latest example. This epidemic is turning out to be mild, at least for now; yet schools are closing and the media devote a large percentage of broadcast time to minute-by-minute coverage. The annual seasonal flu affliction doesn’t result in such attention and panic, even though it causes wider illness and many more deaths.
Is it the media’s responsibility to air out all the extreme interpretations of current events, leaving it up to the public to draw its own conclusions? Should the media be held to the more conscientious role of calmly arbitrating conflicting views or is that the job of the leaders who are elected to govern society?
Eventually, wisdom prevailed in our understanding of what happened at the Murrah Building in Oklahoma City and at the Columbine School. The lesson is that we must always be conscious that the U.S. system of information dissemination depends on private enterprise. The media cannot be blamed for distorting the news in order to make a buck. Political leadership, however, should be held to account when it does not recognize that media hype is not the god’s honest truth. Taking steps like closing schools, at the cost of interrupted education and added administrative expense, is a failure of our leadership to perform in the best interest of tax-paying citizens whose children will have to meet globalized competition.
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