My topic for the semester: epidemics (week 3)

I've always been fascinated with epidemics. When I was about 13 I read Richard Preston's "The Hot Zone" one Sunday afternoon. I couldn't put the book down and then asked my dad if we could watch Outbreak (a Hollywood film about an outbreak in the U.S.). It starred Dustin Hoffman and included a romantic plotline, which, on a side note, I remember thinking was completely beside the point (ha - prepubescent self!).

I'm not entirely sure I actually know or can identify the reason I'm so drawn to this topic, but I think it has something to do with health, teamwork and behavior change.

I'm looking forward to analyzing news coverage of epidemics. Seems like my best bet this semester will be coverage of Ebola, but I'm also going to look for flu coverage and other contagious outbreaks. Last summer and fall, I read every article, viewed every infographic and watched every video the New York Times produced on Ebola. So, I think I have pretty good context of that one media outlet. The problem is that I didn't really view coverage from anyone else. So, I'm going to need to widen the scope and see if I can watch some news coverage, listen to some radio shows and look at other news websites. It's a good challenge and will definitely help me get a better sense of the range of coverage.

Reminder to self, focus on: frequency, framing, word choice, social response and my reaction to the coverage.