In its latest incarnation (that of ‘media frenzy’), swine flu has been with us now for something approaching a week .
(There’s also some debate as to whether swine flu has been with us at Van for a something approaching a week since a member of the team got back from his holiday. We’re erring on the side of a nasty cold.)
The BBC site has done an admirable job in giving us all the information we could ever possibly need on the topic, with an ‘in-depth’ section devoted to advice, Q&As, maps, history, timelines and pictures, as well as fetching diagrams of the virus in various forms.
Of course, for the hard-working journalists out there, it’s tricky to keep people’s interest in one story for such a long time – even for something as potentially apocalyptic as swine flu. It won’t do merely to chronicle events; a new angle is needed. Either that, or there are some alarmingly covetous journalists, begrudging their health writer colleagues’ days in the sun, for a quick glance round Google shows that the story has been covered in myriad categories.
The education writers tell of how parents at a Devon school, closed to stop the spread of the infection, were “frustrated” to learn of the news via a statement from Gordon Brown.
In the States, the technology correspondents are tutting at “Twitter’s role in facilitating an unnecessary global panic”.
Clearly not one to knowingly underestimate the severity of a situation, the writer goes on to say that “it’s only a matter of time before that the next generation of cyber-terrorists — those who are smart about social media, are familiar with modern information flows, and are knowledgeable about human networks — take advantage of the escalating fears over the next epidemic and pollute the networked public sphere with scares that would essentially paralyze the global economy.” Cheery stuff.
Thankfully, the tech people on our side of the pond have taken a slightly subtler line, warning against opportunistic spammers using the subject of swine flu in spam mails to infect people’s computers.
Even the foodies are getting in on the act – Alex Renton at The Times makes the case for organic food, highlighting the theory that swine flu evolved on intensive pig farms.
And, of course, no self-respecting news outlet would let such a story pass by without finding the sleb angle: in the midst of mutating viruses and a potential pandemic, The Daily Star brings us the crucial news that two ex-Big Brother contestants are undergoing tests after holidaying in Mexico under the headline “BB Babes Pig Flu Terror”.
Looks like our poorly colleague is in illustrious company indeed…
