Adventures In Media Frenzy
It was actually quite a big story at the time, and the bitten passenger was courted by several morning news programs. Back then, we had a chance to speak with him about his experience as the subject of a media frenzy, which he described as largely in negative terms.
We rarely hear that side of the story, so we were intrigued to find another tale that documented what it's like for an average Joe (or Jane, as the case may be) to be the subject of a sudden media storm of attention.
The St. Petersburg Times today shares the story of Jennifer Mee, a Florida teenager who has been hiccuping nonstop for a month.
You've probably heard of her. Her appearance on the "Today" show can be seen on YouTube. Her name yields some sizeable results with a Google News search. She is known as "hiccup girl" in the blogosphere.
Competition for Mee among the morning news programs has been intense, the Times explains: "Representatives from ABC's Good Morning America called Jennifer's home 57 times on Sunday and slipped notes under her hotel room door, her family said." By the time she got home from New York, where she had been staying to tape interviews, calls from the Ellen DeGeneres Show and "television stations from as far away as Canada and Britain" requesting appearances were waiting.
By now, doctors "may have identified a couple of physical causes for the spasms," and "the family is considering chiropractic and acupuncture treatments," writes the Times.
Now that she's home, the paper added, "While Jennifer has enjoyed being a celebrity, she's tired. The hiccups hurt."