Just in case you hadn’t heard yet… 29.04.
SWINE FLU! BRITAIN ORDERS 32M MASKS! AN ENTIRE 2 PEOPLE IN ISOLATION UNIT IN UK HAVE IT! BUT THE DEATH TOLL HITS 152! YOU ONCE VISITED TACO BELL AS A FOUR YEAR OLD, SO YOU’RE PROBABLY NEXT!
Maybe not. But the papers are of course full of dire warnings of global pandemic panic and fetching face mask pictures straight out of Heathrow.
What I find fascinating about the whole deal isn’t so much the flu itself, more the reporting of it. Because of course it’s going to go almost instantly worldwide; look at our travel infrastructure and the word ‘transference’ and y’know, historical things. Like the bubonic plague.
I know sensationalism is a pretty obvious watchword in journalism now, but there seems to be no sense of scale about this. Developed countries shouldn’t be at too much of a risk of anything except some really uncomfortable days in bed and an upping of the blood pressure thanks to the daily papers. We have the medical capacity to handle it, though the first few days might be a tad sketchy on the information side. Also, having mutated to a form passed easily from human to human, the strain is already less virulent. Apparently. Sadly there will always be exceptions to the general rule.
All that said, today’s Insensitivity Quote goes to Ryanair’s über-charming Michael O’Leary.
Frankly, though, I just love the Q&A section in today’s Independent warning that we should remember the “1918 Spanish Flu pandemic started mildly – and went on to kill 20 to 40 million people around the world”.
Guys?
I think the clue might be in the date. Just saying.
Oh-bama, bama, bama…
2nd interesting news reportage of the week is actually far more interesting, so I’m not sure why it’s second in this post, but hey-ho.
Anyone heard the story of the new President’s plane flying low with a military escort over Ground Zero causing Manhattanites to be evacuated from offices and generally fear for their lives? No?
This blog post from Harvard’s Nieman Journalism Lab highlights how, through Twitter and social media, with a smidgen of help from concerned citizens (not quite citizen journalism, though) the story went from tweet to news in around…four minutes flat.
Mr Zachary M. Seward (for that is his name) is right, there’s no huge lesson here about reporting in the internet age and yada yada yada, given that the Staten Island reporter saw the planes with his own eyes, and wasn’t just relying on the information of a twitterer. But it is astonishing, and kind of hits home just what sort of capacity there is for journalism in this era. And the implications it inevitably brings.
Personally, I don’t want it to mean the end of the print press…but is that the unavoidable end journalism is heading to in the current economic mindset?
What do you think? Hmm?
Drop me a line or five at laura.tosney@gmail.com and let me know.
EXTRA, EXTRA, READ ALL ABAAAAHT IT!
Hump day treat! (Thanks to @stephauteri for linking this song…I haven’t stopped listening to it since)
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