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 Swine flu. How the Daily Mail is loving this one.The Daily Mail has made swine flu their headline the last two days, and I fully expect them to complete a hatrick of headlines tomorrow. The First day asked whether swine flu was 'already here', within 24 hours today's front page assumes that swine flu is already here and the battle is now simply 'containing it' (as an aside, I sincerely love the Mail for putting a plug for its 'Good Health' section in the top right corner of the front page that uses the headline: 'SWINE FLU: NOW THE BATTLE TO CONTAIN IT').
Perhaps then, it is no wonder that some people - those that cannot think for themselves - have been whipped up into a bit of an apocalyptic frenzy. The Mail website has continued to crank up the scare stories, with numerous photos of masked Mexicans and stiff-upper-lip Brits returning from sunnier climes. The message seems to be: these people are bringing the swine flu in,and we're all going to die as a result. I guess it is just one more reason for Mailites to call for the borders of the UK to be closed. Yesterday I posted on how the Mail was lying about Barack Obama's supposed brush with Swine Flu (which they have now changed to try and cover up the lie - not successfully), today I'm just really trying to get my head around just how the Mail is reporting the overall swine flu scare. Luckily, I think I have found the story that sums up just how the Mail is reporting this event: Swine flu panic sweeps UK as public rushes to buy facemasks (but will they actually work?).
 This headline is a perfect example of how the Mail is reporting swine flu.
Firstly, it tries to appear quite neutral, it states 'Swine flu panic sweeps UK' in a way that implies that they have had nothing to do with inducing this panic, they are merely reporting on it. Using the word 'sweep' is important in achieving this effect. A weather front 'Sweeps' the UK, and a weather front is a natural phenomenon. The message here is clear: this panic is a natural phenomenon. Which is, of course, a lie when in fact this is the very panic they (and other tabloids) have been actively trying to induce. Secondly, it mentions 'facemasks' as this is becoming the iconic image of the swine flu outbreak. The reader has seen these masks and assumed that they are being worn as protection against the outbreak - they represent hope to the reader, perhaps even a kind of salvation in the face of the swine flu pandemic that the Mail has promised is coming. Remember, this is the Daily Mail, all hope has to be exterminated. This brings us to the brilliant parenthetic finale: (but will they actually work?). This question is designed to destroy the hopes of those that thought there might be a cheap and effective solution to dying. It is a classic Mail technique, phrase something as a question to create doubt in the reader's mind; sow the seeds from which a huge depression can grow. Furthermore, it can be assumed that those rushing out to buy masks will be readers scared shitless by the Mail's reporting of the event so far, so this headline is really talking to the reader who has managed to get hold of one. Roughly translated it is a clear message mocking that reader: 'So, DICKHEAD, you've rushed out and bought a facemask but you don't think that thing is actually going to save you, do you?' For me, this headline really sums up the way the Mail works: they act as if they are merely reporting what they have seen - as news - when really they are just playing on the fears of the reader and turning the screw with each new story. The swine flu panic has not swept naturally through the UK like a weather front, but it has instead been carefully orchestrated by the tabloid press. The press are not there to inform or comfort the reader with helpful advice, or accurate and responsible reporting; they are there to increase anxiety, root out any hope and dash it against the hood of the onrushing juggernaut of tabloid hysteria - and no face mask (unless it covers the eyes and ears) can save you from that. |
