Swine Flu

Swine Flu, what an "epidemic". When we discussed it in class on Monday we discussed the media coverage and the presidents address to the public, and how they renamed it H1N1 or whatever, but yet the media still calls it the Swine Flu. Why is it that the media is still using the name Swine Flu? Is it because the public already associates with Swine Flu? Renaming the flu is a great way for people to stop associating the flu with pigs and pork like products, and i am sure there are people out there that are doing just that. But, being it is so late in the game, how can you rename something that is already out in the open as something else? 

On to a different way to look at the Swine Flu, the media coverage. It seems as if there is nothing else that is going on in the world, but the swine flu. The media is taking something that should not be as fearful as terrorist attacks, and making it seem as if who ever comes in contact with it will die.  The first person to have died from the flu, was televised on every station, online feed, and made into a huge ordeal. Why is it that something like a different, or unfamiliar strand of the flu makes people panic? over 36,000 people die from the regular flu each year, why not make that a big deal? Why not televise the first persons death from the regular flu? It is amazing how media replay the epidemics, disasters, or terrorist attacks over and over making it a disaster marathon. The worst part is people like to watch disaster marathons, that is another puzzling conclusion. Why put yourself through that torture? It is torture inflicted by the media, and people torture themselves by watching it.  I guess that is why, in class, we discussed media, and then went on to talk about torture. They go hand in hand.