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Media Coverage of COVID -19

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PHILIPE

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If it is reported that a particular location has an increase in cases, perhaps just one, it's splashed across the Media that there are further outbreaks.
 
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Yew

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Don't forget the incessant SUPER SATURDAY headlines, from papers who will no doubt be today criticising the behaviours of the very people they encouraged to go out!
 

bramling

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Don't forget the incessant SUPER SATURDAY headlines, from papers who will no doubt be today criticising the behaviours of the very people they encouraged to go out!

Presumably “Super Saturday” was something coined by the media in the first place?
 

takno

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Presumably “Super Saturday” was something coined by the media in the first place?
I think that was actually the government. They literally seem to have chosen Saturday as the day to relax the restrictions because the fourth of July resounded with them, and they assumed it would with everybody else as well. I'm starting to worry that at this rate they're saving up getting rid of facemasks for Thanksgiving
 

bramling

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I think that was actually the government. They literally seem to have chosen Saturday as the day to relax the restrictions because the fourth of July resounded with them, and they assumed it would with everybody else as well. I'm starting to worry that at this rate they're saving up getting rid of facemasks for Thanksgiving

If so that wasn’t the best idea. It’s probably just as well this weekend’s weather was iffy.
 

Richard Scott

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Just seen two headlines 'NHS bracing for a second wave' and 'Global COVID-19 cases surge as UK reopens'. Both articles contained little of substance relevant to UK but headlines obviously aimed at causing unease amongst UK population. More irresponsible journalism?
 

takno

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Just seen two headlines 'NHS bracing for a second wave' and 'Global COVID-19 cases surge as UK reopens'. Both articles contained little of substance relevant to UK but headlines obviously aimed at causing unease amongst UK population. More irresponsible journalism?
Pretty impressive if England's pubs opening can cause an immediate global surge in infections. And they say we are no longer a world power ...
 

Mag_seven

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'NHS bracing for a second wave'

All that means is that the NHS is preparing for a potential second wave should such a thing happen by stocking up on PPE, ensuring that the "Nightingale Hospitals" are ready and waiting etc. However they don't use the word "potential" as missing it out implies it will happen and the term "bracing" is far more dramatic than just "preparing".
 

Huntergreed

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I just saw a headline “death rate increases by almost a third amidst imminent second wave”, (the Sunday death rate went from 15 to 19).

It’s completely shameful the amount of scare-mongering the media are partaking in and the effect of this on many people’s mental health, including mine, is quite significant. It’s going to be nigh on impossible to go back to normal if they keep spouting these doom-laden headlines to try and gain clicks to make money.

Saw another one earlier “Second lockdown incoming as pubs reopen” with a comments section full of screaming lockdown enthusiasts demanding that the pubs and shops are closed and that everyone’s front door is welded shut until there’s no viruses left.
 

adc82140

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How about everyone who wants a full lockdown until 2050 or whenever is welded in to their houses, with the rest of us allowed to get on with our lives. They won't get the big bad virus that way, and the economy can be salvaged. Everyone's a winner! I feel a letter to the editor coming on. Which paper should I choose?
 

greyman42

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Presumably “Super Saturday” was something coined by the media in the first place?
"Super Saturday" was a phrase coined by the media during the London olympics when we had the opportunity to win a number of gold medals on a Saturday.
 

scotrail158713

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Which paper should I choose?
Preferably as many as possible :)
I can’t think of any newspaper which at some point in the last week or two hasn’t published a scaremongering article - they’ve all contributed to it at some stage.
 

Yew

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Just seen two headlines 'NHS bracing for a second wave' and 'Global COVID-19 cases surge as UK reopens'. Both articles contained little of substance relevant to UK but headlines obviously aimed at causing unease amongst UK population. More irresponsible journalism?

Oh, the journalistic "as", in usual parlance, the word implies some sort of relationship. Whereas in journalisimland, it just means that two random events happened at the same time!
 

RomeoCharlie71

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I've just had a notification on my phone: "UK Covid-19 death toll rises by 22, a day after England reopens pubs"

Appears to be a slightly modified headline originally from the Evening Standard. Ugh.
 

45107

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I've just had a notification on my phone: "UK Covid-19 death toll rises by 22, a day after England reopens pubs"

Appears to be a slightly modified headline originally from the Evening Standard. Ugh.
What is incorrect about the headline ?
 

Huntergreed

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What is incorrect about the headline ?
It implies indirectly that the opening of pubs has already caused a rise in the death rate from novel coronavirus, which is impossible as this would take 2-3 weeks to filter through.
 

Mojo

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What is incorrect about the headline ?
Nothing is incorrect, however it is misleading as it is clearly trying to imply a connection between the two events.
 

adc82140

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Headlines today- Case of bubonic plague in China. However in the depth of the article they reveal that it's 100% treatable with common antibiotics.

Brain eating amoeba case in Florida. They reveal in the body of the article that it's not transmissible from person to person, but only after describing the symptoms in a way my 6 year old would.

Both of these put on the front page of the BBC website, amongst the Covid stories.
 

birchesgreen

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I think there is an entire media industry built up around covid now. They have to keep up the supply of non-news stories otherwise they might have to start reporting on other stuff.

As for bubonic plague that pops up quite regularly, i'm not sure why that even needs to be a BBC headline?
 

Jayden99

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I've noticed that the Guardian Online has moved their non-Covid stories to the top of the page, whereas before they were buried at the bottom of all the Covid liveblogs
 

birchesgreen

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Yes there has been a shift over the last few weeks, i wonder if they have noticed less traffic to covid stories?
 

takno

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I've noticed that the Guardian Online has moved their non-Covid stories to the top of the page, whereas before they were buried at the bottom of all the Covid liveblogs
That's a mild improvement, but I'm not going to start reading it again while they are still treating Devi Sridhar and Antony Costello top experts willing to tell the truth, rather than increasingly deranged and unhelpful outliers
 

Mag_seven

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I'm also increasingly frustrated about headlines such as "Melbourne Lockdown" or "North Rhine Westphalia Lockdown" implying that the whole city or area is affected when its only a small bit of it when you actually read the article behind the headline.
 

Skymonster

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I'm also increasingly frustrated about headlines such as "Melbourne Lockdown" or "North Rhine Westphalia Lockdown" implying that the whole city or area is affected when its only a small bit of it when you actually read the article behind the headline.
The media are pretty good at weaving stories in a way that grabs attention. Take also the new Spanish "lockdown" which at first sight might lead readers to believe the whole country is going to pot again. However, this latest lockdown in Spain affects fewer than 300,000 people which is less than the population of Leicester so it is hardly a big thing in the context of the entire country.

Remember one thing: the primary measure of a newspaper editor's success is not to report news in the best way possible - it is to SELL NEWSPAPERS.
 

MikeWM

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That's a mild improvement, but I'm not going to start reading it again while they are still treating Devi Sridhar and Antony Costello top experts willing to tell the truth, rather than increasingly deranged and unhelpful outliers

The Guardian also appear to be rather unhealthily obsessed with Trump - any news article about the USA has the most obvious opinionated bias against him. I'm certainly no fan of his, but this is really poor. I happen to be old-fashioned and think news and opinion should remain separate - hard to find nowadays, but it has become especially blatant in this case.

This seems to be leeching into other areas - they seem to have developed an equally unhealthy obsession with everyone wearing masks, everywhere, forever - which probably stems from the Trump thing, given how that the mask issue and Trump are unfortunately completely intertwined politically in the USA.
 

takno

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This seems to be leeching into other areas - they seem to have developed an equally unhealthy obsession with everyone wearing masks, everywhere, forever - which probably stems from the Trump thing, given how that the mask issue and Trump are unfortunately completely intertwined politically in the USA.
A lot of the media, and especially the social media drive for masks is coming from the USA. As usual they've arrived late, done everything wrong, eventually stumbled on some complex partial solutions that everybody else knew about all along, and out of love for simple solutions they over-applied them in places where they won't work.

Unfortunately the Guardian went to a lot of effort to court the more tribal elements of the US and Australian left a few years ago, including giving them their own editors and control over the website. Now the Guardian after about 6pm is dumb American hot takes, and before 10am it's dumb Australian hot takes. There is still good content being commissioned along with the garbage. By the time the UK wakes up though, the editorial algorithm that decides what's righteous and what's cancelled has already been seeded abroad.
 

Skimpot flyer

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This is something I hope we will see more and more in mainstream media, a respected broadcaster questioning the sensationalism and message-sending tone from Government, which print media are happy to repeat and amplify.
Alas, it’s not in the UK, it’s in Australia but .... could this be the first tentative steps towards questioning the statistics we are fed?

To give a quick summary, Bolt asks
• did this young person die from coronavirus or with coronavirus ?
• was his death now being used to send a warning to younger people (even though he was the only person under 42 to have death attributed to coronavirus)?
and
• shows a medical officer briefing the press and admitting that any person who who is infected with Covid19 and dies, we declare as a Covid19 death’

 

HSTEd

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A lot of people in media claiming that data from Spain says that herd immunity is 'unachievable' because only 5% of the Spanish population has antibodies.
Which is not actually supported by the data.

They just have just decided the casualties required are unacceptable, but refuse to state that this is a position they have taken and instead make an unsupported statement, probably for political reasons.

(Herd immunity is definitely achievable in Spain, it is just it will require something on order of a quarter of a million dead at current casualty rates, which is a very different statement to make)
 
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SJN

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Well today they’re reporting that 3 pubs have had to close due to customers testing positive, implying that the pub was the problem. Now they only opened Saturday. I find it extremely unlikely that these people woke up on Sunday with raging symptoms, arranged and had a test and got result by Monday. This at least to me, suggests these people were either waiting for test results or already had symptoms so were irresponsible visiting a pub in the first place.
 

Bayum

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Why would you not believe the figures? Casting doubt on the figures because you don't like them does not make them any less accurate. I haven't seen any evidence of any scaremongering since the virus arrived in Britain. It was endless while it was in Italy.

I think we can see now that the figures can be massaged as the government wishes; looking at the examples of Bradford and Leicester, we know that neither had full knowledge of the statistics which has left them in the situations they’re in.
 
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