MEDIA FRENZIES &
THE “TRAGEDY OF THE COMMONS”
Rational Choice eory
in Communication Research
Lugano, May 7, 2009
Marco Bardus
USI- Institute of Communication and Health

Table of contents
Intro: In the Era of Media Frenzies Towards Rational Choice
in Health Communication…
Rational Choice Applied to Media
e Social Costs of Media Frenzies
Discovering the Issue-Attention Cycle
e Tragedy of the Commons
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Images of the H1N1 Influenza Virus. h7p://www.flickr.com/photos/ajc1/3493605447/

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Media frenzy occurs…
“…when a critical mass of journalists leap to
cover the same embarassing or scandalous subject
and pursue it intensely, often excessively, and
sometimes uncontrollably”
(Sutter, 2001)
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Swine flu trends
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Media flu trends
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Social media flu trends
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Good ol’media frenziness
Bird flu, pitbull attacks, locust alarms (Fengler &
Russ-Mohl, 2005), the strange case of Mr. Kohl
and the anonymous donations (Kepplinger,
2001), heartquakes, mad-cows… and
environmental issues (Downs, 1972), over and
over again.
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What’s the problem?
Prerequisites: uncertainty, news competition
& information overload, time, lack of property rights
(Sutter, 2001)
Consequences: lack or scarcity of control (verification) =>
low reporting standards => low quality journalism?
(Fengler&Russ-Mohl, 2005; 2008; Sutter, 2001)
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The “Issue-Attention Cycle”
Pre-problem stage
Post- Alarmed
problem discovery
+
Gradual
delcine of Realization (Downs, 1972)
intense of the
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IAC=f (issues)
Issues characteristics
• e majority does not suffer from the problem as
much as some numerical minority.
• Sufferings are generated by social arrangements
that provide significant benefits to a majority or a
powerful minority of population (Pareto’s law).
• e problem has no intrinsically exciting qualities.
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IAC in practice
• Most people are not reminded of the problem (because
they do not suffer from it).
• Solving the problem requires social changes and great
effort in behavior change. Significant attempts threaten
important groups in society.
• Media attention soon starts to be boring for the majority of
the public.
• Media realize that the attention is threatening someone and
boring the others, hence they reduce coverage.
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So the issue or the problem must be…
DRAMATIC, EXCITING, LARGE ENOUGH
TO COMPETE WITH COMPETING
ENTERTAINING NEWS!
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“ARE JOURNALISTS LOCUSTS, TOO?”*
*(Fengler&Russ-Mohl, 2005)
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Rational Choice Media
News organizations pursue profit maximization
=break-even point
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The social costs of media frenzies
MPC MB
MSC MEC
Maximiza
Ion of
Marginal benefits/costs
benefit
Turning point
Rcrit Ropt Rfrenzy
Number of reporters covering story
MPC= Marginal Private Costs; MEC=Marginal External Costs;
MB=Marginal benefits; MSC=Marginal social cost (MPC+MEC)
(source: Sutter, 2001)
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MPC => Media circus
News organizations consider only MPC, doing only
private interests, hence they send more reporters =>
Rfrenzy > Ropt
Reducing costs triggers excessive coverage and
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The “Tragedy of the Commons”
“e elite’s enviromental deterioration
is often the common man’s improved
standard of living.”
(Dawns, 1972)
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A World’s dilemma
Is it possible to achieve
“the greatest good for the greatest number”? (Bentham revised)

A Tragedy exemplified
E.g. Pollution as a problem of the tragedy of the commons
According to Malthus, population grows geometrically. Hence,
commons are justifiable only under conditions of low-population
density.
How to solve it?
a) Allocation of goods.
b) Freedom to breed (Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?)
c) Appeal to conscience and responsibility
e solution? = mutual coercion
(Hardin, 1968)
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“Injustice is preferable to total ruin”
(Hardin, 1968)
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Are there any other solutions?
Collaboration (no, it works only in small “fraternities”)
Censorship vs. Open Access (=> false dilemma: tragedy
of the commons)
Tradable permits (anonimity) => Depend on the choice
of a regulator
New problems: Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?
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Time to discuss…
ANY OTHER IDEAS?
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Thank you for the attention!
Marco Bardus
Institute of Communication and Health
Università della Svizzera italiana
via Buffi, 13 – 6900 Lugano

References Downs, A. (1972). Up and down with ecology. e “issue-attention
cycle”. Public Interest, 28(38).
Documents
Fengler, S., & Ruß-Mohl, S. (2005). Influenza aviaria, allarme
cavallette e pitbulls come spettacoli mediali. Corriere Del Ticino,
December 3, 2005.
Fengler, S., & Ruß-Mohl, S. (2005). Media frenzies over bird flu and
locust alam. Neue Zürcher Zeitung, December 3, 2005.
Fengler, S., & Ruß-Mohl, S. (2008). Journalists and the information-
attention markets: Towards an economic theory of journalism.
Journalism, 9(6), 667-690.
Hardin, G. (1968). e tragedy of the commons. Science, 162,
1243-1248.
Kepplinger, H. M. (2001). Handle the scandal. Studies in
Communication Sciences, 1, 117-136.
Sutter, D. (2001). e social cost of media frenzies. International
Journal of Social Economics, 28(9), 742-751.
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References FluTracker. http://flutracker.rhizalabs.com
Web sources Google. http://www.google.com
Google Blog Search. http://blogsearch.google.com
Google News. http://news.google.com
Google Trends. http://google.com/trends
Social mention. http://socialmention.com
Technorati Blog Search. http://www.technorati.com
XCD. A Webcomic of Romance, Sarcasm, Math and Language.
http://xkcd.com/574/
WHO- Influenza H1N1. http://www.who.int/csr/disease/
swineflu/en/index.html
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References '56 Dodge Lancer. http://www.flickr.com/photos/kahluacream/
2114887238/
Pictures
Do note [Closed] http://www.flickr.com/photos/paulwatson/
5070827/
Images of the H1N1 Influenza Virus. http://www.flickr.com/
photos/ajc1/3493605447/
World Population Growth. http://www.flickr.com/photos/
laurenmanning/2979574719/
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