Comm455/History of Journalism

With all the media coverage telling us that Hurricane Sandy is going to reak havock on the East Coast there is one question to wonder about. Really?

Will Sandy really cause so much damage as the media says it will? There’s no way to tell but one thing is for sure. This hurricane is being sensationalized and blown out of proportion by our media. The same media that told us that our world was pretty much going to power down at the turn of the millineum — Y2K.

Sensationalized news reports may start of small, but for the most part they are big stories — stories that could potentially affect the masses, just as Hurricane Sandy could. Similarly, in medical reporting, sensationalism is frowned upon. This is due to the fact that it could desensitize the public through disappointment. The same goes for big stories that don’t ever come to fruition. Y2K was an utter bust.

Hurricane Sandy is beng reported on this week as if it were the November election, itself. In fact, at the present moment it may be on the news just as much or even more than the 2012 Presidential Election. If the people don’t witness what the media says will probably happen, they will ultimately be disappointed and become desensitized by such drastic reports.

People are preparing for the worst when Sandy comes ashore sometime within the next day. The water aisle in a local grocery store is almost empty, as seen in the above photo.