Hurricane Irene or Hurricane Hype?

How does media coverage based on scientific predictions influence our knowledge and perception of an upcoming event?

Subject: The media coverage preceding Hurricane Irene

When I turned on the CNN news channel early Friday evening I was shocked to see the coverage of the gloom associated with the impending hurricane Irene. I wondered why such nice normal names were given to personify a non human freak of nature. The reports were out, Irene was to be the largest and most destructive hurricane in over 50 years. A time frame that I and many other people would not have been born to remember. The scientific reports were out, data analysis had been conducted and the meteorologists had been working overtime with the statistics that could frighten the pants of even hardened soothsayers, the results were not for the faint hearted. Winds of over 100 miles were hour were to reach New York Sunday morning, with extensive flooding of the Hudson River into down town Manhattan. The windows of skyscrapers would be shattered, power would be down and there would be damage amounting to billions of dollars. A state of emergency was declared and hundred of thousands of people would be evacuated from their homes, businesses, schools and hospitals. All this in the time that the US is still reeling under the effects of the recession. My heart went into my mouth. This was not just another news report about the usual war in a distant land, this affected my life, physically and emotionally. I lived my formative years in down town, Battery Park which was next to the river and scheduled to be badly affected. My grandparents resided there and were at risk of bodily harm and my next trip to New York would be affected. As reporters continued the shocking coverage, as the shops started boarding up and the streets of New York became a ghost town, my mind filled with images fueled by the pictures on the news. I remember seeing movies on hurricanes and my imagination went into overdrive as I imagined the worst, a scene straight out of a Summer Blockbuster movie. I imagined the park I strolled in being turned into a river, the trees and landscape destroyed, benches and trees overturned, the koi fish in the pond floating out to sea and the lobby of my apartment building flooded knee deep. And as if unable to keep away from a car wreck, I continued to watch mesmerized both in awe and fear at the power of Nature.

Hudson River Laps Over in Battery Park City, New York City

Or was it more the power of the media. Sunday morning came and the hurricane which on hitting the city immediately became downgraded to a storm passed without a whimper. People walked their dogs along the beach a few hours after the storm passed despite the prediction that the aftermath of flooding could go on for days. Yes, I understand that we have to err on the side of precaution. But honestly the non stop coverage seemed to be more hype than fact. Did the media relish the thought of this breaking news story and milk it for all it was worth. Did not the ratings go sky high and did they along with hardware and grocery stores not benefit from this. Science can after all predict the weather to a certain amount of accuracy along with its outcome. But we believe science and the news and react with an emotional response. We make the event real in our mind and in doing so with media encouragement we blow the event out of proportion. We think we have a pre-determined knowledge of the future based on science and media coverage and be have blind faith and belief. Along with herd mentality, we follow what others are doing such as boarding up as fear breeds fear and we reason they must have the knowledge and must be right. We follow rather than reason.

I was relieved that on the whole all ended well in my home town, but I almost wanted to shout out to the media channel; hey I was promised a hurricane and I want my money back!

Samenow, Jason. "Hurricane Irene hype: over the top media coverage or justified? - Capital Weather Gang - The Washington Post." The Washington Post: National, World & D.C. Area News and Headlines - The Washington Post. N.p., 29 Aug. 2011. Web. 29 Aug. 2011. <http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/capital-weather-gang/post/hurricane-irene-hype-over-the-top-media-coverage-or-justified/2011/08/29/gIQA77denJ_blog.html>.