“There is evidence that fear of disaster or disease can bring about coronary heart disease, a weakened immune system, and psychological distress,” says James Dillard. “In the case of Zika, women of child-bearing age who are attentive to media coverage might be particularly vulnerable to the type of fear that can have health repercussions.”
Aedes aegypti , one of the transmitters Zika virus. Wikimedia Commons
Less than two years after the Ebola scare spread through the country, the threat of a Zika virus outbreak is starting to frighten Americans, according to a team of Penn State researchers.
Brains… Brains… Brains… Photo from the Raleigh Living Dead Festival in downtown Raleigh. Photo by Cindy Honickman – triangle.com
A bunch of the Penn State Research Communications team attended the National Association of Science Writers annual conference at Raleigh, N.C. last weekend.
Unfortunately, for me, it was an abbreviated conference. With Sandy bearing down on the East Coast and with me terrified of being stuck in the Detroit airport — no offense Motor City! – I decided to bug out early.
When I worked as a reporter there were two types of news: hard news and soft news.
The hard news reporters covered things that not only had immediate impact, but had numbers to back up the importance. These stories — crimes, disasters, accidents, fires, etc. — zoomed to the front page. The soft news reporters, who covered features and human interest beats, typically had their stories inserted into the inner reaches of the feature sections, or they waited patiently for the Sunday edition to get more exposure.
I won’t lie. Hard news reporters had a little more swagger in the newsroom.
