If I were a journalist in the public interest
instead of showing punch-ups in the grocery aisles, I would have nutritional experts on showing what a pile of food that can last a month would actually look like. I guarantee it's a lot less than what most Americans think it is.
It reminds me of those photo essays where people travel around the world and take pictures of what a family in each country lives on for a week. Inevitably in Peru it's like a ziploc bag's worth of dried beans and in Indianapolis it's the entire kitchen counter's worth of potato chips.
Something like that would be very relevant to calming public fears that they don't have enough and need 50kg bags of rice and a whole shopping bag's worth of chocolate bars.
Get an expert on public utilities to explain why the water isn't going to be turned off and you're not going to lose electricity or internet access.
The media has this po-faced attitude like "Look at all these idiots going berserk" but they're not making any effort to provide the information that will allay peoples' fears. I know that part of this is the government's job but the media doesn't depend on the government to do it.