Threats. Climate change. Natural Disasters. Volatile economics. War. Messy Politics.
These are the headlines on almost every news outlet across the internet. From social media to the New York Times, the top stories are mostly reporting negative events, but they catch a reader’s attention. Most media sources only share bad news, but why? Why does it all have to be so negative?
Well, it all comes down to the fact that for centuries humanity itself has trained journalists to present them with platters of bad, bold news. Human hunter-gather senses, like fight or flight, are wired to react to threats. During evolution, our brains evolved in an environment that led to us immediately being attracted to anything dramatic or novel that happened for our safety.
So these days, when we read the news, we are stubbornly attracted to whatever bad is happening in the world, because we have to know if it is going to affect us or not. Human attention is largely to blame for the existence of prioritizing bad news.
“49% of people are more likely to look at negative news, ages over 17 tend to disregard positive news,” says Letter.ly.com. Bad news has a stronger impact on human emotions and attention than good news.
Some people say they would prefer to see more good news when they open up their trusted sites. However, when positive news pops up, they most likely ignore it. Humanity is programmed to look for the bad instead of the good.
An example of this is insecurities. There are parts of society that build up insecurities in people, but as brains develop, they also contribute to singling out all the insecurities about oneself.
Throughout media there is, “Overlap of what is true and what holds power to account.” says Oxford University. Economic stability, natural disasters, and catastrophes make simple bold headlines. “Sudden sharp disaster is more compelling than slow improvements,” states BBC.
Society is consuming news about violence, disaster, and corrupt politics that turn on humanity’s fight or flight response. This often also triggers symptoms of anxiety, PTSD, depression, and more.
When a person reads the news and feels they have no ability or power to improve the situation, symptoms of anxiety and depression kick in. Constantly watching negative news means human brains are unfortunately more likely to remember horrible events and associate them with daily life.
Exposure to bad news takes personal worries, makes them seem worse, and can cause acute stress reactions and long-lasting symptoms of increased depression and anxiety.
Limiting news consumption, getting accurate news, following positive news outlets, practicing gratitude, and taking care of yourself are all ways to stop heaps of negative news from affecting mental health.
As well as staying off social media, where much fake news is generated and fed into people’s brains. Younger generations are unfortunately heavily influenced by fake social media news too. Disastrous events are also likely to continue in the future due to the position the world is in right now.
The fight or flight response doesn’t just increase anxiety but also increases anger for one another. Results of this are often shown through world leaders or groups of people making decisions or miscalculating certain risks. This triggered response of bad decision-making repeatedly leads to things like war, death, and decreasing stability.
Negative news is not the journalist’s fault either. The Society of Professional Journalists states, “Journalists should seek truth and report it.” All journalists are eligible for freedom of speech too.
Media is driven to produce more negative stories because it has scientifically been proven to attract humanity. This is how media sources work. This is how they advertise and get readers. Because if sources didn’t share what was happening in the world, no matter how disturbing or sad, then how would Earth be different? Negative news is an important marketing prospect of how news sources make money, thrive, and build.
Really, the news is all just one big rotating, endless cycle. Things happen. Journalists write about it to let communities know. People are psychologically attracted to reading it. The main point or center of the circle is the negative news contributing. And underneath that, acting as the base is the gut feeling and pathways in the brain that make us appeal to immediate, bad news.