Ebola has been mentioned all over the
news and social media. It has become a problem not only for health
reasons but also for mental reasons, the mental reasons that language
causes. Our country is terrified of this disease, Why? Because of the
many ways that the media portrays it. The media comes out with many
different ways to grab someones attention to read or listen to their
articles about the situation that occurs. In this case, the situation
is Ebola. There have been several different ways Ebola has been
mentioned throughout social media.
The language some of these articles
use scare their readers. SCGNews starts their article with, “The
information I'm about to present here is frightening. There's really
no way around that. However, I request that you do your very best to
maintain a calm state of mind”. This is the perfect language to use
to grab the attention of a reader. If you scare them they will want
to learn more to understand what they are scared of. This is
uncertainty. If a person is uncertain about something they are not
happy. They want the issue to be fixed in any way possible.
A second article, written by Carol
Brown, starts off saying, “With daily headlines featuring the world
'Ebola,' fear is in the air; along with confusion. Many Americans are
worried about Ebola spreading and becoming a serious threat”. Brown
is talking about the same issue that SCGNews, but she uses language
differently than SCGNews does. Brown is more calm and not as
threataning as SCGNews is. She takes into consideration what her
readers are interested in. They want the facts, but they do not want
to be terrified of what they are reading. This may not occur with all
readers, but this is how I see the difference.
Lastly, a third article from
topinfopost.com, starts their article with, “All the disinformation
being spread about Ebola by the U.S. Government and the complicit
mass media will unfortunately make the Ebola pandemic far worse”.
This article is my favorite. I like how they are very mellow about
the Ebola situation. They do not scare the public with rumors and
fabricated tales about Ebola. They are calm and are giving their
facts. They think Ebola is being blown out of porportion and honestly
I agree with them.
After reading these three articles,
the language used throughout them all is different yet the same. Each
article is concerned about Ebola but it is in different ways. The
first article is a huge 'Warning! Warning!' sign, the second article
is a 'be scared but its okay' sign, and the final article is an
'Ebola is not that big of a deal in the U.S.' sign. They all speak
the same language but depict it in different ways.
Citation:
Brown,
C. (2014, October 14). Articles: Ebola: Truth, Lies, Human Error, and
Common Sense. Retrieved October 14, 2014.
DNA.
The five biggest lies about Ebola being pushed by government and mass
media. (2014, October 12). Retrieved October 15, 2014.
SCGNews.
Ebola - What You're Not Being Told [UPDATED October 13th]. (2014,
July 31). Retrieved October 14, 2014.
