Weekly Analysis

Twitter is one of the many social networking sites that allow people to keep abreast of everything they didn't need to know. Now don't get me wrong, there can be substantial information posted on Twitter. It is a quick way to update the world on a matter by supplying your brief thoughts, allowing people to view and comment on them. Recently a poll was conducted on Twitter in regards to the reaction of the public towards the Swine Flu (Cole, 2009).

Swine Flu, also known as the H1N1 virus, has potential to cause great risk to many people. It's an issue that has been popular in the media through the urging of the government and health officials, in order to make people aware of its potential harm. The Twitter poll found that people may have been bombarded with too much false information in the beginning of the outbreak. There is a warning that Swine Flu could come back with a vengeance this fall, but since the public thought health officials overreacted before they may not take heed to the warning (Cole, 2009).

With the overflow of media via technology available to us at any given point, we as Americans can be on top of breaking news at a breakneck speed. Have we become insensitive to the content of the stories we are hearing because of the repetitive nature at which we are exposed to them? By the time one finishes their morning coffee; they could have seen a story about the Swine Flu in the daily newspaper, as a message on their smart phone, through an email on the computer, and as a lead story on the news channel. Hopefully, officials will effectively communicate with the public the importance of preventative measures that need to be taken for the Swine Flu before the masses have turned a blind eye.

References

Cole, R., (May 24, 2009) Twitter trackers follow public reaction to swine flu; Los Angeles

Times. Retrieved August 22, 2009.