Just as Morrissey sang in his 2017 song “Spent the Day in Bed”, “The news contrives to frighten you”. Or at least, that’s the popular impression, with bad news headlines popping up left and right, while good news seems to become scarcer with every passing day. But is this impression of the news really accurate? And if this is true, then why?
Well, according to letter.ly, which aggregated data from a multitude of studies and reports on the news, approximately 90% of all media news is negative. Even worse, according to The Guardian, media headlines are over sensationalized 95% of the time. It seems that the popular conception of media stories is correct. But why is this the case?
There are a number of reasons why, though most stem from negativity bias, a cognitive tendency for negative information has a greater effect on one's psychological state and processes than neutral or positive information. The media often takes advantage of this bias, and does so by emphasizing and sensationalizing the scariest and most shocking stories. For example, it has been found that news reports containing words like “bad”, “worst”, and “never” are at least 30% better at catching the attention of readers than positive words. These same studies also found that the same negative words boosted click-through rate averages, up to 63% more than positive headlines. However, it is not always the media’s choice to appeal to this bias. Rather, they are often forced to cater to this sort of negative news by readers who possess it.
This is best demonstrated by a social experiment taken on by City Reporter, a Russian news website. For one day, the website published the most positive news they could, putting the best news they had in the headlines, and finding silver linings in all the bad news they could report on. According to Quartz and the BBC, this social experiment cost City Reporter an entire 2/3 of their readerbase. Journalists also often cite Nielsen ratings as the main reason for this negative news. Ratings boost viewership and attract investments and advertisements. Because of this, media outlets force their journalists to sensationalize and exaggerate stories.
All this is to say that, no, you aren’t just imagining it. Almost all of the news, especially the news people actually read, is negative. This can even be harmful to your health, as explained by Matthew Price, a professor of psychology at the University of Vermont. He has stated that reading a lot of negative news can cause anxiety and depression in the short term, but it’s especially likely to “exacerbate” those conditions in people who have a history of experiencing them. If you’re worried about these effects, or are just plain tired of reading bad news, I offer two solutions: You can either stop reading the news, or, if you want to stay in touch with the world around you, you can consume news from outlets focusing solely on good news, such as the Good News Network. Or maybe, you can just stick to reading The International Times, where we have no profit incentives pushing us to give you depression. Hurrah!
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