What's Does a Balanced Pandemic News Report Look Like?
If you could make a list of the top statistics every American should be given in a well-rounded/balanced national news report about the pandemic, what would it be, no matter the network you watch? Based on some conversations I am having with family and friends, here is my running list...
Case Count by Age Group and Demographic
Positive Tests
Hospitalizations
Deaths
Rate of hospitalizations and deaths of those with pre-existing conditions
Weekly lists of states who have successfully reported the totality of stats regarding the points listed above
A monthly & ongoing report of how individual states collect, interpret, and share these numbers... in other words, are Covid stats conflated with other stats like flu, cardiac events, etc.
Other countries' progress and/or setbacks
When it comes to local newscasts, it is pretty much the same, only on a micro-level.
Where do you get your news?
Do you feel like it's well rounded? I generally get my news from PBS NewsHour, BBC America, CNN, and NPR. I feel pretty confident I am getting a balanced view.
.
.
.
Conclusion: There are so, so, so many ways we intake news these days. Finding an impartial view is becoming more of a challenge than ever before. When a particular news source actively leans in one direction, they risk credibility... and then we have a big ol' mess. If there was a list of topics that news outlets could use as a standard in any broadcast relating to the pandemic, I think it would bring us more than a few steps closer to ensuring a balanced transmission of information. Knowledge is power, opinions should be shared, but let's preserve the paradigm that holds facts and science as truth... not political/partisan tools to be spun.
Comments