I have recently been reminded of the power the news has over us, here in the UK. Over the weekend I was in Scotland, and it was all over the newspapers about the possible strike action by workers at Grangemouth fuel refinery – the only one in Scotland. The staff there are threatening to walkout – if they do, the whole of Scotland, and also parts of northern England, would face a severe petrol shortage. As we drove through Scotland on Sunday, we passed numerous petrol stations, many of which had queues of cars backing out onto the roads. This was of course people “panic buying” in case of any fuel shortage. Obviously the memories of the very serious petrol crisis back in 2000 are still fresh in many of our minds.

But my point really is that it just shows that:

a) a lot of people really do listen to the news

b) that people genuinely trust us as journalists, and believe what they hear

c) that we can actually be of some use!

Of course it can go to the other extreme, and I did think that some people filling up in desperation at the pumps had possibly slightly over-reacted! But it certainly reminded me of the power news has over us all. Within hours of details of a possible strike being revealed, thousands of people were immediately taking action, based entirely on what they read, heard or watched in the news. As I mentioned in my earlier post about Prince Harry being in Afghanistan, it reminds us yet again of the role we have as being responsible journalists – people really do believe what we tell them, and we need to always consider that before running with any story – just think for a second about the consequences it could have.

Well it’s getting late now so my local garage should be nice and quiet…