While having lunch with my co-professors, we were lamenting how media tends to blow up and sensationalize everything. They do it with so much fervor, that people actually end up believing them and start running around like Chicken Little crying "the sky is falling."
Case # 1:
Last Saturday, my students were telling me how Philvocs said that the Philippines was "hinog na hinog" for a big earthquake. The language was so graphic that I'm not surprised at how my students were worried about it.
Case # 2:
In a span of 1 hour, 4 people sent me the text about radiation hitting the Philippines and how we should all stay indoors and put betadine on our throats. I checked the veracity on-line and there was no such thing. Becky, Wowie and I found out that we did the same thing when we received those texts - we deleted them.
The situation in Japan is bad enough as it is. We don't need media sowing fear and panic in an already afraid and panicking world.
Days like these, I realize why I chose advertising over my original career path that was journalism.
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