Bad News Spreads Like A Disease

By: Adrian Aitken

The economy today isn't looking to good and people are questioning what kind of outcome this slump in finance will bring. Others though decided to look at the cause rather than the effect and some are pointing their fingers at the media.

Today we live in a world of communication and messages are being thrown at us from all angles. Taking this idea people are starting to make the connection that a lot of bad news creates more bad news. This theory is currently being directly applied to the recent fall of the Dow Jones.

Eric Rauchway is a history professor who has recently published a book about the media and the Great Depression. During an interview on national public radio he stated that the media was just as accessible then as it is now and that the idea of the media making the situation worse is plausible.

I understand that the media isn't attempting to make a mass panic and that it is just doing its job, but I wish that there could be some way that the news is buffered and not have such a big impact on touchy subjects.