Cross Talk: Season Four, Episode Nine

"On Covid-19 in the News".  From March 12, 2020.  One could make the case that "everything changed" in the 24 hours connecting March 11th and 12th. Professional sports, concerts, public events, even tv talk shows started disappearing in the hours after the World Health Organization started describing the Covid-19 corona virus spread as a pandemic.  Radio must remain and keep on doing what it does; we need that sense of carrying on.  In this episode, a thumbnail sketch of some aspects of news coverage on radio and the atmosphere that had been created around coverage in North America by the actions of the U-S president.  And some questions about news coverage in Canada -- including, why are broadcasters not reporting the federal health minister expects up to 70 per cent of the population could become infected? How did the national wire service not see that as a major development in the story? Makes fair dealing use of bits of broadcast audio from CFTR 680News, Newstalk1010 CFRB, BBC World Service, CBC Radio One.

Radio:  Keep on doing what Radio does best.  Students of Radio: Listen up! This is a unique opportunity to really examine what radio does in times of crisis.