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Why Media Focuses on Reporting Negative News

 


It feels as though every time I view any sort of social media or news apps or channels that the news is flooded with death, economic decline, corruption, political conflict, and many other negative and oftentimes saddening events. And in a time of pandemic that has impacted billions of individuals and has brought devastating effects to our country, consuming negative news can be especially triggering and harmful to mental health. Furthermore, the term, “negativity bias” has been increasingly common as negative events are reported on more frequently. Ultimately, I can assume that many other individuals also feel as though negative news oftentimes appear to be majority of what news outlets choose to focus on in terms of deciding what events are “newsworthy.” Therefore, I decided to take a look at increasing occurrence of negative news reporting and possible reasons as to why media outlets often choose to report on such negative, saddening, emotional evoking events.

The article attached below provided some very interesting information on possibilities of why media and news are always showing, “bad news.” One of psychologist Tom Stafford’s explanation for this constant reporting of negative news is “It may be because we’re drawn to depressing stories without realizing,” despite negative news evoking negative emotions such as sadness, anxiety, or anger in its audience. Stafford also mentions that negative events could possibly be simpler to report on. The article continues with an interesting experiment that asked participants to choose news stories to read aloud to study eye movements. Surprisingly majority of participants read stories about negative events such as corruption, economic setbacks, and other negative aspects and very few chose to read about neutral or positive events and that negative news is often remembered more than positive news. I found this experiment incredibly interesting, especially since myself, and many of family and friends generally avoid news because of negative news (and feels that are brought up from negative news) It is incredibly thought provoking to see that humans are oftentimes more drawn to negative news and that individuals are more likely to likely to remember negative news. I have attached the article with the experiment below for anyone interested in viewing it.

https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20140728-why-is-all-the-news-bad

Comments

  1. Nikolai MelnikoffFebruary 23, 2022 at 4:37 AM

    Hey,

    I have to agree with you that it seems that every news story is about something bad, but I do not know if that says more about us as people, or if it says more about the news stations we watch. The news stations have data that shows that people like watching things that deal with bad news more than good news. I think this comes from a person's desire to know about all the possible things that are going on in the world. My US Presidency professor has stated before that the reason why news stations do this is because statistically the people love hearing bad news stories, rather than the good ones. Great post!!

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  2. Between the Aisles BlogFebruary 23, 2022 at 8:55 AM

    This is a good and interesting post! I've also noticed that most news stories are negative these days. As I thought about it, I thought that another reason is that people living in fear of the future are more likely to watch the news. More viewers equals more money, and the news outlet is in this to make money. If you've ever seen the ABC/FOX TV series titled "Last Man Standing", there's an episode where the main character convinces his son-in-law to turn off the news and breaking news alerts and live in the moment. Throughout the episode, he calms down. I think many Americans are stuck in the same loop of looking for the next big, negative headline, and outlets keep pushing it out because that's what makes them money, not those feel good stories we grew up seeing.

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About Me.....

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Melissa N
Hello everyone, my name is Melissa Clopein. I am a senior at Kennesaw State University, my major is Political Science with a minor in International Relations. In my free time I enjoy cooking, hiking, traveling, and learning as much as I can about different countries and their cultures. Ever since I was old enough to truly understand politics, I have been interested in international relations and politics. In addition, I have also been extremely interested in how media influences politics and the relationship between the two, which is a major reason I am taking this class. I intend to use this blog to focus on some important topics relating specifically to mass media and politics. I think an important topic to address is the common occurrence of biases in media, extremism from the left and the right, and how both sides contribute to political polarity in U.S citizens.