There is a saying that goes:  "One death is a tragedy, thousands of deaths is a statistic".

This is used by the media as well as politicians to promote various causes that lead to statistics... 

Slightly off topic but who had heard of Alexei Navalny a few weeks ago.   Then suddenly this individual is headline news (the lead story) for days on end.  We are heading for 8 billion people and yet when I look at the news I say to myself what relevance has this got to do with my local situation and life.  People consume the news and consume narratives along with it.