Katrina Takes a Toll on Truth, News Accuracy: Rumors supplanted accurate information and media magnified the problem.
When the media report rumors and unverified reports, they do harm, not just to the truth, but to people. How much time was wasted discussing rapes, deaths, criminal acts, and violence that didn’t actually happen? That time could have been spent more productively to help with rescue and relief. Instead, people were focused on rumors of atrocities that only served to reinforce negative stereotypes and demoralize people in the field.
We know that the media tend to focus on anything negative and sensationalize it for ratings, or perhaps at times, out of sheer habit. But this is a very dangerous habit. People will become desensitized to the constant hyperbole. Cry wolf too many times and people will stop listening. The media stand to lose their audience’s trust and their credibility. This is something they need think about when they engage in sub-par reporting, and scream at the top of their lungs about every little thing to get ratings. If we can’t trust our journalists, the media loses its credibility, its integrity, and its power, and we, as a society, lose a valuable and irreplaceable resource.
Just recently, Jet Blue had a problem with their landing gear that was all over the news. The several-hour long drama was televised live on all the networks, and seen all over the country by practically anyone watching television, including the passengers on the troubled plane who happened to have live satellite TV.
Grown men were crying, people were writing farewell notes to their loved ones because they were scared shitless by the news reports covering their plane’s landing gear problem. Yet experienced pilots will tell you that there was no real danger in this type of situation, and that all the hysteria was unjustified. Perhaps, if the news media were not so concerned about getting our attention and jumping at a chance to score some high ratings, they wouldn’t blow things out of proportion whenever possible and cause panic where it shouldn’t be happening.
We know that the media tend to focus on anything negative and sensationalize it for ratings, or perhaps at times, out of sheer habit. But this is a very dangerous habit. People will become desensitized to the constant hyperbole. Cry wolf too many times and people will stop listening. The media stand to lose their audience’s trust and their credibility. This is something they need think about when they engage in sub-par reporting, and scream at the top of their lungs about every little thing to get ratings. If we can’t trust our journalists, the media loses its credibility, its integrity, and its power, and we, as a society, lose a valuable and irreplaceable resource.
Just recently, Jet Blue had a problem with their landing gear that was all over the news. The several-hour long drama was televised live on all the networks, and seen all over the country by practically anyone watching television, including the passengers on the troubled plane who happened to have live satellite TV.
Grown men were crying, people were writing farewell notes to their loved ones because they were scared shitless by the news reports covering their plane’s landing gear problem. Yet experienced pilots will tell you that there was no real danger in this type of situation, and that all the hysteria was unjustified. Perhaps, if the news media were not so concerned about getting our attention and jumping at a chance to score some high ratings, they wouldn’t blow things out of proportion whenever possible and cause panic where it shouldn’t be happening.
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