Connecting my own life to Isabel Allende’s “And of Clay are We Created”, I feel like I can relate mostly to the pandemic. Covid-19 took all of us by surprise and there were no precautionary measures set until it was too late and like we always have, we panicked amid the pandemic, same thing happened in the story, they were aware of the volcanic eruption but underestimated it and suffered severe consequences. I came to New York for College, and everything was completely normal, the semester was going great, there were a few cases of Covid-19 so most of us were not taking it seriously at the time. But it spread so fast that within a week everything had to be shut down, I had to wrap everything up and go back to my family in Pakistan. Even in the story, everyone had to evacuate quickly, and many were not even able to evacuate and got stuck, same thing happened with flights as New York is so diverse, everyone wanted to go back to their country or to be there with their families. Everyone was panicking because in the start it did feel and look like the end of the World is upon us as there were so many cases and the death toll was rising fast. I didn’t even have time to take all my belongings with me but all I knew was that I needed to be with my family where I would feel safe being close to them. Even the media coverage was mainly about the number of cases and deaths and not about how many recoveries have been there, instead of giving us hope they were constantly spreading fear, I get that they had good reasons behind it but at the same time, there was enough panic as is. The politician, the government or other organizations assembled to react to pandemics like this one were not well prepared regardless of being informed well before everything hit rock bottom. There was no protocol set until the economic system of the world had all collapsed and everything had to be shut down, it could have been handled better, and some countries like New Zealand did handle it well. Media is good and bad for us at the same time, on one hand it keeps us aware of what’s happening now but at the same time it takes away hope and shows mostly the worst side of a story. It could have been a good tactic to keep people at home by frightening them through media outlets.
Zain, I’m interested in your suggestion that, during the pandemic, media coverage has served to frighten people rather than give them hope. Should journalists use their platforms to achieve public policy goals like getting people to stay home, wear masks, or be vaccinated? Or should they simply be recording what’s happening without any thought to how it might affect viewers? Is a truly neutral media even possible?