What have we learned in the last few days? By the time Irene made her way to Connecticut, she was downgraded to a tropical storm. How did the general college public react to that? For the most part, they were disappointed. Calling Irene a ‘tease’ or a ‘let down’ online was a common practice.
What would have been a good scenario? Would it have been better if a tree fell through everyone’s roof? Is it not bad enough that there’s still large sections of the state that don’t have power? How miserable would you be if it was your house that was directly affected?
It seemed as if the media played into this problem. Throughout the week leading up to the storm, the news media sought to boost ratings by covering Irene nonstop. Granted, comprehensive coverage can help inform the public, but overkill can make us numb.
Numb in the fact that we expected to see something catastrophic and, when we didn’t, some of us weren’t happy about it. If you ask anyone from New Orleans about how much fun it was when they had their lives turned upside-down, they would probably spit on you.
But the question remains: how did we get to this point of media over-saturation? Did we need to see the Weather Channel putting a reporter on the beach in North Carolina? Was there any value in seeing him getting pelted in the face with sand, salt water and wind? Beyond boosting ratings there was no point. We knew the hurricane was bad, we didn’t need to make a mockery of the event.
The media isn’t afraid to sink vast amounts of resources into covering a natural disaster, and that can be a good thing if they are doing a civil duty, but often times they are doing so because it seems like a way to draw viewers or readers.
So what should a media outlet be doing in a time of crisis? Our media organization is full of students working hard to try and learn good ethics and practices of modern journalism. In our opinion this situation was completely overblown. It led to a massive letdown in this area and a lack of coverage of what’s going on in other areas where Irene passed.
A news station or newspaper shouldn’t just focus on the flooded parking lot down the street, but the chaos that ensued in North Carolina and Virginia. They should talk about what happened when thousands of people were forced to evacuate New York City. And what happened to those who refused to evacuate? These are the questions that the informed viewer is looking for and not getting.
There were nearly 40 deaths this past weekend due to the storm and the destruction it caused. Was that not enough for some people? Before we make light of the fact that it was a ‘tease’ and it was downgraded to a tropical storm by the time it got to Connecticut, let’s stop and be thankful it wasn’t much worse and the death count wasn’t much higher.