Beware Falling Objects

The local CBS affiliate ran the following story. "More reports, video show uptick in heavy objects being dropped from downtown overpasses onto I-5 traffic." And that's about it. If you actually read the story, there isn't much more information than that. There are a couple of personal testimonials, we're told that the police arrested, and then released, a guy who said he was homeless, and that's about it. You can watch a video of a Lime e-scooter being dropped from an overpass onto southbound Interstate 5 near downtown Seattle, but there's no actionable or even genuinely informative content to be found. Okay, so there's an "uptick." What had the rate been, and what is it now? What's being done about it? The Seattle Police Department knows what's happening, and at least one short-term arrest had been made, but is anything else in the works? Is there anything that people can do? It seems unlikely, but otherwise, what's the point?

People dropping scooters and rebar onto the expressway while there's traffic on it is bad. And the case can be made that drivers should be aware that there may be falling objects crashing onto the road, or their vehicles, while they're driving. But there's little more than a scare story here. It's the kind of thing that garners clicks and shares (which is how it first came to my attention), but the overall effect is to drive fear and worry. It's the kind of thing that people point to when they talk about the collapse of society or are seeking to demonstrate that mankind has become so sinful that the end of the world would be a welcome development.

One of the problems that arises from the news having become a form of entertainment is that it's judged by how well it validates its viewers' understandings of the world. As people feel the world is more dangerous, news stories that validate that perhaps seem more credible than the alternatives. And the sense that it's a problem that some or another authority needs to deal with leaves people with, I think, a reduced sense of agency. While Solution Journalism can devolve into vapid "feel good" stories (especially when there is a focus on children and/or trivial situations) the overall concept, that of presenting as newsworthy what actions are being, can be or have been taken to improve things seems that it would be very useful. And stories that give people some sense of scale are also useful. One of my general gripes with the coverage of the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic is that there was almost never enough information in standard news stories to adequately access the risks involved. This is the same. Without any real idea of the frequency of incidents, it's hard to know if one should do things differently or what level of urgency an official response might require.

But I don't think that anything more is being asked of the news. I suspect that this is the first thing that needs to change. But, like a lot of things, it's difficult to change alone. Maybe it would be worthwhile to see what the market for change looks like, and go from there.