In times of crisis, -- wars, revolutions, natural (Katrina) or man-made disasters (9/11 Twin Towers attack) -- many people inhale great gulps of news, information, images and commentary, often across multiple media platforms, in sequence or simultaneously, depending on age, digital dexterity and work schedule.
Others swing the other direction entirely, and avoid coverage like the plague (you should pardon the expression).
How these media types consume these foods for worry, thought, action or social or anxiety-reducing conversation, runs a wide spectrum.
There are at least a handful of crisis media user types across the range of media platforms including TV viewers, print readers, listeners or Internet surfers of video, bites, clips and tweets:
a) bulimics, ones for whom all life stops and attention narrows down to "the crisis"). They epitomize the crisis-as-theater-or-entertainment Type. News is taken intravenously, like electronic nourishment.
b) abusers listen/watch/surf at work. The crisis interferes with but doesn't stop their lives. Compared with others, they're well informed, but they just never feel quite on top of it.
c) peek-a-boo snackers check in every hour on the hour from their daily schedule. They're the true information gatherers. They like to know what's unfolding but have no need for redundant input. They just need to know if there were any crucial happenings, any game-changers since the last brief repast.
d) "sensible" diners partake in meals several times during the day CNN in morning, radio news headlines at lunch, nightly news, in the evening and, finally, longer analysis that "puts things in perspective" with the morning national or metropolitan newspaper or weekly news magazine.
e) Me-Heads: "What crisis? Where? Where! Forget it. If it doesn't concern me, it doesn't matter."
f) anorexics They avoid all crisis news, hunker down and drill deeper into normal life-distractions --"where the hell are my Soaps [or the Jets-Steelers game]?
Finally, there's the special type
g) -- The Skin Gamers, those who have loved ones over there, in the crisis zone, or those with nationalistic yearnings or concerns, political ambitions or responsibilities hinging on unfolding and outcomes.
When the crisis resolves or becomes "less critical" or is pushed aside by a new crisis, people reset their appetite alarms and await the next news banquet or time of self-imposed famine.
As the world gets smaller or flatter or more village-like, and with the further advances in communications technology, we may find that crises emerge hourly, daily, or weekly and perhaps we will see the emergence of the diagnosis CAD--Crisis Attention Disorder.
Fortunately, licensed media therapists will have been trained in sufficient numbers to handle the ever-expanding caseloads, the costs of which, thankfully, will be covered by our national single-payer health plan, the "real deal" Obamacare.
Media psychologists, the future is ours!
