American News Media and Hyperbole

The current Ebola crisis in parts of West Africa should be quite concerning to all but the level at which the American media blows the situation out of proportion seems to give the impression that the disease is ravaging everyone in West Africa. This tendency to hyperbolize events, to massage it for public consumption, as it is sometimes euphemistically put, sometimes leads America to take actions that it would have been better off not taking. The war in Iraq is a case in point. That is why Barack Obama reminded Americans in his news conference yesterday that people should not think that the conflicts going on in the world today are disproportionate to what has happened in the past. While these conflicts should be concerning, he indicated, Americans should not lose sense of proportion. The news media has been very influential in blowing things out of proportion by often presenting situations only from a single point of view - the point of view of disaster. This leads many Americans to be very uneducated about what is going on in other parts of the world. By talking about the Ebola virus as if it has ravaged all of West Africa, people have the impression that the situation is actually worse than it is. Now, this is not to say that the situation is not bad enough. However, it should be given its proper proportion. Perhaps it is in the nature of the news business to always want to blow things out of proportion in order to draw viewership. However, doing this carries the prize of giving people a false picture of the world. A good example of this happened today when the American doctor infected with the Ebola virus was brought to Emory hospital in Atlanta, Georgia. The way the media had been talking about his situation gave the impression that he was on his deathbed. However, when he arrived in Atlanta, he jumped out of the ambulance - to the surprise of everyone! Perhaps Americans should not get their information about other places around the world from the news media. Talking to people in regional hotspots may be more informational. Some forms of social media may serve this purpose better than journalists.