Comparison between media hysteria on Swine Flu and on housing & stock market crash

Dithering_Dad

Only last week we were starting Armageddon in the face, a pandemic was about to sweep through the world's population and sythe down countless millions in it's path. Yes, according to the press, the four horsemen of the Apocalypse had been set free!

Fast forward a week later... The number of deaths attributed to the flu in Mexico has been reduced, the flu is recognised not to be as virulent as first though, especially on human to human contact and the whole alert is being downgraded.

Given the comparable levels of hysteria generated by the media regarding the economic (albeit over a longer time period), do the Panel (you lot) believe that the media has overcooked the economic news and things are nowhere near as bad as they made out and that we'll also look back and smile at their ridiculous alarmist reporting?

StevieJ

Pobably :rolleyes:

mewbie_2

I think the media has been consistently behind the game. Granted there is the occasional Armaggeddon headline, but it's quickly followed by an equally out of line Nirvana headline. They don't understand it, they don't know how to present it to their readers, and by and large their readers aren't interested.

Virtually everything I learnt about HPC came from 'that' website. I know, I know - it makes me a nutter. But some of the posters seemed to have a clue about that might happen long before the media started half reporting what had actually happened.

StevieJ

OK mewbie, you showed us what you learnt off HPC by your Northern Rock comments

Jonbvn

The whole problem is that "No News" = "Good News"; giving "News" = "Bad News". Obviously the meeja are the "News" business, and hence the mountain out of a "molehill" type stories.

Sky News is a very good example of the phenomenon. A few months back they thought they were the next Bloomberg. Now you rarely see much financial news on Sky. On the other hand their Swine Flu reporting is completely OTT. I listened to a SN interview with a guy who had SF - quite frankly I've had worse hangovers.

Overall, I think mewbie may be correct that the meeja don't know how to report the financial news, and most of their consumers are not that interested.

Graham_Devon

Dithering_Dad wrote: »

Given the comparable levels of hysteria generated by the media regarding the economic (albeit over a longer time period), do the Panel (you lot) believe that the media has overcooked the economic news and things are nowhere near as bad as they made out and that we'll also look back and smile at their ridiculous alarmist reporting?

Depends which media. Some have tried to take up, some down. Most articles I have seen, have always been wrong though, with the actual facts and figures being worse (growth last quarter being one instance).

The pandemic, however, isn't so much media hysteria, they do have a public duty when it comes to this sort of stuff, and they could only report the facts, which they did.

The WHO seem to have over egged it, not the media, but then if the WHO didnt create a little hysteria, and it did go off, they would be to blame for not making people aware enough!

tomterm8

Dithering_Dad wrote: »

Only last week we were starting Armageddon in the face, a pandemic was about to sweep through the world's population and sythe down countless millions in it's path. Yes, according to the press, the four horsemen of the Apocalypse had been set free!
?

It's very early in the life of a pandemic, Dithering Dad... we could still get at least one of the horsemen, or at least a trumpeter, or at the very least some odd "Living Creature" thingies.

It's a bit early for us all to die from the flu yet. We're at the suspense phase. By the time it all kicks off, like AIDS did, everyone will be bored of it.

dervish

Dithering_Dad wrote: »

Only last week we were starting Armageddon in the face, a pandemic was about to sweep through the world's population and sythe down countless millions in it's path. Yes, according to the press, the four horsemen of the Apocalypse had been set free!

Fast forward a week later... The number of deaths attributed to the flu in Mexico has been reduced, the flu is recognised not to be as virulent as first though, especially on human to human contact and the whole alert is being downgraded.

Given the comparable levels of hysteria generated by the media regarding the economic (albeit over a longer time period), do the Panel (you lot) believe that the media has overcooked the economic news and things are nowhere near as bad as they made out and that we'll also look back and smile at their ridiculous alarmist reporting?

completely ridiculous and irrelevant post to this sub-forum.

His post is about media portrayals as opposed to reality and therefore this thread should be moved to Discussion Time.

Dithering_Dad

tomterm8 wrote: »

It's very early in the life of a pandemic, Dithering Dad... we could still get at least one of the horsemen, or at least a trumpeter, or at the very least some odd "Living Creature" thingies.

It's a bit early for us all to die from the flu yet. We're at the suspense phase. By the time it all kicks off, like AIDS did, everyone will be bored of it.

I think it's more comparable to SARS than to AIDS, but neither have wiped us out. Life goes on despite the hysteria of the media. I think the economy is the same, they talk as though we're going to end up living in caves, with the breakdown of society when in reality we'll just have a financial correction and then life will go on.

What is damaging is when people pay too much attention to the media and get so fearful about the latest illness or get so concerned about the economy that they allow it to impact their lives in a detrimental way.

Dithering_Dad

dervish wrote: »

completely ridiculous and irrelevant post to this sub-forum.

His post is about media portrayals as opposed to reality and therefore this thread should be moved to Discussion Time.

dervish wrote: »

I don;t see why people on here are so hostile to people tey have never met

Hypocrite. :rolleyes:

WhiteThierry

Graham_Devon wrote: »

Depends which media. Some have tried to take up, some down. Most articles I have seen, have always been wrong though, with the actual facts and figures being worse (growth last quarter being one instance).

The pandemic, however, isn't so much media hysteria, they do have a public duty when it comes to this sort of stuff, and they could only report the facts, which they did.

The WHO seem to have over egged it, not the media, but then if the WHO didnt create a little hysteria, and it did go off, they would be to blame for not making people aware enough!

bang on, can you imagine the anger of the public if the government/media talked this down and it DID turn into the worse case scenario, they have to protect their backs sometimes.