Nathan D. Wolfe, an American virologist, founded the Global Viral once said, “If we can provide even a few months of early warning for just one pandemic, the benefits will outweigh all the time and energy we’re devoting. Imagine preventing health crises, not just responding to them.” Worldwide outbreaks of infectious disease will always be a threat to humanity, but additional issues around pandemics is the news broadcasting about current outbreaks. Media broadcastings are such a common thing that almost everyone in the world has access to some form of media to catch up on current events. Though pandemics will always be a threat to humanity, the media hypes up the severity of outbreaks. Research studies have shown that while pandemics and the …show more content…
Since journalists are competing to collect information, it’s common that not all of the information is verified as accurate (Edgar). Such as the widespread panic of the 2009 influenza pandemic, “As a consequence, many accused the media of having created an artificial hype or hysteria around the new virus, thus contributing to unwarranted public fear”. A consequence of not verifying information could be the spreading of misinformation that could very possibly lead to panic (Klemm). Spring influenza of 2009 was the first influenza pandemic since the pandemic of 1968, “When the initially announced risk of a fatal pandemic did not materialize, many began to blame the media of having created an artificial H1N1 hype or hysteria, blowing up the threat to bait for a bigger audience”. During the 2009 influenza pandemic, the media was blamed for hyping up the severity of the pandemic by informing the public that the strain resembled the 1918 Spanish Flu that claimed fourth to one hundred million lives …show more content…
“The media tend to focus on rare and dramatic events.” Through the media focusing on rare and dramatic events the public is more like to follow the story depending on the severity and the relevance of a story (Young). Negative information is more likely to catch and hold viewers’ attention because people are more likely to remember the negative information rather than what is categorized as regular information. Regular information is the information that is not necessarily positive information, but it is the information that does not stick out to the audience. Negative information or shocking information about a current event will sometimes be exaggerated to seem more severe then it appears to be, so that the information presented will be remembered by the intended