How We Learned To Stop Worrying And Love The Bug Y2K looms, you turn on your computer, dial up the Net, load your favorite news site, and... nothing. Nothing, or little, of the computer bug hysteria that flooded the press a year ago. Is this rational revisionism of an over-hyped disaster, a conscious effort to fend off the dangers of a public panic? Or is it another case of media amnesia, dropping an important story to make room for the latest scandal? As the U.S. media focus on the new Y2K horror, terrorist threats to attack New York City or Americans abroad, some media watchers see the computer glitch coverage as short on facts and long on drama—though they disagree if it's the original panic or the newfound calm that should be our biggest worry.

The Age Of The Doomsayers University of Colorado religious studies professor Ira Chernus mourns the loss of a cultural optimism which had been America's historical legacy. For Chernus, the facts about the potential Y2K global crash have been completely superseded by the doomsday fears. From TomPaine.com, November 1 1999.  What, Me Worry? Maybe Chernus should relax: over half the respondents in a recent Reuters poll said they aren't concerned about a potential Y2K disaster. Perhaps this complacency is due to the constant positive pronouncements from public officials. Even the bible-thumpers who saw the Y2K bug as an apocalyptic horseman seem to have changed their tune. From Online Journalism Review, November 20 1999.  Ignorance Is Bliss-Or Not Have we been mollified prematurely? Steve Perry blames the "exquisite public denial" of a very real potential crisis on the media's allegiance to corporations and government agencies who are hiding the truth about preparation status in order to protect their stock prices and stave off public outcry. Of course, we'll know soon what the two-digit date glitch will do, and Perry reports that the U.S. government has secretly been preparing for a much worse outcome than it will admit. From AlterNet/Independent Media Institute, August 6 1999.  Sound And Fury Signifying Nothing The global crisis scenario did get play in NBC's recent made-for-TV special, "Y2K: The Movie." But, like some much of the media coverage, it, too, offered little in the way of practical advice in case of catastrophe. Former CNN Science Editor, and Media Channel contributor, Kevin Sanders separates truth from media myth and provides some helpful household hints about potassium iodide tablets (for readers downwind of nuclear reactors) and how your life may depend on a clean bathtub. From The Media Channel, December 21 1999.  Deep Reading The waxing and waning Y2K story is a great case study in media coverage. Use this topic to teach kids about the ways and means of the mass media—or do some media analysis yourself—with the help of Media Awareness Network's comprehensive media literacy package, "Y2K: Exploring the Relationship between the Media and the Millennium Bug" From Media Awareness Network, November 3 1999.  The Media To Monitor To monitor the U.S. media coverage of Y2K as it dawns (and when it passes, depending on the effect of the bug), check out The Poynter Institute's guide to broadcast, print, and Web Y2K coverage. In addition to the Y2K-focused Web pages of major media outlets, you'll also find links to national Y2K fact sites and resources; you can compare their data with what the news reports. From The Poynter Institute, December 1 1999.    What's Your View? Speak Out in the MediaChannel Forum. AS THE MEDIA WATCH THE WORLD, WE WATCH THE MEDIA.