NOLA lawlessness = vicious rumors
SpiegelOnline (English) (liberated from members-only Salon.com, hooray): Exaggerated Stories of Hurricane Chaos in New Orleans
NEWS FLASH: The Superdome was not filled with rape and murder, nor were there scores of bodies in a freezer, nor were people downing helicopters.
All of this adds up to another easy example of Malcolm Gladwell's tipping-point theory, at least the second element of stickiness. To wit: Lurid stories about society devolving into Sin City in a destroyed city (the "message") make for such sexy copy that they stick with us and we pass them along. The message is even more sticky because it meshes with recipients' preexisting race/class prejudices. Furthermore, the message originated in a context (hurricane-ravaged NOLA) where credible information was lacking and rumors were more sticky. Finally, the message is spread via a loose association of Communicator types: Superdome denizens, officials, news anchors, and unaffected news viewers.
Right?
(Full credit: Dad told me the N.Y. Times Magazine carried a story on this a few weeks ago, but I never got around to reading it.)
NEWS FLASH: The Superdome was not filled with rape and murder, nor were there scores of bodies in a freezer, nor were people downing helicopters.
All of this adds up to another easy example of Malcolm Gladwell's tipping-point theory, at least the second element of stickiness. To wit: Lurid stories about society devolving into Sin City in a destroyed city (the "message") make for such sexy copy that they stick with us and we pass them along. The message is even more sticky because it meshes with recipients' preexisting race/class prejudices. Furthermore, the message originated in a context (hurricane-ravaged NOLA) where credible information was lacking and rumors were more sticky. Finally, the message is spread via a loose association of Communicator types: Superdome denizens, officials, news anchors, and unaffected news viewers.
Right?
(Full credit: Dad told me the N.Y. Times Magazine carried a story on this a few weeks ago, but I never got around to reading it.)