Showing how news channels cover the outbreak is already an established trope of zombie apocalypse tales, and indeed other disaster movies/shows, and the first teaser for Fear The Walking Dead contains similar: we hear a breaking news report detailing the first instances of event. Greg Nicotero, who serves as special effects wiz on both shows, said: Whats important in the spin-off is how people react to it. It really is a fascinating statement on current society, because we get most of our information from our iPads and our phones. There have been things that have been happening in recent years When you hear stories like that, about a guy who attacked someone and bit their face off, imagine how we reacted to that news story at the time. That certainly makes it sound like well be seeing a lot more of how the outbreak is reported by news channels, which is something we havent seen before, and offers the possibility for the show to in part provide a commentary on modern news, in a very dark way, a la Nightcrawler (but with zombies).