When the Wind Blows - so does the Media
Hurricane Irene has now come and gone and provided and interesting study in modern media coverage.
At Enigin we are always aware of the importance of the media, the way they can alert people to the importance of energy efficiency and global climate change, with the urgency needed to reduce energy waste and carbon emissions.
So it is interesting to see how the media reacts to large events, particularly climatic ones - that seem to be coming wider spread due to global warming - and this past weekends Hurricane Irene coverage was interesting.
Now I am sure there are detractors who say that New York Mayor, Michael Bloomfield, overreacted and emptied low lying areas too promptly - in the end there was destruction and plenty of it - but not on the level feared as the Hurricane collapsed into a tropical storm.
This did mean all the journalists around the world who replaced the evacuated locals, looked a little sad as they reported on heavy rain and strong winds, and not much more.
They seemed to be delighted that at least an 11 year old boy had died in the Carolinas - what a sad event - but for the media it carried weight.
The washing away of a life boat station, which seemed to be built on the beach, was also a shot re-run and re-run.
Hurricane Katrina was not that long ago that I must ask, how come the coverage never seemed to be at the same level? New Orleans can once again complain that they seem to count less that, let’s say, New York.
Now I accept that it could have been the news item of the year - all these media organisations could get into position before the news actually happened - they could see it coming. It was right for them to do what they did, but they also needed a back up plan to downgrade the news along with the downgrading of the storm.
Not that I am saying the coverage was wrong for those closely involved in it - the states affected by the passage of the wind, but for the rest of the U.S. and the world, it was interesting but not tot he degree that it needed to corner the media coverage for most of Sunday.
Plus, why did we not get similar coverage on the other days - New York is obviously a major city and rightly took center stage on Sunday, but how about the more southerly states that had been affected, and more critically - should the coverage globally had been the same?
I have said it before - 24 hour news coverage can be great, but often it is a little too much and too often.
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