By Dennis Jin V
These are extraordinary circumstances and extraordinary times. Our lives have been upended and our livelihoods changed, possibly forever. Everything is online now: our classes, our work, and, most troublingly, our knowledge about the outside world.
For the last few weeks, coverage about death tolls and infection rates has dominated news and social media outlets. This unravels our hope into spirals of panic. To most people, this news is only another harbinger of the death and destruction imminent in this crisis.
Folks frightened by an article will in turn verify that source, causing them to click elsewhere and generate income for more media organizations.
Media organizations intentionally capitalize off of sensational coverage of the virus. Fear, panic, and morbid curiosity are driving the news cycle. People click more when something makes them afraid, for example a deadly virus proliferating near their own home. News outlets derive income less from informational searches, and more from people cooped up in their own homes, ready to be manipulated by scary articles about a killer virus. Folks frightened by an article will in turn verify that source, causing them to click elsewhere and generate income for more media organizations.
The news could report on many other things—admittedly, not as many as it used to be able to, but they could avoid re-reporting coronavirus headlines. Yet it continues to profit off of panic.
Is it a coincidence that people are buying excessive amounts of toilet paper? Is it a coincidence that people are hoarding masks that could be going to the health care workers who desperately need them?
You don’t have to be one of those people, and it starts with your news consumption. Don’t let sensationalist news media profit off of your panic and perpetuate its vicious cycles. Instead, you can help convince your family that there is no need to panic-buy. You can help convince your family and friends to protect first responders, stay safe, and stay home. This will all be over eventually.
