Why the news is so negative — and what we can do about it
In Broadcast News, the movie that made me want to be a journalist, the protagonist Jane Craig (Holly Hunter) has a routine every morning. At an appointed time, she sits and weeps profusely for a minute. When the minute’s done, she wipes her face and goes about her day without showing outward signs of sadness.
Journalists have always been a fairly morose bunch, and the news they produce reflects that. Communications scholars have found that across many years and countries, coverage of political topics tends to more often be conveyed in a negative or cynical tone rather than a positive one; one study in the mid-2000s found that about half of US, German, Italian, and Austrian campaign coverage conveyed bad news, while as little as 6 percent conveyed good news. By some measures, the situation is deteriorating; a recent study found that the “proportion of headlines denoting anger, fear, disgust and sadness” grew markedly in the US between 2000 and 2019.
Some news consumers have surrendered to the phenomenon and find themselves hooked on “doomscrolling,” in journalist Karen Ho’s memorable term, proceeding between articles asking if the war in Ukraine could be World War III, or whether another world-destabilizing pandemic could be on the way, or if we’ve already passed key climate tipping points. At least some news consumers aren’t too happy about the situation. An international survey from Oxford’s Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism last year found that in almost every country surveyed, trust in media is falling, and more people are saying they’re avoiding news. Why? Because, respondents say, it “has a negative effect on their mood.”
