A View Point

Just as H1N1 started taking its toll, the media frenzy has created a panic. Why is Swine flu such a big deal? Let’s see.

Swine Flu is highly contagious; a person can catch it with just a sneeze from another. A person, who is not infected with H1N1, can still be a carrier of the same. If not treated, before a certain spread in the body, it’s a quick killer. In order to, spread awareness so as to contain the disease, the media has been a potent weapon - Hats Off to it.

But, what lies on the surface is not always the only reason. So let’s remove the dust and try to dig inside. We all love to accuse the media of over hyping things by sensationalizing them; hence we can say the media played on the commercial value of such news. But has it not been of any help?

The media, and by that I don’t mean newspaper or TV channels only but also SMS’s, emails, blogs etc, have spread a sense of urgency for understanding the disease. We can just GOOGLE H1N1 or Swine flu and with in seconds we get a list of thousand sites to read from. Every site will tell us about the origin of the disease, have a list of symptoms, tell us how to avoid it and give a list of possible treatments in the face of this large looming threat. All this has surely helped everyone (people - with precautionary steps & media - with money). And I am not taking any sides today. Everything which has advantages comes with its set of disadvantages too, be it an allopath medicine or a building military weapon. But I will be putting forward a few observations I have made this free time of mine.

A day before, I got a couple of SMS’s and mails, regarding Swine flu. I would like to pick up two very interesting examples each from a different medium. First the SMS which said “Read this prayer twice a day to avoid Swine flu”. A simple and beautiful gesture showing that someone cares. The message must have been passed by people to their friends, family and loved one. But, while reading this message, I found it had a very strong religious bias (which I’ll not mention). This shows how, the person who started this message, would not stop to take advantage of even such a situation. The other was an e-mail, it said “Important Unpublicized preventive steps reg H1N1 – from a doctor”. Very conveniently he writes that the media hype is about use of N95 masks as tools to prevent Swine flu. And then he assumes the position of Baba Ramdev and says because “A friend wants me to write down briefly what advice I have for people. Hence the email” Some of the advice he has given are simple to adhere and might be effective as daily practices. Wash hands frequently, gargle twice a day with salt water, clear nostrils with warm liquid and drink warm liquids as much as possible. Finally he says these all are less painful than to wait in long queues outside public hospitals and ends satirically, saying “Happy Breathing”. Now, it cannot be verified if he/she is a real doctor or any x-y-z collecting information and sending emails, which are in-turn being forwarded as chain mails with titles such as “Nice precautionary steps” etc. Hence, repercussions could be many. I don’t want to make any value judgments here either. What I want to stress here is that media is a means of disseminating information, whether true or false is for everyone to decide, and not follow blindly.

Finally, we never see media make hype about TB, which kills about 2 million people a year across the globe, or heart disease which is the highest killer according to 2001-03 survey. Never will there be a hype about the lack of basic amenities to people. Not undermining their efforts to spread awareness about Swine, I am still pained by the kind of neglect shown to bigger threats which have stayed on for decades together. When they can create a revolution then why don't they? At this point a thing comes to my mind, is it because the media belives to server certain sections of the society. The upper class can afford treatment of TB and Heart disease and hardly anyone who gets treatment for them dies. This leaves, the poor and the down trodden to face such threats alone.

Swine flu is a novel disease and the upper class is terrified. The debate is similar to “Why was Mumbai Terror Attack of 26/11” made such a big hype, while about the same time the “Attacks in Assam killing almost the same number of humans” neglected and made a small 4x4 news in the side realms of news papers. In Mumbai, the upper class got hurt and hence the frenzy (this doesn’t go to say there shouldn’t have been an uproar). I am not again the upper class or anyone, as someone might accuse me of, but I as a media student I am pained by the branding of certain sections/classes as children of a lesser God.

Swine was carried from other countries to our by the air-travellers and has become a threat to the whole country. With SARS also such frenzy was visible. Let’s hope Swine meets the same fate and disappears from the face of the earth and so does the bias (towards or against).

* Media is the plural for medium. It is important to understand that media is not only the TV Channels and Newspapers; it’s a much more omnipresent phenomenon. SMS’s, e-mails, blogs etc also attribute to media.