Thank you for your analysis. I have thought about this but don't have the reach you do to analyze the situation. Here in SK, it is not just the pandemic...coverage is mostly vehicle accidents, criminal incidents & racial incidents. And, of course, the WEATHER. What used to be a spring blizzard is now a disaster. Coverage is of the sensational only & rarely of significant achievements in medicine, social justice and within the Indigenous community. Someone once called in to CBC Radio noting that if there was a cure for cancer, the headline would be "Thousands of cancer health care workers thrown out of work".
I also avoided American media from the last few months of the Trump presidency. I think this all needs to be viewed through the polarized lens of the United States during Trump, and not necessarily as being inherent of liberal media. It’s only fair to also discuss whether conservative American media downplayed the pandemic because the effectiveness of the American response was being used as a proxy measure of the effectiveness of the Trump government. For the same reason I think American Liberal media may have played it up a bit. FWIW I did find that NPR was not hyperbolic.
Important observation that, I suggest, we need to be reminded of routinely. "The fixation on disaster porn" is, alas, standard journalism fare and has been since the "press" became ostensibly "free." As in so many cultural things, to better understand them, it's often useful to "follow the money." There's more money in "disaster porn" than "good, fact-based journalism." Always has been, always (it seems) will be.
It is not just the media outlets but the politicians that are using the virus to frighten the citizens. Remember that a frightened public will be obedient and that's the whole premises behind scaring the bejeepers out of the citizens. People will agree to anything if they believe their life is endanger. From the moment the Liberals were elected it has been one emergency after another. It appears that it is the method they use to get all there policies pushed forward and if that does not work they prorogue parliament. Its the sign of the times and the only viable and intelligent course for citizens is to tune them and the hysterical media out, completely. From the climate emergency to the virus we live in dire, dire, times with the end upon us all. Then they say there is a mental health crisis, especially in youth, who through the education system are pumped full of all the same rhetoric. They can not get away from it, as death and destruction surround them daily. I hope parents have the sense to inform them that it is but a motivational tool that the government uses to get people to conform. So here we are all conformed and waiting for the next shoe to drop. It will be an never ending scenario as in order to keep conformity they must keep the masses in a heightened and traumatic state. So far, so good.
I gave up on legacy media sometime last summer. I've replaced them with a selection of independent publishers and commentators (on this site and others).
e.g. for Covid and health in general, I like Dr. Zubin Damania (https://zdoggmd.com/), and I follow our local health officer's Twitter feed.
Of course, everything you have written also applies to MSM doomsday scenarios of climate change, 30 to 80 years out from the present, based on models they don't really understand.
The best thing you can do for your mental health is find balanced coverage and refer to it sparingly and NEVER before bed. Think positive thoughts and about what you can do personally to make tomorrow a better day. Disaster porn is a horrible thing.
Thank you for your analysis. I have thought about this but don't have the reach you do to analyze the situation. Here in SK, it is not just the pandemic...coverage is mostly vehicle accidents, criminal incidents & racial incidents. And, of course, the WEATHER. What used to be a spring blizzard is now a disaster. Coverage is of the sensational only & rarely of significant achievements in medicine, social justice and within the Indigenous community. Someone once called in to CBC Radio noting that if there was a cure for cancer, the headline would be "Thousands of cancer health care workers thrown out of work".
I also avoided American media from the last few months of the Trump presidency. I think this all needs to be viewed through the polarized lens of the United States during Trump, and not necessarily as being inherent of liberal media. It’s only fair to also discuss whether conservative American media downplayed the pandemic because the effectiveness of the American response was being used as a proxy measure of the effectiveness of the Trump government. For the same reason I think American Liberal media may have played it up a bit. FWIW I did find that NPR was not hyperbolic.
How did Canadian media do in those bias rankings?
Important observation that, I suggest, we need to be reminded of routinely. "The fixation on disaster porn" is, alas, standard journalism fare and has been since the "press" became ostensibly "free." As in so many cultural things, to better understand them, it's often useful to "follow the money." There's more money in "disaster porn" than "good, fact-based journalism." Always has been, always (it seems) will be.
It is not just the media outlets but the politicians that are using the virus to frighten the citizens. Remember that a frightened public will be obedient and that's the whole premises behind scaring the bejeepers out of the citizens. People will agree to anything if they believe their life is endanger. From the moment the Liberals were elected it has been one emergency after another. It appears that it is the method they use to get all there policies pushed forward and if that does not work they prorogue parliament. Its the sign of the times and the only viable and intelligent course for citizens is to tune them and the hysterical media out, completely. From the climate emergency to the virus we live in dire, dire, times with the end upon us all. Then they say there is a mental health crisis, especially in youth, who through the education system are pumped full of all the same rhetoric. They can not get away from it, as death and destruction surround them daily. I hope parents have the sense to inform them that it is but a motivational tool that the government uses to get people to conform. So here we are all conformed and waiting for the next shoe to drop. It will be an never ending scenario as in order to keep conformity they must keep the masses in a heightened and traumatic state. So far, so good.
I gave up on legacy media sometime last summer. I've replaced them with a selection of independent publishers and commentators (on this site and others).
e.g. for Covid and health in general, I like Dr. Zubin Damania (https://zdoggmd.com/), and I follow our local health officer's Twitter feed.
Sleeping much better now.
Of course, everything you have written also applies to MSM doomsday scenarios of climate change, 30 to 80 years out from the present, based on models they don't really understand.
The best thing you can do for your mental health is find balanced coverage and refer to it sparingly and NEVER before bed. Think positive thoughts and about what you can do personally to make tomorrow a better day. Disaster porn is a horrible thing.