Oh yes, definitely true. The trouble is that the media is in a position where it influences events rather than just reporting them (which is the ideal) so you end up with a vicious circle of positive feedback where 'the people' say one thing, the media report it but add a spin, 'the people' read it and respond with greater reaction and ad infinitum. Is the media a mirror or a magnifying glass?
The problem is always the tendancy to tell stories as this is often the best way to get interest in an event - the story you put around it. Science does it too - look at the kerfuffle about the LHC collidor and all the bull about the chances of it destroying the universe which were roundly denied by scientists but always with a sly grin that said 'well, it could happen'. This served to make a rather dull sounding (to the majority of the populace) experiment where essentially 'some blokes pressed some buttons and some inexplicable readouts and graphs appear which apparently mean something fascinating which only about 5% of the world understand' into something worth reporting and therefore funding.
The trouble is, in this case certainly, the single story has overwhelmed the point of the story which was to point out flaws in the current system which may or may not be there (they are, from what I have seen reading between the lines, no clear indications of where blame lies). The ideal would be for this story to bring to the attention of those with the money the fact that the system needs more of it for certain things. However, focussing on who is to blame for one incident (regretable though this may be) clouds this central issue.
We live in an exciting time where ignorance is no excuse. No nothing about the LHC? There's a wiki article, cartoons, hell there's even a rap on Youtube. Someones probably explained it with glove puppets.
We owe it to ourselves to remind each other that we can be better. Especially with something like this. Hearts and Heads.
Of course, all this means that the printed page has changed into something that has nothing to do with news, but brooker puts it better here: http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=WHBN-CvCXW4
The problem is always the tendancy to tell stories as this is often the best way to get interest in an event - the story you put around it. Science does it too - look at the kerfuffle about the LHC collidor and all the bull about the chances of it destroying the universe which were roundly denied by scientists but always with a sly grin that said 'well, it could happen'. This served to make a rather dull sounding (to the majority of the populace) experiment where essentially 'some blokes pressed some buttons and some inexplicable readouts and graphs appear which apparently mean something fascinating which only about 5% of the world understand' into something worth reporting and therefore funding.
The trouble is, in this case certainly, the single story has overwhelmed the point of the story which was to point out flaws in the current system which may or may not be there (they are, from what I have seen reading between the lines, no clear indications of where blame lies). The ideal would be for this story to bring to the attention of those with the money the fact that the system needs more of it for certain things. However, focussing on who is to blame for one incident (regretable though this may be) clouds this central issue.
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We owe it to ourselves to remind each other that we can be better. Especially with something like this. Hearts and Heads.
Of course, all this means that the printed page has changed into something that has nothing to do with news, but brooker puts it better here: http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=WHBN-CvCXW4
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