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NEWS > BUSINESS > SWINE FLU REPORTING REACHING EPIDEMIC PROPORTIONS
SWINE FLU REPORTING REACHING EPIDEMIC PROPORTIONS
April 27 2009
Washington, DC – News comes and goes in cycles. Since the start of regular news reporting outlets have struggled with those cycles; struggling to cobble together a report in slow times, totally overwhelmed in busy times. As hectic as those busy times can be most people throughout the news industry embrace those times, not only to relieve the mundane nature of soft news, but also to reap the benefits of increased readership and advertising revenue.
Occasionally though news can go over board and begin to cause panic in people unnecessarily in order to keep the readership excited. Though only in the early stages, the recent outbreak of Mexican swine flu has all the makings of a major story. The slow spread of the disease and the ever increasing death toll in Mexico has put government agencies and media outlets the world over on high alert with grave concerns and high hopes that the disease will provide them with a fresh agenda.
“Things have really been rough for the news industry of late. Ratings for cable news are down, newspapers are shutting down, and even web news is suffering because of decreased ad revenue. Exactly what those outlets need is a big story that will grip people’s attention and prove to advertisers that there is value in running ads, and this flu turns out to be a true epidemic, well that could be the cure news has been
looking for,” said Scrape TV Media analyst Sarah Piper. “I doubt anyone could have predicted that Mexican pigs would possibly help bring the United States out of a depression, but life does surprise you sometimes.”
The outbreak of the flu has already proven to be a boon for virologists in the United States. With cases spreading throughout the US and into other countries – possibly even as far away as New Zealand and Israel – many are betting on the disease to draw a lot of water for a long time.
“The real concern here is the death rate which has been quite high in Mexico but as yet has done nothing in the rest of the world. Most people who have contracted the illness at this point aren’t even going to the hospital to be treated and that just isn’t the kind of thing that sells newspapers. Until people start dying in the US all we have is bluster,” continued Piper. “That of course won’t stop news outlets from hyping the story but as worked up as you can make people, until body bags start appearing you will have limited real world panic. People learned their lesson from Y2K and will be hesitant to bite again, but, knock on wood, this has the potential to turn into something really special.”
Twenty-four hour cable networks such as CNN and Fox News have so far given limited exposure to the disease though as the regular news cycle remains slow that is expected to increase. Other outlets, such as Drudge Report, have made it the primary news for a number of days. So far though, like the disease itself, the reporting has not yet reached epidemic proportions.
“Journalists have a certain code of ethics that many still stand behind. One of the basic elements of that ethos is that they do not create the news, but report it. Superficially that would mean 
journalists don’t go out and start fires and then report on them, but it also means that they don’t try and make something into a story they report on things that are already stories. That has always been what has made journalism different from fiction writing,” said Scrape TV Journalism analyst Angelo Carter. “That said there’s nothing like being prepared and I’m sure all the major news agencies are dusting of their medical experts in preparation of this disease going mainstream and thereby singlehandedly rescuing the business of news.”
According to government officials it is believed that the flu originated in a natural way and is not the result of any kind of bio-terrorism or overly ambitious reporting.
William Ashford, Business Correspondent
NEWS > BUSINESS > SWINE FLU REPORTING REACHING EPIDEMIC PROPORTIONS
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