Joe Garofoli, the SF Chron's media writer -- yes, they still have one -- incisively questions whether more information on the swine flu is resulting in a public that is less informed.
It's a problem that has been attributed to the 24-hour news cycle for years whenever a big story (with good visuals) broke: a constant barrage of too much information, designed to fill the space between commercials. But today the plague of TMI has been exacerbated by the deluge of scare-sites on the Web, which makes it hard for some folks to separate fact from fiction. Or reliable information (no need to panic) from rumor (beware the pork chop).
In this case at least, it seems like slow news may be good news. bk
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j.linx: news, connections and conversations on the future of journalism
- barbara kelley
- I teach journalism and direct the journalism emphasis at Santa Clara University. As a freelance journalist, i have written for daily newspapers and their Sunday magazine sections as well as a variety of regional and national magazines. Among them: Christian Science Monitor, San Francisco Chronicle, San Jose Mercury News, Los Angeles Times, salon.com, California Magazine, San Francisco Magazine, Utne Reader, Health Magazine, Parenting Magazine, Redbook, Bay Area Parent and Pacific News Service. This blog is for students -- and anyone else who wants to join the conversation about the future of journalism.
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2 comments:
"more is less" -- i agree!
I think having TMI also coincides with the main subject of your book Prof. Kelley, that is, having too many choices. Sometimes having too many options gets too complicated that it feels suffocating and frustrating.
Sometimes, it's good to just have one option, and just one reliable source of information.
I think that the media has take the swine flu situation way too far. So many people are going crazy over the disease to the point that they are looking all over the place for any information, which only causes false information to be passed around. I have had people warning me about how fatal the disease is, only to find out that it is treatable. So many things can kill a person on an average day, and we don't need things like this in the media making people even more nervous than they already are. The media should be focusing on the economy because if we do not figure that out, nobody will be able to afford going to a hospital for the swine flu.
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