Katie Iverson wrote an article for her blog about a fake invasion of the country Georgia. Russia invaded Georgia in August 2008. A news station in Georgia decided that they were going to ‘test’ out a simulation to see what would happen if Georgia was invaded again. However, civilians in Georgia were not informed that the broadcast was fake and they assumed that Russia really had invaded their country and shot their president and who knows what else. One witness reported that people were “running around in the streets saying ‘what happened? What happened?’” This false broadcast sent people into a panic.
Katie then said that they should not have broadcast the story if it wasn’t real because it caused people to panic. “This was very cruel, misleading, and not smart to put on TV.” I agree with Katie and would also like to add… What was the point of the broadcast? What good did it do to air something like this?I think that educating the people of Georgia about what to do if their country is invaded is a very smart idea. News people could talk to experts and ask them something like “If Georgia is invaded by Russia what should we do?” They should not, should not air a fake broadcast. It does not accomplish anything but cause people to panic. I guess I just don’t understand why this technique was used because it doesn’t make any sense.
News broadcasts should always, always, always tell the truth about a situation or be punished for misleading the public. This sort of thing should not happen because if Georgia actually was invaded now, I’m not sure if the people would believe the new reporters. They cried wolf and now no one will listen.
Article Sources:
http://katieireneiverson.blogspot.com/
http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/world/2010/03/14/watson.georgia.invasion.hoax.cnn?iref=allsearch
Picture Source:
http://www.timeoutsingapore.com/competitions/the-boy-who-cried-wolf
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