Page 14 - January 2020 IIssue new year

The Spectrum of Death: Perspective on News Coverage

life-savings efforts and organizations. ity but also because media reporting
But by-and-large the advertising and does not mention such steps. B

marketing of those organizations goes to R
their products and services, to the im- Similarly, we likely face the miasma O
proved formulation of laundry detergent, (aka impenetrable fog) of government W

or the upcoming season’s fashion acces- budgets, and the counterpart budgets of A
sory, or the added feature on the newest corporations for development, and of R

electronic device. universities for research. What do we D
know about them? How effective are
Our own actions likely reflect the me- they? What and who determines their U

dia emphasis. We may have written our content and sets their funding? But these N
mayor in support of bullet-proof vests efforts are critical to life saving. Auto I

for our police officers. We may have safety programs, cancer cures, heart at- V
stocked food for disaster preparedness. tack preventions, drug rehab programs, E
We may sit in certain seats in a plane and dozens of other efforts depend on R

in case of a crash. We may have prayed and are run by government, corpora- S
for the lives of our fallen soldiers. We tions and universities. But we know, in I

have likely contributed food, or clothes, the general public, little about them, and T
or money, for disaster victims. We may thus about their efficiency and effective- Y
even have purchased a gun for protection ness.

from an armed robbery. 2
Media focus on terrorism provides in- 0

But I must say I have rarely thought sights into police effectiveness for se- 2
about, and likely many of us have simi- curity; lack of media focus on routine 0
larly not thought extensively about, the deaths results in minimal, if any, insight

adequacy of the suicide prevention pro- into budgets for important life saving
grams in the local schools. Nor have we programs in government, corporations

likely considered the trade-offs in giving and universities.
heart defibrillators to high risk individu-
als and associated training to relatives. I do not criticize here. Candidates should

Nor do most of us know whether a Con- discuss funding for police; media should
gressional committee has studied if other publicize agencies accepting donations

nations have better cancer prevention. for hurricane relief; corporations can be
We likely have done none of these in allowed to advertize their product. And
part because doing so involves complex- certainly our personal actions are legal

14