A few days ago Dr. Byron referred to me as SARS Czar of the blogosphere.
Naw. There are some bloggers doing a terrific job on covering this outbreak.
Let’s look at the trends the past few weeks.

American big media, 11 days into the Iraq war, are beginning to see that their audience is becoming saturated regarding events that are going to take time to unfold in Iraq.

Media outlets are starting to devote resources to other issues, such as the SARS virus and the affirmative action case in front of the Supreme Court. Web sites are seeing traffic drop off sharply from the highs at the war’s start. On the morning TV shows, lighter chitchat is replacing gung-ho war coverage. Tuesday, Mr. Lauer’s partner, Katie Couric, asked movie star Colin Farrell if he has dated Britney Spears (he dodged the question). Over at ABC’s “Good Morning America,” there was a segment on the making of Jennifer Lopez’s new music video.

Part of the reality is the business of news and its bottom line. War coverage is expensive, and there is only so much in a budget for satellite time and ad free coverage.

But commercials are now starting to reappear. Fox News said it is airing about 50% of the commercials it would normally run, up from 20% during the first 10 days of war coverage. CNN also is now airing about half the spots it did before the conflict.

And in the media sector of the internet, war search traffic is dropping.

Traffic at news-related Web sites has fallen across the board after spiking in the war’s early days. U.S. visitors to MSNBC’s Web site (www.msnbc.com) topped 5.6 million March 20 but fell to 3.1 million on March 31, according to comScore Media Metrix. CNN.com (www.cnn.com) peaked at 5.9 million on the same day as MSNBC and was down to 2.8 million Monday. Officials for both sites said their traffic is still running above prewar levels.

Even bloggers such Instapundit are seeing a war coverage saturation point.

…..one of the Internet’s most visited Web logs, saw visits per day soar to around 170,000 at the beginning of the war, only to fall off steadily. On March 31, the site saw some 90,000 visitors. “Because there isn’t a lot of news, people are actually tuning out until there is,” said Glenn Reynolds, who maintains the site.

Still, war blogs are getting steady attention from a small but growing audience. This Cyper-Journalist article on the American information consumer is chock full of goodies, including my prediction that more blogs would be found by new readers.

So why did I title this post SARS Incoming?
Big media has to cover something. With almost wall to wall coverage of the Iraq war, attention will turn to ‘pestilience’ which has been covered extensively in most of the rest of the world.
Let’s face it, the four big horsemen (war, disease, famine, death) get the headlines.
If it bleds or shocks, it leads.

I predict much of US media coverage of SARS will be hyper, over the top or dismissive. Why? Hype sells.
The information consumer doesn’t want to hear the realities of what isn’t known. Information junkies (media included) pride themselves on knowing, information is a personal commodity in many ways.
Fear will increase as a result. (see the sidebar for solid information on SARS coverage here at Bene Diction Blogs On since March 16th.)

So, no one should be surprised that fair amount of misinformation and rumours about SARS will be coming out more and more in big media.
There already has been because ‘unknown’ isn’t acceptable.
Just as every war rumour has been jumped on, so will rumours about Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome.
I was stunned to see that according to the Pew Internet & American Life Project Iraq war survey, March 20-25, 2003, that 87 to 89% of Americans got their main Iraq war coverage from TV.
One media source? Garbage in garbage out.
Internet users looking for news increased for the most of last month from about 24% up to 37%.

The report found that Web blogs are starting to surface as a regular information source among a small number of Internet users, but they are not yet a source of news and commentary for the majority of Internet users. About 4 pecent of online Americans report going to blogs for information and opinions.

However, the report says, “the overall number of blog users is so small that it is not possible to draw statistically meaningful conclusions about who uses blogs. The early data suggest that the most active Internet users, especially those with broadband connections are the most likely to have found blogs they like. In addition, blogs seem to be catching on with younger Internet users - those under age 30 - at a greater pace than with older Internet users.”

TV is visual. TV will rely on pictures of people wearing face masks, distorting realities and raising fear. Talk radio will run away with uninformed opinions.
So will some sites on the internet.
This one is showing this trend. It is over confident, and a bit dismissive that so much isn’t known.

There are three blogs I do recommend that are balanced and showing common sense. This one out of San Francisco is informed and is proceeding with balance with respect for the unknowns.
Irene Q is also sticking to knowns and unknowns.(blogger archive bug - April 1-2-3 posts)
Ian’s Messy Desk from Canada has been doing an excellent job linking to balanced, pertinent, and breaking stories from around the world on SARS.
These bloggers are all SARS Czars of the Blogosphere, for the war against this virus will also be on going for awhile.

Update: FuturePundit is also covering this virus, and is able to explain the microbiology of the possible coronavirus. If you are interested in the scientific breakdowns New Scientist has the latest.
Link via Instapundit

Only relying on one news source, be it TV, radio, papers, magazines, or internet is not a healthy diet of information consumption.
I know my readers know that.

I’ll do a SARS update today, and recommend that as US big media grabs onto the SARS story, watch for hype and unbalance.
Get yourself informed, by using as many resources as possible.