# Media overload
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/media-overload/81510
**Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
**Created:** [September 14, 2001, 2:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/media-overload/81510 "2001-09-14T02:00:24Z")
**Posts on this page:** 4
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@TroubleAgain](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TroubleAgain)
#### Post date: [September 14, 2001, 2:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/media-overload/81510/1 "2001-09-14T02:00:24Z")
Of course, we’ve all been watching the coverage of the WTC disaster. Many other stories that _would_ have been big news don’t even get a mention.
However, news stations here in Florida have to cover Tropical Storm Gabrielle as well. They’ve been doing that “split screen” thing with radar pictures and such on one side and news coverage of the WTC on the other. In a little banner scrolling across the bottom of the screen, there is a message about flood warnings, evacuation information and school closings.
Now with all of that to watch at one time, who can absorb it all? I called my mom to see if she knew schools were closed tomorrow and she hadn’t even seen the banner.
Is anyone else finding it difficult to process all the info that’s being thrown at us all at once?
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### Author:  [@TVeblen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TVeblen)
#### Post date: [September 14, 2001, 2:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/media-overload/81510/2 "2001-09-14T02:09:27Z")
I find it not only difficult but almost impossible. That could my personal fatigue/numbness, though. The scope and significance is probably the biggest factor, though. There’s just so damned much to know and it’s owerwhelming.
The world’s known plenty of huge, horrific events but maybe this is one’s unique in the streaming torrent of information about it.
Now all I have to do is figure out how to pick out the _best_ information in quantities I can acually process usefully.
Veb
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### Author:  [@TroubleAgain](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TroubleAgain)
#### Post date: [September 15, 2001, 12:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/media-overload/81510/3 "2001-09-15T12:41:29Z")
You’re right, Veb, it’s very necessary to try to sift through this for the useful stuff and not just let yourself be inundated with more than you can process. Especially all the sad, sad individual stories. They break my heart and there’s nothing concrete I can do for these people (other than the donation I made to Red Cross.)
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### Author:  [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)
#### Post date: [September 15, 2001, 2:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/media-overload/81510/4 "2001-09-15T14:21:33Z")
[I started a similar thread](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=87355), but the focus of it is that I think the Media should reduce coverage of what the government it doing to find the terrorist organizations behind this. People need the coverage so that they can “heal”, but we don’t want to tip our hand to the opposition.