Recently, in the news, an octogenarian white-supremacist nut-job went crazy in D.C.'s famed and revered Holocaust Museum—pulling out a sawed-off shotgun and shooting people before he himself was shot down by security. This was clearly an isolated incident in a world filled with crazy people of every description (not sure how many of them are octogenarian, though), any of whom are liable to blow the fuse at any moment.
And yet—if one were to check out television news coverage in the days following this isolated incident in D.C., one might not be faulted for supposing that a neo-Nazi alien invasion force had landed on our shores!
This sort of exaggerated, over-the-top overreaction to the least significant of disruptions in our day-to-day lives is only too characteristic of modern media. There is no excuse for it—it is so shamelessly sensationalist and self-promotional, geared towards amping up sales more than anything else—that it has become an active proponent, in my opinion, of the very mass hysteria and disruption that it is supposed to be protecting society from. No longer is media coverage about informing the public—rather, it is about generating sales by promoting sensationalism—"creating the news" in a Hearstian mode, as it were.
The simple fact is that news media agencies, by overreacting to and exaggerating the news stories that they report, are really infusing news stories with a shock value that they might not otherwise have. I mean—an octogenarian goes nuts in the D.C. Holocaust Museum—sure, he had a history of anti-semitic agendas and run-ins with the law, but does this incident really qualify as a calamity on a par with, say, the World Trade Center bombings of 1993 (which many view as a precursor to 9/11)? Does it justify Anderson Cooper doing a CNN news special on the subject of When Lone Wolves Attack? Does it justify widespread panic—perhaps even bordering on mass hysteria—as perpetuated by media institutions—against a potential, imminent spate of terrorism sponsored by white-supremacist fringe organizations nationwide?
In no way am I defending the psychotic views of the antisocial psychopaths who randomly decide to perpetuate chaos and mayhem in society through their depraved actions. What I am questioning, however, is society's tendency to overreact to hysterical proportions to the least provocation—to turn an isolated incident into a justification for nationwide panic and paranoia by amping up the volume on media coverage on the incidents to a disproportional degree. Surely that, if anything, is the truly disruptive force in post-millennial society.
Meanwhile, Horizon Cybermedia is dedicated to staying balanced and sane in obviously crazy times. Check out the latest production from our nascent media company—the newest episode in our ongoing film series, Exploration with Uday Gunjikar—recounting my latest venture, sampling the fine wines and refined ambiance of the Wine Country—the picturesque vistas of Sonoma County, CA. The film series is at our website http://www.explorationtheseries.com.
Wishing you the very best,
Uday Gunjikar,
Founder and CEO,
Horizon Cybermedia, Inc.
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