sensationalism of disasters

[Symphonic]

Does anyone else get frustrated when seeing headlines from major media outlets like this:



The thing that is frustrating is they create this big anxious ball of fear. Katia is not going to make landfall in the US, and Jose is going to turn around and die before it ever hits land.

They make it sound like all 3 are going straight to the states and make people who have anxiety panic.


Just annoyed at the sensationalism when they could be focused on how to prepare for the one that is going to affect the states.

[Freighter]

That reminds me of that disaster movie that was released a long time ago. Day after tomorrow? Albeit smaller size.

[cuafpr]

but it generates monies!

[Symphonic]

That reminds me of that disaster movie that was released a long time ago. Day after tomorrow?

Yeah, it was that movie that a similar image shows. Fortunately for us that scenario will not happen The movie has 3 hurricanes the size of North America hitting NA, Europe, and Asia lol.

[Narwal]

There's a narrative to sell here! Don't ya know!

Two hurricanes hitting the US in a row is undeniable proof of Man-made climate change guaranteeing our immediate destruction. Also, using the same powers of conclusion, I can say without a doubt that the guy in my guild that got two legendaries in 3 hours is proof that blizzard has an error in their legendary loot distribution algorithm! RNG my ass!

EXPLAIN THE EVER INCREASING NUMBER OF STRONG HURRICANES, UNPRECEDENTED!

[draynay]

Its all just white noise at this point. Since its expected it doesn't bother me.

[Knolan]

It is pretty much the same about air plane disasters a few years ago and meteor hitting earth before, and end of world before...

Sometimes it gets important out of the blue and the media will report on anything similar and blow it out of the water (no pun intended).

[Independent voter]

They do it a lot with North Korea too. Ignoring Kim is half the battle.

I think there are some trolls too who like to generate some conflict on social media, so they start echoing these disasters.

[cubby]

Does anyone else get frustrated when seeing headlines from major media outlets like this:



The thing that is frustrating is they create this big anxious ball of fear. Katia is not going to make landfall in the US, and Jose is going to turn around and die before it ever hits land.

They make it sound like all 3 are going straight to the states and make people who have anxiety panic.


Just annoyed at the sensationalism when they could be focused on how to prepare for the one that is going to affect the states.

Michael Crichton touched on the sensationalism of journalism in his book "State of Fear". While the book itself is more along the plot lines of environmental disasters (ironically), he provides a very interesting time-line to how/when/why the media shifted from just reporting events to "selling" events by ratcheting up the dialogue to include "sensationalistic" words like "disaster" and "catastrophe".

It's an interesting read and very interesting discussion. However, on a practical matter, the ship has sailed - we have the media most people seem to want - and it won't go away.

[p0werslav3]

Katia is not going to make landfall in the US, and Jose is going to turn around and die before it ever hits land.

How do you know this? What's your source? I'm curious since you're make an assertion about those two hurricanes.`

[Antiganon]

Does anyone else get frustrated when seeing headlines from major media outlets like this:



The thing that is frustrating is they create this big anxious ball of fear. Katia is not going to make landfall in the US, and Jose is going to turn around and die before it ever hits land.

They make it sound like all 3 are going straight to the states and make people who have anxiety panic.


Just annoyed at the sensationalism when they could be focused on how to prepare for the one that is going to affect the states.

Some points here:

1) Weather is unpredictable, particularly when dealing with large swirling masses of wind and rain. Irma could just as easily make a hard right turn before hitting Florida and miss the mainland US entirely.
2) People are dead on the islands already hit by Irma. There was massive destruction. Those same islands are about to get hosed by Katia.
3) Jose could become larger and ravage the Texas Gulf Coast, in the same areas hit by Harvey.
4) Jose and Katia could position themselves in such a way as to hem in Irma over Florida, resulting in far worse destruction than already estimated (as we saw with high pressure systems keeping Harvey overland for an extended period).
5) Have you ever been in a hurricane? Especially a Cat 4 or 5? That shit is terrifying, sensationalizing it is appropriate response IMO.

[Deleted]

blabla

On the other hand, one could just downplay everything serious as a kneejerk reaction, and claim it's "fake news", made up, a conspiracy, and all that bullshit, regardless of whether people die or not.

[Symphonic]

How do you know this? What's your source? I'm curious since you're make an assertion about those two hurricanes.`

following weather forecasters and models that are pretty accurate. Go here and push the play button to see for yourself: https://www.tropicaltidbits.com/analysis/models/

[IIamaKing]

Fear and Panic sell. You see anytime there is a snow storm where I am. People act like its the end of the fucking world, seemingly forgetting that only like 9 months past we had snow.

[Dextroden]

It sells bottles of water, generators and helps sell the idea that if we just listen to Al Gore, there will be no more disasters.

[Narwal]

On the other hand, one could just downplay everything serious as a kneejerk reaction, and claim it's "fake news", made up, a conspiracy, and all that bullshit, regardless of whether people die or not.

tee hee! Hey, it's fine for the news to say "Hurricane, watch out!". Yes, people should be alerted to hurricanes.

However, the headline here, is surrounded by other stories many of which will remark to climate change. I was in the middle of an 11 hour drive the Friday before Harvey hit, so I was listening to satellite radio. MSNBC brings on a weather scientist with 25 years of hurricane experience.

Anchor: "Is this hurricane the biggest you've ever seen?"
Scientist: "It's certainly up there but the devastation is really this weather pattern where there's nothing to push the hurricane along"
Anchor: "So it's important people evacuate"
Scientist: "Oh yes!"
Anchor: "So would you say that this is proof of climate change?"
Scientist: "*long pause* no... it's a hurricane like many we see, there just happens to be no weather patterns to push it along, which i've never seen"
Anchor: "huh... interesting... the weather these days is very very strange"

The MSM is not being subtle here. Climate change is a political issue, because it's an issue politicians have decided to take a stand on. The news doesn't care about climate change, they care about their political party being in power, so they have to draw those political issues into what should be a pretty straight forward news story.

Damn near every news story I see in the MSM today has political slant. I don't know if I was just too young to realize it, or not... but has the news always been 100% political?

[draynay]

Fear and Panic sell. You see anytime there is a snow storm where I am. People act like its the end of the fucking world, seemingly forgetting that only like 9 months past we had snow.

They might act like that here, but its been at least a decade since there was any snow.

edit - to be fair, I would probably freak out worse than most, its been at least 25 years since it snowed anywhere I live.

[p0werslav3]

following weather forecasters and models that are pretty accurate. Go here and push the play button to see for yourself: https://www.tropicaltidbits.com/analysis/models/

Very cool, thank you for backing up your statement.

[Toogoodman]

That reminds me of that disaster movie that was released a long time ago. Day after tomorrow? Albeit smaller size.

LMFAO that movie was so shit

Also, the people who designed that picture obviously didnt realize that the only typhoons have a reversed spiral is because they spawn in the lower hemispheres, that storm over china, seeing as it probably spawn up there, would be spinning the other direction

[Rasulis]

What exactly do you want from the media? A 10-page dissertation on the genesis, mechanics and probabilistic analysis of hurricanes with every hurricane article? Every article should come with disclaimer that this may or may not related to global warming?

Also, three named hurricanes concurrently in the Atlantic Basin is not a common event. Jose is following a path similar to Irma's and could potentially hit the same Caribbean islands that were devastated by Irma days ago. I am sure this is a big deal for those islands.