Emergency Broadcast/Playing With

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


Basic Trope: A broadcast made announcing an emergency situation.

  • Straight: An actual Emergency Broadcast in Real Life OR an Emergency Broadcast is present in story as Serious Business
  • Exaggerated: The EAN or a similar alert in Real Life, the "worst of the worst" warning. In-Universe, the same thing: an Emergency Broadcast heard everywhere proclaiming an Apocalypse How level threat to the world.
  • Downplayed: A real Emergency Broadcast ran as a crawl (done for weather warnings in places that have a lot of them, sometimes). In-Universe, the same, or one actually ignored or relegated to a secondary story in a case of Worst News Judgment Ever.
  • Justified: There is an emergency present in Real Life or in story, power systems haven't been disabled and/or communications systems hacked or hijacked yet, and the system can contact a means of communication used.
  • Inverted: There was no emergency in the first place OR the system itself has been compromised or is being used to spread disinformation or misinformation or propaganda.
  • Subverted: The emergency broadcasts, in a continuation of the above inversion, actually are encouraging people toward a Death Trap or are driving them to suicide. Or there is an emergency worthy of such widespread warning, but none is given.
  • Double Subverted: The broadcast encouraging people toward what seems to be a stupid action or Death Trap or outright suicide is meant to deceive viewers into believing that is actually happening in a form of I Surrender, Suckers. Or an Emergency Broadcast is issued when an emergency exists - but for one of multiple emergencies that may not be the most dangerous or relevant (such as a flash flood warning taking precedence over a far more urgent tornado warning)
  • Parodied: The quote at the end of the article "If this had been an actual emergency, you would have been advised to drop to your knees, grab you ankles, and kiss your ass goodbye," an Emergency Broadcast For the Lulz or for an extremely ridiculous reason, or if anything even tepidly boring is announced as if it is an apocalyptic emergency...
  • Deconstructed: An Emergency Broadcast may be needed, but the story shows the problems inherent in trying to get the warning out: communications systems are hacked and/or down, power itself has been disabled, people interpreting the warning as a joke or as Crying Wolf, the people who are supposed to issue or confirm the warning are already dead... and/or the broadcast is being issued as a sop to the soon-to-be-dead-and-dying masses by the elites.
  • Reconstructed: A method of warning used to make the Emergency Broadcast is made to consider such things as power failures, dead operators, hackers, and other points of failure, and the institution issuing it does have the welfare of its people in mind as the reason for doing so.
  • Zig Zagged: ???
  • Averted: A surprise attack or surprise disaster with no means of seeing it coming and not much that can be done afterward except clean up the damage and bury the dead.
  • Enforced: Real Life (sometimes by law), and in most Disaster Movie uses, where it would seem very odd that there was no Emergency Broadcast or Emergency Presidential Address.
  • Lampshaded: "We know you're getting tired of this already, but here's another severe thunderstorm warning coming through..."
  • Invoked: When someone issues an Emergency Broadcast in Real Life using the code that turns an announcement into one. In-Universe, someone pointing out the broadcast or suggesting one should be issued.
  • Exploited: Everything is an emergency.
  • Defied: During an actual emergency, someone actively refuses to issue an Emergency Broadcast despite being told to do so.
  • Discussed:
  • Conversed: ???

Your attention please! There is an emergency! Please evacuate to Emergency Broadcast and wait for further instruction.