Sign in or register
for additional privileges

Injecting Racist Hysteria

How Media Coverage of the 2009 H1N1 (Swine Flu) Virus Raises Questions about Border Security, NAFTA, and Mexican Representation in U.S Culture

Vincent Q Pham, Author

You appear to be using an older verion of Internet Explorer. For the best experience please upgrade your IE version or switch to a another web browser.

Sensationalized Media: Stirring Up Racial Fear and Blame


We begin this section with a compilation of clips that highlight the media blaming the Mexican immigrants for the case of swine flu in the the United States. While an alert media is essential to informing the public, the 24/7 new cycle that is attached this 21st century life reveals the problem of having news being broadcast all day. With so many hours of reporting to fill for the sake of sustaining viewer interest and advertising revenues, the opportunity to report inaccurate information or focus public attention on narrow talking points demonstrates the danger that media outlets can play in perpetuating traditional outbreak narratives that focus on geographies and populations of blame. 

In an opinion piece, editor of Alternet Joshua Holland addresses how conservative radio hosts like Michelle Malkin and Michael Savage have cited the US’s so-called “open-door policy” towards towards migrants from Mexico as the cause of the swine flu outbreak's appearance in North America. For example, Malkin is cited stating the following: "I've blogged for years about the spread of contagious diseases from around the world into the U.S. as a result of uncontrolled immigration." However, as Holland points out, the idea of the US being an open door is a myth in itself. He reveals how “the number of dollars we spend on policing the border has skyrockted during the past 15 years, with little impact on the undocumented population. The reality is that the federal government, at great expense to taxpayers, prosecutes more people for immigration violations than for any other offense -- they now represent more than half of all federal prosecutions.” Through the information Holland provides, it is clear that he is trying to figure the negative discourse around Mexican immigration as an opportunity for the public to scapegoat some identifiable figure for the “abject failure of the same enforcement-heavy approach to immigration control that restrictionists prefer to make a major dent in the undocumented population.” 

Next we have a video of another media outlet devoting coverage to criticizing the blaming of Mexican immigrants for the swine flu. From this video, we can tell that the immigration debate has become a symptom of the swine flu outbreak. 



One of the most striking points in the video is the statement issued by Democratic strategist Benard Whitman, who states that the reports of swine flu outbreaks in the U.S were actually people who came back from vacationing in Mexico, not the immigrants themselves. Author and anti-racist Tim Wise also commented on this siutation too, especially since Wise could not find any news reports that actually confirmed that the swine flu was brought into the United States by undocumented immigrants. As a result, Wise argues that the rush to scapegoat immigrants for swine flu is a way to manipulate the public from the actual source of the problem. He states that "If you can make the average American think their economic troubles are the fault of those who are ethnically and culturally different from themselves, and if you can make them believe that now their very survival is imperiled by these dangerous dark-skinned others, then you can control them, politically speaking."

Wise continues on the significance about being able to have an easy, traditional scapegoat in outbreak narratives because this results in the prevention of "identifying the real culprits... a global economy that depends on cheap labor and cares not a whit for the human costs of markets and bursting bubbles; an economic order beholden to large industry... in which order the search for profits crowds out the concern that might otherwise manifest for the health consequences of raising pigs in crowded, fetid pens until time for slaughter."

However, not all the negative media coverage about swine flu revolves around racism and prejudice. Some are just deliberately concentrated on presenting fearful messages. Newspapers did their part with big headlines. “Flu Fears Spur Global Triage,” said the Wall Street Journal. “Nation braces for worst as new strain emerges,” said USA Today. “U.S. Steps Up Alert as More Swine Flu Is Found,” said The Washington Post. The New York Post went with “HOG WILD,” complete with a photo of a pig.  In response to such media strategies,   Mark Feldstein, a former correspondent for NBC, ABC and CNN who teaches journalism at George Washington University in Washington, D.C. stated that “Of course we’re doing too much to scare people...Cable news has 24 hours to fill, and there isn’t 24 hours of exciting news going on. If you scare people, they'll tune in more." From this statement, we recognize that not only does media portray disease outbreak in a manner that marginalizes specific peoples, but there is also an economic benefit to motivate and sustain this type of coverage. 

The consequences of inaccurate media reporting are real.  In an editorial for the New York Times, Jim Dwyer recalls how he interviewed people who openly declared their fears of Mexican people because of the possibility that they might have swine flu. Additionally, he also shows how the vice president Joe Biden fell prey to the anxieties of disease outbreak, who said he’d advise his own family to stay off airplanes and subways in response to a toddler in Texas who was reported to have died from swine flu. As Dwyer argues “Just because one problem may turn out to be less dangerous than others — so far, no more than 25 people are confirmed as having died in Mexico [as of May 1st 2009] from the swine flu, compared with more than 6,000 killed by drug violence in that country last year — does not undercut the genius of modern public health surveillance, which quickly recognizes changes in the course of an illness.”


Dwyer recognizes the fact that part of the reason why Biden voiced such an ignorant statement is because of how quickly the alarm and fear can be generated and passed on. Not only does it travel faster ahead than facts, but the fear of disease and its responses of social distancing and blaming other groups can arguably be spread faster than the disease itself. To further put this into perspective, Dwyer cites how “So far this year, about 13,000 people have died from ordinary, garden-variety flu in the United States, about four people every hour, every day.” The big difference between swine flu and ordinary flu is that there is no news machine that is incentivized to keep devoting attention to that particular strain, especially when something scary like a pandemic could be discussed instead. However, we must ask once again, what are the consequences of this portrayal? Who benefits, and more importantly, who suffers because of this narrative?

Discussion Questions 

  1. Take a look at this mapping of the swine flu outbreaks around the world, docuemnted by BBC (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/8083179.stm). Upon looking at it, what are some of your immediate reactions? Are the infected and death totals higher or lower than the media projections? Are they higher or lower than your own conceptualization of the outbreaks?
  2. Compare how these two articles present their work http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/04/27/edgar-hernandez-hernandez_n_192011.html and http://www.theguardian.com/world/2009/apr/27/swine-flu-search-outbreak-source What are the differences, even though they are the same stories? For example, check the comments on the Huff Post Blog post due to title and blog. How would it be different if provided to whole thing like Guardian? How does this relate to the topic of media representation? 
  3. When thinking about Mark Feldstein's comments about media, can you think of any other recent examples in which the media operated in a way similar to how they covered the swine flu outbreak? 
Additional Resources
Jon Stewart of the Daily Show criticizing the media hype and fear mongering over the swine flu coverage: http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/mon-april-27-2009/snoutbreak--09---the-last-100-days

CNN's MarkFeldstein's interview explaining why media outlets are compelled to over-report the swine flu crisis: http://mediamatters.org/video/2009/05/03/former-cnn-reporter-mark-feldstein-on-swine-flu/149781

Works Cited

Dwyer, Jim. "Symptoms of Ignorance and Bigotry." Editorial. The New York Times 1 May 2009: n. pag. Nytimes.com. The New York Times, 1 May 2009. Web. 25 July 2013. <http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/02/nyregion/02about.html?_r=0>.

Holland, Joshua. "Michelle Malkin and Michael Savage Use Swine Flu Crisis to Peddle Their Xenophobia." Alternet. Alternet, 28 Apr. 2009. Web. 13 July 2013 <http://www.alternet.org/story/138859/michelle_malkin_and_michael_savage_use_swine_flu_crisis_to_peddle_their_xenophobia  page=0,1>.

Wise, Tim. "Of Swine and Scapegoats: Reflections on Racism and Right-Wing Nuttery." Tim Wise RSS. Tim Wise, 4 May 2009. Web. 29 July 2013. <http://www.timwise.org/2009/05/of-swine-and-scapegoats-reflections-on-racism-and-right-wing-nuttery/>.

Comment on this page
 

Discussion of "Sensationalized Media: Stirring Up Racial Fear and Blame"

Add your voice to this discussion.

Checking your signed in status ...

Previous page on path Race, Not Symptoms: A Historical Analysis of Conceptualizing Mexico as the "Diseased Carrier", page 2 of 2 Path end, return home