Why We See More Bad News In The Media
There is statistically more bad news in the media than there is good news. With a simple search on Google Trend’s, Google’s proprietary trend indexing program, users will find that words like death, terrorism and murder out-compete search terms such as alive, saved, or won.
Many assume the world is just becoming a cesspool for crime and discontentment, but is it our overarching access to constant media that is drawing our attention to the negative stories that readers and viewers like to indulge in? In short, yes.
With full-fledged mini computers in our hands constantly connected, we read more news than ever before. Apple even has its own news app that it promotes and includes on its devices.
Positive news is hard to come by, but mostly because positive news doesn’t sell newspapers. On any of the most popular social media sites, users will likely come across more negative headlines than good ones, because bad news is what draws media attention, and bad news is what draws in readers for more.
No one would continue to read the newspaper if all they reported on was good news. Stories like “Water Towers Fully Functioning” and “The Sun Rose Again” are not going to sell newspapers, they happen every day, they’re not news if they’re not ‘new’.
“A big part of what constitutes news is change or something out of the ordinary,” said Matthew Daneman, reporter for Daily Communications. “People commute safely to work” is what happens most every day. “Seven-car rush-hour pileup brings I-490 to a halt” doesn’t happen most every day and rises to the level of newsworthy.”
Readers and viewers are attracted to bad news, but only when it doesn’t affect them, just as most people know the idea of feeling invincible until it happens too close to home.
Lately, across social media platforms there has been an outcry for good news. Comments sections are filled with these cries for less murder, less stories about war and more stories about charity, or fireman coming to the rescue.
There has been a more fine-tuned focus on good media, media outlets like The Dodo and Buzzfeed have tried to focus their videos on settling differences and showcasing mankind’s kinder side, however, it doesn’t always work out for them either. These videos, such as Buzzfeed’s all-inclusive media garnering negative attention from Christians and other groups.
Buzzfeed is known for its controversial but attempted discussions on all-inclusive media but it never strays too far from controversial.
The Dodo garners more positive attention, at least, with its focus on humanity and its love and respect for animal life. Their videos mostly deal with life-saving situations for animals in distress or content focused on the ‘cute’ factor of animals.
The bottom line is, readers crave more good news, but bad news sells more. News outlets must pay the bills somehow, and bad news seems to bring in the revenue. Despite the outcry for a less negative news feed, the readers and viewers ultimately determine what sells, and what sells is drama.
There is a news mantra: “If it bleeds, it leads” and it seems to ring true in the world of media.
There are scientific and psychological reasons why readers and viewers seem to be so attracted to negative news. When given ten headlines, a reader is more likely to pick out 9 of the negative headlines before they find the good one. It is completely normal, it’s just the way that humans are wired.
Humans as a species are built for stimulation. With five senses, its only normal for our bodies to seek out things that keep the body and brain awake and energized, and bad news does just that. Psychologically speaking, drama fires up our brains and gets the blood flowing because it wakes us up, it excites and titillates the senses.
Evolutionary psychologists and neurologists say that our brains evolved in a hunter-gatherer environment where the most novel and dramatic events were the ones that needed immediate attention. Back when societies still hunted for food, a hunter would rather pay attention to the looming tiger than the bird flitting about, the tiger is the immediate threat.
“Warning about dangers is an ancient function of language, think of cave paintings, for example. Some of them probably celebrate big wins…but some also seem to warn about danger,” said Marco Soares, a Graduate Professor of Journalism in Brazil. “People want to be informed where danger lies, so they can maximize their chances of staying alive.”
While humanity may not be defending themselves against deadly threats like wild animals and deadly predators, the same principle can be found to this day. Our brains are still adjusted to seek out and observe the most dramatic and novel moments in life. News is just that, new, something that doesn’t occur on a daily basis.
“Consider what would have happened if our media had reported, ‘The overwhelming majority of municipal water systems in the United States deliver safe potable water to their customers,” said Angela Stockton, lawyer. “Also true, but you never would have known from such a story that the people of Flint, Michigan were being poisoned by their water. “Bad” news is often something that people need to know because it addresses a problem seriously in need of a solution.”
The Pew Research Center survey found that in 20 years of research, people’s interests in news have not changed. Over 20 years, interests have remained with war, weather, crime, and money. People are just interested in the drama that occurs in the world, which is part of the reason that shows like Keeping Up with the Kardashians are as popular as they are, the ratings are good, the drama is high.
A short 20 years has proved that people will likely always be drawn to negative news stories. As a society built on drama, people like to know what’s going on.
