Swine Flu Mass Hysteria

         I'm sure everyone reading this blog post remembers the 2009 Swine Flu paranoia. The media just used this topic to strike fear into people so they would buy their newspapers to read more. The newspaper article "Hundreds of Schools Closed from H1N1" causes parents to think, "If I send my child to school, then he or she will get the Swine Flu and possibly die!" At that time, people were so afraid of "being next" to get the Swine Flu. Reporters used sensationalism to make the problem seem much worse than it really was. 1. People get the flu every year and thousands of people die from the flu every year, not just during the year of the Swine Flu. 2. The flu virus is always changing, so every year there is a new strand of the flu going around. Just like in the Spanish-American War, reporters used emotions to get people to pay attention to and buy their newspapers. In the case of the Swine Flu, children and families were used to sway public opinion.