In politics, you’re either on-message or you’re losing. Let’s get to it.
Welcome to On Message, a weekly look at where the battle lines are drawn and who is winning the war of words.
This week… Headlines Matter.
After taking much of the summer off to give the drought the spotlight, COVID-19 is once again a dominant force in the hourly news cycle.
The term “Pandemic of unvaccinated” has taken hold and many people are back to checking the COVID numbers in the headlines every day.
And that’s where I think we need to see some improvement.
We need the important numbers in the headlines and we need media consumers to be smarter about the terms we are reading.
Since the beginning of the inverted pyramid style of journalism, which assumes few readers will make it through an entire article so put the most important stuff first – nothing has been more essential than getting the headline right.
And that’s even more true today as attention spans have shrunk to the size of a tweet or a TikTok.
Take a look at KSL.com‘s headline from August 2nd. It shows the number of cases, deaths and vaccinations. That’s the same information that’s been included since the vaccine became available. But does that convey the most important information?
If this is truly a “pandemic of the unvaccinated,” then shouldn’t the headline give us some indication of how many new cases and/or deaths were unvaccinated people?
If not the headline, then surely the lede should have that information. But it doesn’t.
Total case numbers matter, of course, but pointing out the number of people getting sick, being hospitalized and even dying who have chosen not to be vaccinated – that’s the story we should be telling.
Another storyline developing related to COVID deals with kids going back to school in less than three weeks’ time.
The media is harping on Utah’s prohibition of statewide mask mandates, causing Speaker Brad Wilson to issue a statement earlier this week reminding media outlets that local governments and health departments, “retain the flexibility to address new developments with the virus, including instating mask usage.”
Also, many stories will address the number of children who contract COVID, while glossing over the fact that kids are usually asymptomatic and rarely end up in the hospital unless they have other comorbidities.
Now, health officials will say students who go to school without masks will spread COVID and the Delta variant, which they take home, putting adults at risk. And I’m sure that’s true.
But, those adults would overwhelmingly be the same ones who have chosen not to get the vaccine that has been readily available for at least five months.
I admit I am not an infectious disease expert. I am just a guy who has had COVID, had the vaccine and had my family vaccinated. I’m on the side of science here.
I can also appreciate how difficult it is to manage a message like this. There’s plenty of misinformation on the anti-vax side but some of the narrative is aimed at scaring those who have done their part.
If the objective is really to get the unvaccinated vaccinated, stick to the numbers that will make it clearer and clearer that vaccinated people are much safer, while those who decline vaccines are putting themselves at a higher risk.
Simplest message wins.
That’s it for this week.
More On Message in the next issue of the Utah Political Underground.
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