It's an age old question - in a situation like the one we are currently facing in relation to the strike at Grangemouth and the potential for petrol shortages, are the media partly responsible for whipping the general public into a frenzy of panic buying. Is it just human nature that as soon as someone says "don't panic" we automatically panic! And does coverage like this fan the flames of that panic? Of course the flip side of the argument is that it is a legitimate news story and should therefore be covered iby the media. The BBC's Editors blog has an interesting discussion of this very issue.
