Media has a strong incentive to cause hype over things that aren’t really dangerous trends
I think the inference here was ‘media has a strong incentive to cause hype over stuff that doesn’t matter, so surely they have an even stronger incentive to cause hype over stuff that is actually dangerous’. Empirically, this was wrong, but I’m confused about why!
I don’t think that’s an accurate statement to begin with. The media has a strong incentive to cause hype over anything that drives ratings, so using mainstream media coverage to forecast the severity of a once in a lifetime event such as a viral pandemic just seems like a bad idea in my opinion. There are much better ways.
I think the inference here was ‘media has a strong incentive to cause hype over stuff that doesn’t matter, so surely they have an even stronger incentive to cause hype over stuff that is actually dangerous’. Empirically, this was wrong, but I’m confused about why!
I don’t think that’s an accurate statement to begin with. The media has a strong incentive to cause hype over anything that drives ratings, so using mainstream media coverage to forecast the severity of a once in a lifetime event such as a viral pandemic just seems like a bad idea in my opinion. There are much better ways.