When I first began reading Malcolm Gladwell’s The Tipping Point, I was a little unclear of the message he was trying to get across. He uses the term “epidemic” throughout the book and I could not break the mindset of relating an epidemic to something drastic and negative like the Bubonic plague. Rather though, he expresses his message through the term epidemic to describe change and how to adapt when things change unexpectedly. Once a situation reaches a tipping point (so THAT’S how he got the title!), we must react to that change and roll with it. Things in life sometimes behave like outbreaks of disease and it can be hard to keep up with everything, so being aware and staying on offense, instead of defense (for all you sports fanatics out there), can make us all more prepared for social epidemics around us.
Don’t be afraid of change. Use it.
One main point Gladwell emphasizes is to view life as an epidemic. He parallels this idea with how things in life go up and down, kind of like a roller coaster. Trends start off small then gain a lot of attention then die back down; just like diseases. A person gets sick in the newsroom, it spreads, others get sick, and then everyone heals. Same applies in the fashion world. Gladwell talks about how Hush Puppies shoes were never a hot item until a small group of New Yorkers started wearing them. The tipping point, per say, was when major fashion designers and labels picked up on the trend and made it a big deal.
Gladwell continues by arguing that trends blow up and die out quickly, but then the smallest change can get them started. Things can happen all at once and little changes can make a huge difference. We are molded in society to expect changes daily, but at a slow and gradual rate. When change happens suddenly, we do not know how to handle it. He touches upon when crime drops dramatically in New York for no apparent reason, we as human beings are surprised. According to Gladwell though, we should not be because this is the way social epidemics work. From fashion fads to crime rates, embracing certain changes can be positive and can trigger a social change.
Once I started to understand Gladwell’s message, I immediately began to piece together how it applies to journalism. At one point in the book, Gladwell introduces “connectors”, who are people who know other people and are able to spread information quickly. He explains how ideas can be contagious in exactly the same way that a virus is. In the news industry, networking is so important, as well as having connections around your market and other markets. A reporter who does a local story on an issue can reach national attention if other news markets catch wind of it and use it to inspire a social change that benefits the greater good across a wider audience. This can help the ultimate goal of broadcast journalism: viewer benefit. I listened to a guest speaker tonight who was a reporter for the Associated Press, Martha Mendoza. She shared with us how she covered a small story on a man who was thrown in jail for eight years on no charges, just strictly suspicion of being a terrorist even though he had all the legal papers to be in America. Her story reached other reporters and major outlets and in the end, over fifty people across the United States were set free from prisons. This is a positive epidemic, like Gladwell discusses.
Embracing change is another concept from the book that applies to broadcast journalism. Sometimes change can be stressful because we often do not know how to handle It or use it to our advantage. Embracing change instead of worrying about it can make everyday life a lot more enjoyable. If newsrooms adopted this ideology, I think the overall morale in the newsroom and with the reporters and producers would improve. Newsrooms can be hectic and being a producer this semester, I have experienced it firsthand. Things change, stories fall through, and computers act up. That’s life. But smiling and staying positive and working with the change rather against it can be beneficial and healthy.
Gladwell’s main points are life is full of epidemics that happen on the drop of a dime and that positive epidemics do exist. Accepting the change and using it to achieve a greater goal can be contagious and spark social movements. A little input is enough to get an epidemic started, and it can spread very quickly. Sudden changes can be confusing, but making sense of them and the tipping points that fuel them can actually help solve problems rather than cause them.
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