This is discussion archived from a time before the current discussion method was installed.
Morgan Wick: Okay, what, exactly, is this?
Seth: I think it is a trope about how shows can be topical with their scares based on what the press are trying to terrify us with right now. See Western Terrorists for a similar trope. Like the number of medical shows that had a patient with SARS a few years back Global Warming has been used as a panic button everywhere ect.
Programs using hot topic issues in their show to boost ratings. Now to my opinion i think Ripped from the Headlines and Western Terrorists covers this completely and this is a redundant trope.
Ununnilium: Yeah, I think the text of this should be merged with Ripped from the Headlines. I'll make an attempt... Later: Bah, I suck. I think it needs a rewrite to fully merge "current world issue in the newspapers" with "crime in the newspapers".
Mister Six: This is actually a pretty specific news trope that's kind of been messed up by people putting fictional TV shows in there. Certainly British media loves a good potentially fatal disease - ebola in the mid-90s, then measles, smallpox, SARS, chicken flu... I could do a good rewrite of this for the upcoming print media tropes category but I'll be on holiday for a few days. I'll update it in the middle of next week.
Kilyle: Heh heh... I'm teaching my 4-year-old nephew to say "Panic, everyone! Let's panic!" on cue. He's actually starting to do it on his own now, too. (It's a response to his family, which panics about far too much and can dissolve into tears over slight disappointments or, say, being late for an appointment or turning down the wrong street accidentally. That's the 9-year-olds (and their mom) panicking, while their little brother just wonders what's going on.)
Digital-Madness: I'm trying to decide if the second half of this is supposed to be an example of the trope, or just a political plug put in the wrong place. The part about State of Fear is included for some context:
"State Of Fear, as quoted, manages to make a good point about this despite being mostly an Author Tract about why Michael Crichton thought global warming was a sham.
- Breaking News! Playful Hackers have uncovered new evidence!! Welcome to Climate Gate!"
