Sensationalism and the 24-hour news cycle aided in killing journalistic integrity, and it also aids in perpetuating racial bias, fear, and panic. Constant reporting forces news stations to air stories that will maintain a captive audience. There is only so much news (or so many sides to a story) that can be reported on in a day. This forces 24-hour news channels to come up with content that will fill time slots and keep the audience tuned in. Since the ongoing coverage is usually focused on one particular subject or event, the audience is subjected to a constant barrage of narrowly focused facts and opinions. As a result, fear turns into panic, which can often lead to deadly results.

Coronavirus is the latest epidemic that is fueling racism, panic, and mistrust. This fear is exacerbated by sensational news and 24-hour reportage. Amidst “doomsday prepping” and the price gouging of masks and hand sanitizer, is the worst result of overblown news coverage of the coronavirus: physical and verbal attacks fueled by racism. Racist attacks against Asians in the United States, Canada, the Netherlands, and across Europe have been linked to coronavirus. Overblown news coverage of coronavirus, along with ignorance and misinformation, has helped lead to this spike in racist assaults across the globe.

One video making rounds on Twitter shows a New York subway passenger spraying what appears to be a can of Febreze in the direction of an Asian passenger while shouting at him to move away from him. Tanny Jiraprapasuke, who is Thai American, uploaded a video on Facebook of a xenophobic rant directed toward her on the Los Angeles Metro. Singaporean student Jonathan Mok posted a detailed account and pictures of his battered face on Facebook after he was assaulted on Oxford Street in London.

It does not help that some media purposely (or carelessly) enforce racial bias. On March 1, the New York Post published a story about the first confirmed case of coronavirus in Manhattan. They tweeted a link to the story along with an image of an Asian man on Main Street in Flushing, Queens, which has a large Asian American population. New York’s first confirmed case of coronavirus is a woman in her late 30s. On the same day, the New York Times used a photograph of two older Asian women wearing medical masks on a Facebook post about the same first coronavirus case in New York. The New York Post and the New York Times’s decision to use photographs of Asian Americans helped further perpetuate harmful stereotypes and fearmongering against Asians.

Roger Keil, a professor in the environmental studies department at York University said, “To combat racism, people in the public eye, including politicians and media outlets, have to begin by uncoupling the disease from its origin point.” If the media continues to be irresponsible by reporting in a way that racializes epidemics, xenophobic and racist attacks like those related to the coronavirus, SARS, and Ebola will continue to plague our societies. Coronavirus is not an excuse to discriminate. It certainly does not.