"Let's watch the evening scare"

Even before it hit us, it was decidedly a catastrophe. Apparently, all major news outlets were certain on the severity of this virus because they picked it up instantly in unison and rolled with it for years. Was this a christmas present for the press? Funded media always focus on threats.

Every major news outlet during Covid used the same words and used the same exact imagery. It's almost as they rehearsed this before it happened.

But the point of this article goes deeper than Covid, even though that might be the ultimate example of using fear to control people.

Funded media always focus on negative news. And now it seems there must be a "crisis" to report everyday or people might go out and enjoy life or something.

Looking at our immediate surrounds, are we really in a crisis? And what does the word crisis even mean when it's used daily like it's the new normal.

Anxiety from the news

The news talk about doomsday scenarios all the time. Climate change, terrorism and so forth. Now this isn't to take serious issues lightly, but from a mental health perspective, it's concerning that we are constantly fed fear signals.

Simple logic dictates that if you watch the news three times a day you have three times where your brain gets in a negative headspace.

Remember, our brains are not made to be in a constant fear or stress.

Many experience anxiety from the news. This is not surprising, we are always affected by what other people say, it's human and normal. But when that voice no longer is our friends, family, our tribe, but the controlled media reaching you through the phone with every notification... then it becomes scary for real.

If we only think rationally, we should realize that there are positive news in the world as well as negative. At least, there is a choice to balance the reported worldview for the sake of sanity. But where can we find them? And why is the media zooming in on major scares 90 % of the time?

How did it become so extreme?

There is not one single factor explaining our current media landscape, but one can certainly see the reccurring patterns of fear mongering in our daily news. It's everywhere!

Trying to pinpoint why it's at this current extreme, one can toy with a few possible explanations that range from dark conspiracy theories to a irresponsible handling of modern technology.

Newspapers once had loyal subscribers and little competition. Fast forward to today, they are no longer owning the medium. The modern newspaper, or news agency, exist in a brave new digital world. Here they have to batte it out against a plethora of competing channels.

And with no loyal subscribers, they are dependant on daily attention (clickbaiting, shorter articles), tax-payer money and ad revenue.

They are simply chasing clicks and money to stay alive, sacrificing principles and quality in the process.

Promoting fear is one way to garner this constant attention, because they know one of our top priorities as humans is to feel safe.

The relationships at play

We also need to mention that we have this apparent relationship between media, corporations and politicans. There is cross ownerships that ties most mainstream media together to be regarded as part of the same team.

The old saying goes "we don't bite the hand that feeds us". Here we have several entities who clearly are dependant on "feeding" each other.

In a way they are also dependant on one another to survive. Big media houses, with their wide distribution, can make or break the public image of public figures, companies, politicians, and lawmakers.

And the lawmakers and companies if treated well can make sure the traditional media hourses remains funded and never risk to perish in the digital age where they lack their previous special powers.

The quality of journalism in the digital age

News outlets used to stand on their own feet. Their mission was to enlighten the people and audit people in power. Acting as a sort of scale of justice. Articles were longer and based on high quality research and often the writers had bold principles and ideals to strive for truth, however impossible that is.

Today we have more of a dumbed-down messaging, almost straight from the politicians mouth to the people at home watching tv. Add to that the incessive click chasing that make newspapers resort to fearporn and sensationalism.

The internet has revolutionzed messaging. In theory, any thinking person with skills to write and a internet connected computer could be a news outlet today. The lines are blurring between blogs, news and social media.

But to succeed, you need the attention. And that is were the big fish wins. The mainstream news have the money, backing and connections to get the wide distribution to secure their audiences trust.

They're big because they are big, not because they are the best.

And for some reason, they have now gone all in on catastrophic news. And they speak with an eerily similar voice as the politicans and companies they were once supposed to be scrutinizing.

The choice we have

News are seldom reporting on things we can control anyway. We should be really mindful of what the effect is when our thoughts are consumed with uncontrollable scarytales daily.

Especially when we are fed news around the clock via our phones and computers.

How about kicking the habit of consuming daily news and spending all that time caring more about your wellbeing?

References

Exposure to negative news stories led to higher levels of anxiety and sadness among the participants, according to this study.

Consumption of distressing news media (which substantially increased during COVID-19) has demonstrable negative effects on mental health according to this study.

Exposure to violent news content led to higher levels of anxiety and physiological arousal compared to non-violent news content, according to this study.