Telephones were still a novelty for most people, TV was an Oddity for most of the Depression. And Computers was the stuff of science fiction at the time.
People are more aware of the problems of the world in present day with the 24 hour news cycle and the rapid spread of info via the Internet.
Look at the run on banks during the 1930's. One news story prompted a lot of people to withdraw their money from the banks. Banks typically don't keep tons of cash on hand, and when they could no longer dole it out, that lead to another news story which resulted in widespread panic. The run on banks swept across the country like a wave and forced many of them to close.
Even in the relatively "slow" news world of the 1930's, waves of panic did occur.