This is How Media Adds Fuel to Panic

Here is a snapshot of the home page of today’s Economic Times.

It’s good that the newspaper is updating people – minute by minute – on the latest on the global crisis. But it is images/pages like these that add to people’s panic.

The cycle goes like this:

1. People panic
2. Media captures the panic through updates like these
3. People panic more on seeing updates like these

In short, such panicky updates just add fuel to the fire.

I’m not sure people reading such newspapers want that. Instead, all they want to know is what to do in such uncertain times.

But who’s telling them that?

By the way, look at the words used to describe the crash on this page of Moneycontrol…

‘Killing fields’, ‘Murky Monday’, ‘butchered’!

I’m running for shelter! What about you?