One of the biggest topic in the
medical and social world right now is the Ebola virus. The virus has created
this nervous reaction around the world that is quiet unnecessary. The media as
per usual are making the Ebola virus sound like the Black Death. When in reality,
the virus isn't that contagious. The Ro is a way to calculate the
number of people one person will infect (on average). The
director of CDC Dr. Tom Frieden believes that the virus won’t spread because 1
person with Ebola infect can infect 2 people. The low ratio will give the CDC a chance of having the virus under control. It is still
terrible if you are unlucky to contract the virus but based on the ratio and the CDC, your chance of contracting it are relatively low. How low is it compare to other diseases? well HIV (1 person can infect -4), SARS (1-4), Mumps (1-10) and
Measles (1-18). They are all more contagious than Ebola. Listen, I am not saying
the Ebola virus isn't deadly because it is. The side effect of Ebola are
horrifying and even rivaling some of the worst plague in history. My point is that
the media aren’t giving people the full story regarding the Ebola virus. I not
even sure I would call this a noble lie because it causing chaos.
This is relevant because in my
philosophy class, we have been discussing Kant and John Stuart Mills. Kant
moral law states that "the only thing that is unconditionally good is the
good will." Meanwhile Mills moral belief is to "produce the greatest
amount of happiness and pleasure for the least amount of pain for the greatest
amount of people." In case of both these philosophers moral belief, I am questioning
why is it a good will for the media to omit some relevant information that
could ease the nervousness within people? What Kant would say is that the media
motives are based upon subjective wants and desires. In case of Mills, how is
providing insufficient information helping to produce to greatest of happiness
and pleasure for the greatest amount of people? Just a thought because I am blaming
the media for the over-reaction regarding Ebola.
I don't think the media cares (in general) about spreading 100% truthful information. Just like every other type of business, the media puts out what they know will sell which is fear and panic. In regards to the producing the greatest amount of happiness for the greatest amount of people, I suppose that the people they are considering are the people behind the mask(of media) - the companies that support the media which is supposed to be impartial but we all know it isn't. I agree that the media tends to blow things out of proportion but again they are putting out what sells. They know that people will respond in a certain way which would be panic in this case, maybe they hope to increase their viewership or the number of subscribers they have through this "epidemic". who knows? good article though.
ReplyDeleteI must agree with Blaire here.
ReplyDeleteMy take on it is that the media is not one about telling people the logical facts in many situations. They basically prey on those who are ignorant on the subject matter so that they can gain more viewers and more people to talk about what they (the news stations) are saying. It's harsh to say, but most of them aren't really concerned about "the good will" or the greatest amount of happiness, they are concerned with their ratings and how many people are talking about what they report. They don't seem to care about the fact that they are not providing sufficient information on Ebola, and that's why people are going crazy about it. They're not educating themselves, and they're listening to these people.
Yeah, I agree that the media is blowing it out of proportion for their own benefit. The media omits relevant information (especially in headlines) because it gets traffic to news channels and websites. It's a pretty unfortunate tactic to gain viewers and readers but it works-- the more people that talk about what they report, the better for the companies. I think this goes against Mill's beliefs and felicific calculus because it's targeting people with little knowledge on the subject, and pretty much putting fear in them instead of providing them with more information to keep them at ease.
ReplyDeleteThe media is looking out for one thing as everyone else has said, and that is ratings and selling its self as much as possible. They are half the time never doing a good will by giving out this information in they why they are doing, or causing any happiness. They are just immoral unbalanced people who look out for themselves. They are one of many reasons why many people panic, and over look reason like how statistics prove it to be a lower risk than other viruses.
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