Showing posts with label media influence. Show all posts
Showing posts with label media influence. Show all posts

Tuesday, April 7, 2020

Media bias again


January 27th, the day after Kobe Bryant's death. Look at the article on the left, it reports on the first 5 cases of Coronavirus in the US.
https://www.pressreader.com/usa/usa-today-us-edition/20200127/281496458256509

In a January 21st interview with Newsmax, Dr. Anthony Fauci, the epidemiologist who is leading the charge against the virus said "this is not a major threat for the people of the United States, and this is not something that the citizens of the United States right now should be worried about."


February 17th, Dr. Fauci says the risk from Coronavirus is miniscule and to skip the masks unless you're contagious (how would you know you're contagious?) 

By early March, Fauci had changed his tune, saying the virus “could be really, really bad,” but still said he believed the situation could be mitigated
https://www.businessinsider.com/anthony-fauci-coronavirus-could-be-really-really-bad-2020-3

March 27th, CDC Director Robert Redfield told Fox News’ Brian Kilmeade that he agreed with Fauci’s assessment at the time, and said that nobody could have predicted the outbreak that would eventually occur in the U.S.  “Obviously that became corrected as they saw in the first three, four weeks in January that human to human spread was not only occurring it’s actually, as I said, more infectious and I think that led to the situation that we’re in today. I think no one could have predicted how transmissible, how infectious this virus really is,” Redfield said.
https://radio.foxnews.com/2020/03/27/cdc-director-reacts-to-resurfaced-tape-of-dr-anthony-fauci-downplaying-virus-threat/

Those are verifiable statements from the country's top epidemiologists.

But yeah, it's all the Big Bad Orange Man's fault for not listening to his top experts and acting sooner, or at least that's what the liberal media wants you to think. The media does this because they've decided who they do and don't want for president, and they're using their power to sway public opinion to that end. Is that news, the simple reporting of information, or is it something else that has another name? Who do the liberal media work for, because it's clearly not us.

-Dave Bad Person


Wednesday, January 29, 2020

Disproportionate media coverage of Coronavirus


With the current levels of coronavirus coverage in the news, it's interesting to put things into perspective.

The centers for disease control (CDC) estimates there have been at least 15 million cases and 8200 deaths from influenza this flu season in the USA alone (flu season started Oct 1st). Mortality rate ~ 0.05%

https://www.cdc.gov/flu/about/burden/preliminary-in-season-estimates.htm


Total confirmed worldwide coronavirus infections so far: 6152.
Deaths: 132
Mortality rate: 2.15%

https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/


I wasn't able to find the frequency of media mentions of coronavirus vs influenza and flu. However, looking at Google searches might give us some clues as to how people are being influenced by the media.

Relative frequency of Google searches in the week from Jan 19 to Jan 25,
Coronavirus: 38
Influenza and flu combined: 15

Projected relative frequency of searches for the week ending Feb 1st,
Coronavirus: 100
Influenza and flu combined: 17

https://trends.google.com/trends/explore?geo=US&q=Coronavirus%2CInfluenza%2CFlu



Clearly the media is a useful tool for the mass management of public opinion.

My question then is: why such heavy coverage of Coronavirus? Is it simply a disproportionate attempt to inform and educate the public, or is it because it's something fearful that motivates people and therefore gets more viewers so the media can sell more advertising, or is it something else?

-Dave Bad Person



Some other articles.


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Novel_coronavirus_(2019-nCoV)

The Wuhan coronavirus was first reported to the World Health Organization on Dec 31st, 2019.
https://www.vox.com/science-and-health/2020/1/23/21079069/what-is-coronavirus-wuhan

China
spent the crucial first days of the Wuhan coronavirus outbreak arresting people who posted about it online and threatening journalists

These Lies And Conspiracies About The Wuhan Coronavirus Are Totally False
https://www.sciencealert.com/here-s-all-the-nonsense-people-are-spreading-about-the-wuhan-coronavirus


Report: Outbreak of idiocy spreading 10,000 times faster than coronavirus
https://thebeaverton.com/2020/01/report-outbreak-of-idiocy-spreading-10000-times-faster-than-coronavirus/