This week, I’m throwing out a question to the forums based on this premise: How long would it take you to take a major threat seriously, if you even did? While I was working on one of the outbreak stories found in the game, I started thinking about just how easy it is to tune out news or how stubborn people can be to accept news that challenges routine. For example, when hurricanes hit, in cases where there is a 100% chance of it hitting a certain area, there are always reporters out asking people when they plan to evacuate, and more than one will claim they are going to “ride out the storm.”
There are multiple ways for someone to be surrounded by information and never actually know what is going on in their immediate area right now. There is criticism of the media for being too sensationalist and media that tailors its “news” to fit the worldview of their viewers, and as a result people that have either tuned out or don’t believe a word of it. There are times when something as minor as not looking at a weather report can get you stranded in the middle of a blizzard. When a major disaster hits, how many people will know about it, and how many people will actually take it seriously?
