Data on whole communities is something that can provide a heads up on trends in community health on all levels. Alas, our visceral reactions are more attuned to anecdote than to "data about many".
Electronic media (starting with radio, then TV and now the internet) are therefore able to trigger visceral reaction to anecdote, while the "data about many" (which signals real developments in the bottom line) is ignored. The result is a plethora of unbalanced narratives with strong feelings on all sides, which are often uninformed to the real trends and issues tht we'd all like to manage.
