by DontMicrowaveCats
Not sure how it is in other countries right now, but its actually a travesty how bad the US media is handling this right now. It is putting so many people in unnecessary risk. Especially the elderly and vulnerable.
Keeping in mind we are in the run-up to the largest global pandemic in a century, which could very well start putting whole US cities under quarantine in next couple of weeks.
To start with…almost every mainstream site still has a paywall on relevant articles. In days of dwindling cable, internet news is the only way a lot of people get it. Profiteering from essential information during a public health crisis is criminal. At least reports on official government and health agency statements need to be open access.
Fox has the Coronavirus section buried in a tiny side section on their front page…with barely any useful info. Most of it is pushing Trump’s confusing mixed messaging or about things like Ted Cruz praising his response…while downplaying actual useful science/fact. Fox’s demographic is heavily leaning towards older Americans…and many of them get there news exclusively from Fox. These are people who are most vulnerable to Coronavirus and misinformation.
While some are doing better, the other agencies aren’t all great either. Many seem more interested in pushing clickbait and fluff piece articles or politics than fact. Eg…one of the main stories on my feed the other day was some USAtoday article about how college kids doing study abroad were sad their trips have been interrupted.
All of them are flip-flopping their narratives daily.
Reddit used to be the place to go for coverage during emergency situations. They’d have a live thread on the front page…with actively updating links consolidated from many different sources. Now…nothing but memes, politics, and cat pictures.
Twitter…Facebook… no central link or resource where people can find information.
Google News/other aggregators…no centralized Coronanvirus section
This is the whole of our media. The only source of information for most Americans. It needs to be organized and clear messaging. It needs to be factual. There needs to be journalism. And they need to keep the bullshit, clickbait, and fluff pieces out of it.
Do better!
Disclaimer: This is a guest post and it doesn’t represent the views of IWB.