If you want to “listen to the experts”, listen to me.

I’m an expert in narrative & there is 100% a media narrative re: COVID.

Narrative is storytelling & it’s different than journalism. Journalism informs, sans judgement.

Pull up latest headlines. Look for the adverbs..1/5

... Look for the emotional triggers: the pleas to fear & virtue. Narratives use those elements to engage the reader.

Reporting increase in cases w/o ref to the significance of the concurrent increase in testing is an example of an engaging narrative, as is the singular.. 2/5

focus on COVID as the only threat to our way of life. It prioritizes story arc over facts...follows a plotline.

Disguising narrative as journalism is deceptive.

It’s akin to native advertising—in which I’m also an expert, not b/c I do it professionally, but b/c I won’t..3/5

...b/c it erodes brand trust, minsinforms, & steals the earned attention of consumers.

This narrative has a similar deceptive angle but is far more harmful. It blinds ppl to the whole of the risks we are facing & weaponizes self-righteousness to silence dissenting ideas..4/5

Figuring out “why” the media is crafting the narrative is not in my wheelhouse. That’s up to someone else.

But if you insist on listening to experts only, listen very closely to me:

The media is pushing a narrative.

5/5

ETA: This is not an easy assertion for me to make.

I have an penchant for comfortable naïveté & high evidentiary threshold. I have no political alignment, nor covert agenda.

What I am after is the truth. And to admit that this is the truth is profoundly disquieting.