COVID-19 And The Rise Of Yellow Journalism

The exploitation of COVID-19 has served as a monstrous launchpad for the burgeoning effects of yellow journalism, allowing the world’s profit-driven mainstream media to go ballistic by gravitating toward any content the industry might be able to inflate around the killer disease. Not since the four [4] international pandemics preceding COVID-19 (i.e., the 2009 H1N1 virus—SWINE flu, the 1968 H3N2 virus—HONG KONG flu, the 1957–1958 H2N2 virus—ASIAN flu, and the 1918 H1N1 virus—SPANISH flu) has the media taken such an overzealous approach to exploiting an infectious disease.

Any rational human being might ask themselves: Who and what are behind the perceived accuracy of the coronavirus numbers? Can the world’s citizenry trust the media and its COVID-19 math? More importantly, is the world’s media capable of policing itself by not allowing itself to become a COVID-19 profiteer using the instrument of yellow journalism? I’m willing to bet that if profit was no longer an option, which has primarily been the source of motivation for the enormous influx of news coverage around COVID-19, then the world might realize a mainstream media with an entirely different temperament toward covering COVID-19.

This may also interest you: “Pandemic Profiteers (The business of anti-vaxx)”