Effects of Publicity

How are we affected by the news?  Do we just sit and watch, absorb the information and form our own opinions?  The news media hopes this is not the case.  They hope to influence our thinking, and there is some evidence that they are correct.

An older study about the donation habits of Americans is the first example.  This is quoted from the summary.  “Using Internet donations after the 2004 tsunami as a case study, we show that media coverage of disasters has a dramatic impact on donations to relief agencies, with an additional minute of nightly news coverage increasing donations by...13.2% of the average daily donation for the typical relief agency. Similarly, an additional 700-word story in the New York Times or Wall Street Journal raises donations by 18.2% of the daily average.”  At that time social media was far less prevalent.  It is a good bet that Twitter and Facebook has more influence today, possibly even more than the big newspapers.

Another example is parents’ heightened fear of abduction leading them to be worried and overly protective.  It began with pictures of missing kids on milk cartons years ago, making it appear that a relatively rare problem was widespread.  They see reports that almost 466,000 children were reported missing in 2016, not realizing that the category of “missing” includes:  runaway or abandoned, abducted by a family member, miscommunication, premature reporting, or abducted by a stranger.  The greatest concern is the last case, which is by far the least frequent, amounting to less than 2% according to one source or a fraction of 1% (100 per year) according to another.  When you consider that 466,000 represents only 0.6% of all children in the US, these incidents are extremely rare.

The large number of 466,000 and the nation-wide publicity blow the problem out of proportion, which helps sell news and raise donations for agencies dedicated to this cause, but it causes parents to overcompensate.  They restrict their children’s movements and freedom far more than they did 50 or even 25 years ago.  And if they don’t watch their kids every second, busybody neighbors report them to protective services for being negligent.  At one point Rhode Island was considering a bill that would prohibit children from getting off the school bus in the afternoon if there wasn't an adult waiting to walk them home. This would have applied until seventh grade.

Many people object to caged chickens as a cruelty but think nothing of restricting children well beyond their abilities to cope – leading to, among other problems, less independence and less learning.

  

On the news one day last week I heard a report about the success of the Clean Air Act.  It was similar to this on-line NPR report.  “The Clean Air Act is a genuine American success story and one of the most effective tools in U.S. history for protecting public health. It has sharply reduced pollution from automobiles, industrial smokestacks, utility plants, and major sources of toxic chemicals and particulate matter since its passage in 1970. “  The story goes on to tell how it has saved millions of lives and reduced emergency room visits.

The very next day on the same segment of the same news program the headline was that air pollution causes premature deaths in the elderly. “Even short-term exposure to air pollution at levels that are below current air quality standards appeared to increase the risk for death among older people.”

People hearing only the first report would be encouraged; those hearing only the second would be discouraged; others hearing both might not know what to think.

Finally, an enlightening report tells that police officers killed in the line of duty in 2017 approached a 50-year low.  The graph accompanying the original article makes the trend clear.  But with wall-to-wall coverage of every incident, most citizens would think the opposite is true.  Likewise and regardless of what politician and media reporting imply, the violent crime rate in the US is at the lowest point since 1990.

What makes good news is what makes good theater.  It’s too bad this may lead to donations to disasters or causes out of proportion to their seriousness and to fears out of proportion to their dangers.  The important question about the news is not whether it's true, but whether it's meant primarily to inform or to manipulate.