Weird Media Trends

I've been noticing some weird media trends over the last several years. I'm sure you've seen them as well.

It'll be where one event happens, and over the next week to two weeks, several more similar events will happen.

For example: Maybe there's a string of violence in Israel. There's a string of earthquakes, sometimes just hours or days apart, that are very similar, but in completely different areas of the world. There's strings of school shootings. There's strings of anthrax or ricin scares. Even less conspiratorial, there's strings of similar archaeological findings, or strings of space related findings, or even strings of discoveries of mythical or thought to be extinct animals. There's strings of crimes, such as dog fighting.

The violence in Israel could be easily explained, but the point I'm making is, it always seems to happen, or at least seems to get reported, in strings.

School shootings could be copy cats. Same with the anthrax and ricin, but sometimes it happens in different spots on the same day. Certainly not enough time for copy cats.

Here in the last week there's been a discovery of a mythical whale, and discovery of a weasel and bird thought to be extinct for more than 80 years.

I'm not in any way yelling "CONSPIRACY!", so please do not go that route.

Is it fate? Is there just more to nature than we know, and this is how the Universe works?

I'm not religious by any means, but I wouldn't have a hard time believing that the Universe was set on some script of how it works.

Are these just media trends? Does one thing catch the news, and they pay attention to similar stories and report them more openly for a week or two?

Do people catch one story and just tend to, subconsciously, pay attention more, or have a heightened sense of awareness towards similar stories?

I don't know the reason, but I just thought it was interesting.

Just remember that the Earth is a pretty large place. Maybe you
are trying to read too much into this, but probably not. There are
so many things happening on our planet, that the odds of it happening
a lot are very good. I am not an expert on earthquakes by any means, but I would suspect there are probably a couple hundred of them
everyday somewhere on the planet. Most are so small that the average
person doesn't even realize they are happening.

The shootings that are going on in the US especially are most likely as
you stated, and that being they are done by copycats for whatever
macabre reason they have. So of course the media are going to jump
on it like a bee on honey, and they should. It is happening in other places
around the globe as well, so it is in the news all over. Wars and talk of
wars is a steady news item at the moment, so we are going to hear it
constantly from the media.

I just wish there was a steady stream of media revelations about the
UFO and Alien stuff that I believe is definitely going on, instead of
hearing about Britney Spears for weeks on end, or who had a breast
augmentation or who divorced who. The list goes on and on, so we are
all blasted with it constantly. I think it is just a sign of our times right now.

ZOOMER

reply to post by NovusOrdoMundi


I don't think you're imagining things. I do think there are explanations for a lot of the 'groups of news' that you mention.

Some of them are part of an ongoing 'tradition' that's been happening for years. "Suicide bomber kills ten, injures thirty in Tel Aviv" or "Israel launches air strikes against Hamas positions in Gaza" would be prime examples of this.

Some of them are, as you suggested, 'copy cat' acts. School shootings are, regrettably, part of this category.

Some are the product of increased attention. You may have read a story about a topic before. but until one of them catches your eye, you don't notice them. Once you start noticing them, it's hard to stop. You'll notice the same thing happening if / when you buy a car...suddenly, similar cars and similar colors are everywhere.

Some are the result of a 'herd' mentality that we all fall victim to. Let one person in an office catch the flu, and suddenly, every sniffle and sneeze is a biohazard. Let one envelope be found with anthrax / ricin / whatever in it, and suddenly, any dusty envelope is cause for alarm, even if the dust is paper dust from the postage equipment or the printer.

The strings of extinct animal stories are the result of slow news days (yes, this IS going to sound cynical)...stories about odd discoveries and findings come in all the time, and get stuffed into a file drawer...then, one day, there's no bloodshed to put in that empty spot, so the editors grab the file stories about the baby panda, the tiger cub, and that odd fellow in Ceylon who found an 'extinct' fish....

It's called: "Market-Share"


The media, whether electronic or print, world-wide, is in a constant competetion for viewer/readership.

When a story of a particular type catches the public's attention, market pressure to capture and hold that attention results in the various media seeking and publicizing similar occurances.

This continues until something more "interesting" comes along (or is "manufactured").


It is not so much a conspiracy as a rather sad commentary on, and exploition of, a very human foible.

Who can know?
The universe is a crazy place.
I reckon similar stuff just happens close to eachother.
Like you know when you have a bad day and everything bad just happens, like that.

From my point of view there can be several reasons for these trends.

* Media reporters and journalists seek information about a big subject and than stumble upon other related subjects and take them along in their articles or broadcasts

* A kind of mirror effect, where things create things alike. This sounds weird but action always gives a reaction. And the action following to that reaction can be similair to the original action.

* The power of thought. If a lot of people think about one subject; say earthquakes they maybe create more earthquakes. (Just a wild guess... no prove for this one)

reply to post by Brother Stormhammer


I like what you said with the 'herd' mentality. I think that's very possible. I guess it can be tied in to the heightened sense of alertness or awareness as well. Possibly paranoia?

It could be tied to anything, really. Maybe this has created some of the strings of UFO sightings. You hear about one popular one on mainstream media and all of a sudden people are seeing things they think are UFOs.

Very very possible.


reply to post by ambushrocks


I like those theories. Especially the last one. That's interesting.

The human mind is much more powerful than we even know.

I think its probably because they want to keep the story going for as long as possible to get ratings, so they bring up related stories and past stories that is relevant to the main story.

reply to post by Copernicus


Well, that could be true, but I sort of created a bad title. It's more than just whats reported in media. It's what actually happens.

Recently we had earthquakes in Iran and the UK on the same day and they were similar in magnitude. Were they really connected? Or did it just happen to be the same in completely different parts of the world?

We've had anthrax and ricin scares over the last few years. Sometimes they're discovered on the same day in completely different areas. Is someone really behind all of them? Or is there some sort of mass paranoia on the part of the people who find these suspected anthrax and ricin samples and lots of people just happen to get the same thoughts at the same time?

That's basically what I'm talking about. It was a bad title, but the media is involved because that's pretty much how everyone even knows about this stuff.

The real topic is: Are all of these things coincidence? Are they set up by someone? Or is there some other force at work here? Fate? Paranoia? Some other thing that the mind seems to create that we don't understand?

Very interesting thread.

I too have seen this 'trend', but can't really put my finger on what exactly it is. Duplicate stories/bad fact checking? Copycats? Maybe it is even some sort of 'synchronistic' events. I don't know. I think this also could be related to the 'meme' of repeatedly dying stars and personalities, as discussed here: The highest strangeness I've seen on the web.

If we actually were living in the Matrix, I would say that the Matrix had been 'resetting' itself.

I don't know. But it is pretty weird if you ask me.
DocMoreau

Originally posted by NovusOrdoMundi

I like those theories. Especially the last one. That's interesting.

The human mind is much more powerful than we even know.

Or the human mind, although powerful, is ultimately susceptible to powerful methods of suggestive thought.

Did it ever occur to you that the trends (or 'pattern') are actually in place as a method of extreme covert psychological brainwashing?

Twud' explain why some people hypothesize they can cause earthquakes.