Investigate the News Stations?

[Rock Daddy]

Lizzy found a quick Tivo recorded news clip back in chapter 2 part 3. The clip began to give information on the "riot" outbreaks outside of Los Angeles, but was cut short, due to all the broadcasting shutting down. I know the tower (Michael especially) would love to get more information on the spread of the pandemic.
Is it worth it for a team to investigate the news stations to find any reports, or recorded materials that may contain more information? Or is this irrelevant?

[nikvoodoo]

Lizzy found a quick Tivo recorded news clip back in chapter 2 part 3. The clip began to give information on the "riot" outbreaks outside of Los Angeles, but was cut short, due to all the broadcasting shutting down. I know the tower (Michael especially) would love to get more information on the spread of the the pandemic.
Is it worth it for a team to investigate the news stations to find any reports, or recorded materials that may contain more information? Or is this irrelevant?

It's a good idea, but I don't think they would get too far with that information. News stations would simply be scratching the surface of the outbreak, not be able to do any in depth reporting that would shine much light on things that they don't already know now having lived among the zombies for 4 months (or so) now. That's not to say that some news team didn't capture something totally relevant, and important (some random rapid mutation, a variety of creature we have yet to see etc), but it would almost seem like a step backwards to me.

And remember, the reason the TIVO cut off was because the recording ended and what they were watching was a bleed over from something else. An hour later when is when all broadcasts were definitely shut down.

[Eviebae]

Lizzy found a quick Tivo recorded news clip back in chapter 2 part 3. The clip began to give information on the "riot" outbreaks outside of Los Angeles, but was cut short, due to all the broadcasting shutting down. I know the tower (Michael especially) would love to get more information on the spread of the pandemic.
Is it worth it for a team to investigate the news stations to find any reports, or recorded materials that may contain more information? Or is this irrelevant?

It's a really good idea! They probably couldn't count on the reporting being accurate though, but at least they could see some more footage. After 9/11 the news stations were so clueless. They reported all manner of unsupported rumors and unchecked leads. They were all caught up in being "first" they didn't care about being right. From what I can tell, if the zombies didn't issue a press release to regurgitate, the reporters wouldn't know what to say.

[MrScott101]

That's a really good point, mass speculation and theories way more out there than what we have provided on the forum!

[cupcakezombie]

What about the internet? That is the first place I look rather then the TV for information when something big. Surely not all service providers would have gone down straight away.

[Osiris]

I haven't noted any references to internet service... but I'm sure I may have missed it. But it stands to reason that the internet is down in their immediate areas, whether or not it is globally down could be left up for debate. However it makes for a great plot device to further remove the characters from that comfortable place of being in contact with people outside of their four walls and to heighten the tension and sense of isolation for the listener.

[rottenash]

yeah internet would have been a great idea..but at this point there would be no internet :(

Maybe some of the recorded footage from a broadcast centre may shed some light into an aproximate ground zero or atleast give them an idea how many areas were over come and how quick it spread

[Osiris]

I'm surprised that military intelligence hasn't considered going back to the base and trying to poke around in the files on the internal servers to try and learn some information. Then again, none of them are likely to be hackers, and even if they were probably not skilled enough to crack a military intel database. That coupled with the lack of power... then again...

[nikvoodoo]

Regarding the internet and what might have happened to it, we have a thread about that already in theories and here's the link: http://zombiepodcast.com/forum/showthread.php?965-So-where-s-the-internet

[rottenash]

wicked, thanks Nikvoodoo

[kafu288]

I'd like to imagine there's two people in Korea still playing Starcraft against each other oblivious to the whole zombie apocalypse

[Creem_Filling]

I would imagine there wouldn't be much to be found. They have no power to get on the computers (if they still even work). And the stations would have passwords and other securities they wouldn't be able to get passed. Tommy was the closest thing the Tower ever had to a "computer guy", so that's not gonna work. But if maybe the raw intel was just sitting out on some desk waiting to be grabbed (TF2 anyone?!?), then it would totally be worth it.