What a surprise?
Not really….
The American media thrives on conflict and fear….(Trump?)
That is in politics (Trump?) and of course in the reporting on most others things including the virus….
This does NOT mean Americans should stop being cautious and throw off their masks, hand washing and stop getting virus shots…
It does mean that things ARE getting better in efforts to fight the numbers of cases and their severity ….
Bruce Sacerdote, an economics professor at Dartmouth College, noticed something last year about the Covid-19 television coverage that he was watching on CNN and PBS. It almost always seemed negative, regardless of what was he seeing in the data or hearing from scientists he knew.
When Covid cases were rising in the U.S., the news coverage emphasized the increase. When cases were falling, the coverage instead focused on those places where cases were rising. And when vaccine research began showing positive results, the coverage downplayed it, as far as Sacerdote could tell.
But he was not sure whether his perception was correct. To check, he began working with two other researchers, building a database of Covid coverage from every major network, CNN, Fox News, Politico, The New York Times and hundreds of other sources, in the U.S. and overseas. The researchers then analyzed it with a social-science technique that classifies language as positive, neutral or negative.
The results showed that Sacerdote’s instinct had been right — and not just because the pandemic has been mostly a grim story.
The U.S. media is an outlier
The coverage by U.S. publications with a national audience has been much more negative than coverage by any other source that the researchers analyzed, including scientific journals, major international publications and regional U.S. media. “The most well-read U.S. media are outliers in terms of their negativity,” Molly Cook, a co-author of the study, told me.
About 87 percent of Covid coverage in national U.S. media last year was negative. The share was 51 percent in international media, 53 percent in U.S. regional media and 64 percent in scientific journals.
Notably, the coverage was negative in both U.S. media outlets with liberal audiences (like MSNBC) and those with conservative audiences (like Fox News)….
…
Sacerdote is careful to emphasize that he does not think journalists usually report falsehoods. The issue is which facts they emphasize. Still, the new study — which the National Bureau of Economic Research has published as a working paper, titled, “Why is all Covid-19 news bad news?” — calls for some self-reflection from those of us in the media…
…
Why the bad-news bias?
The researchers say they are not sure what explains their findings, but they do have a leading contender: The U.S. media is giving the audience what it wants.
When the researchers examined which stories were the most read or the most shared on Facebook, they tended to be the most negative stories. To put it another way, the stories that people choose to read skew even more negative than the stories that media organizations choose to publish. “Human beings, particularly consumers of major media, like negativity in their stories,” Sacerdote said. “We think the major media are responding to consumer demand.”….
Mostly I find the media repetitious.
The same old “wear masks,social distancing” routine .I think everyone knows that .Whether they practice it or not is another story.
The problem is there are so many unknowns with this virus that definitive statements are hard to come by.Accordingly the media goes with what it’s got and the warnings always trump the optimism.Actually a typical media reaction.
While Ron DeSantis and his supporters are pushing the narrative about the “great” job he has done in Florida handling the virus according to CDC,as of March 22,over the last 7 days,Florida:
1.) Has had the most Covid cases in the country.
2.) Has the 12th highest per capita case rate.
3.) Has the 4th highest number of deaths.
4.) Has the 17th highest death rate
And Ron DeSantis’s has undercounted the number of COVID-19 deaths:
https://www.sun-sentinel.com/coronavirus/fl-ne-florida-coronavirus-deaths-delays-explanation-20201024-jb2qc2plcvedzi6hg2e4rq2bke-story.html
The latest negative stories?
The so called “breakthrough” cases…These are cases where a fully vaccinated person still contracts the virus.Some media outlets are hyping this as something unusual and threatening.Actually its to be expected.
None of these vaccines are perfect.Indeed both the Phfizer and Moderna vaccines claim 95% or so efficacy.In other words in ,say a vaccinated group of 5000, around 250 or so may be expected to contract the virus.However, the vast majority of these would be expected to have mild cases.A few may be somewhat worse, but they aren’t going to die.
Where’s the story?That the vaccine is working as it has previously been described?Thats news?
So yes,some people,relatively few ,may still contract the virus even after being fully vaccinated.In other words,as previously stated four months ago when the vaccines were first introduced.
And sometimes lightning can still kill you if you’re in your house.
But your chances are much higher if you are on the golf course holding a 9 iron.