Anyone who has been near a television or radio in the past few days knows that the swine flu pandemic is well underway.

The seemingly endless barrage of graphics, logos, dramatic introductory music and hushed, urgent voices of the news anchors are becoming a familiar sign. They may be familiar to those who recall the bird flu pandemic. Or the SARS pandemic. Or the sudden onset of the West Nile virus.

It seems that every other year there is an outbreak of a new disease that will mark the end of civilization, and while each occurrence allows those in charge of responding to the crisis to learn and better mobilize a response, it seems that it also allows the news media to build on the intensity of their coverage.

“I think all the media attention is unnecessary,” said junior marketing major Tim Yapp. “I think we as the public do need to be informed, but I think the constant coverage just scares people.”

There does appear to be an escalation in coverage. A Google search of the bird flu, which has been on the radar for several years, yields 35.4 million results. A search of swine flu, which has been around for days, yields 103 million results.

“The media makes a huge deal out of these new things,” said Amy Meyering, a sophomore early childhood education major. “People die from different causes every day, but you never see huge coverage on the thousands of people who die every year in car accidents.”

Dennis Cesarotti, director of National Safety Education, teaches about disaster preparedness at NIU. He questioned why the media is covering the flu now instead of other years.

“What disappoints me is that there are flu outbreaks every year,” Cesarotti said. “There are tens of thousands of deaths in the U.S. annually from the flu, and we aren’t seeing that yet.”

Cesarotti adds that the swine flu seems to be less deadly than the avian flu, which was projected by the Center for Disease Control and Prevention to have a death rate of 10 to 15 percent.

Cesarotti said that while there is no data about the death rate of swine flu, he anticipates it to be lower than 10 percent.

“The swine flu seems to have less of an impact on the body than the avian flu,” he said. “We were lucky with the avian flu that it didn’t spread. The spread of the swine flu is what makes it dangerous.”

Not everyone views the media intensity as harmful.

“Media coverage is important because it tells people that they need to check their resources and find out what is going on,” said Anne Seitzinger, director of the study abroad program.

While no NIU students are currently in Mexico, the epicenter of the swine flu outbreak, and there are no plans for summer studies in the country, there have been concerns over NIU students around the world.

“Some students and a parent have called just to find out some more information on the current situation and what the outlook for the summer is,” Seitzinger said.

The NIU risk management team will be gathering in the next few days to discuss future plans and reactions to the outbreak based on how the situation will continue to evolve and information provided by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.