We’re constantly being bombarded by bad news, aren't we?
It doesn’t seem to matter where we turn, whether it’s traditional or social media, we get hit with stories about tragedy, heartache, cruelty and a litany of other societal ills.
I regularly hear people talk about this sensory overload, about how it can be draining on your mental health to be subjected to so much negativity on an ongoing basis, to the point where you either become overwhelmed or desensitized, neither of which is a particularly appealing state of mind.
As a newspaper editor for the past 30 years, I have often been asked why the media puts such a focus on bad news, why that old mantra, “If it bleeds, it leads,” continues to be as popular today as it has ever been.
The answer, quite simply, is because that type of content is what readers want, or perhaps more accurately, what they’re most likely to read. Despite all those calls for more good news, it’s not what resonates.
Being new to this position, I have been doing some poking around on the analytics for our website and what I found was strikingly similar to what I’ve encountered elsewhere, which is not surprising, I guess, given human nature doesn’t change a whole lot from one town to the next.
The stories that are being read most often are ones we typically refer to as “hard news,” which far more often than not have a darker element to them. In April, the 12 most read stories on our website (which is OkotoksToday.ca, by the way) were either police-or fire-related; in January, 13 of the top 14 stories fell into either the police/fire or COVID/convoy categories.
Before I go any further, I should note that online and print readers aren’t the same animal so it’s dangerous to draw too many parallels between them, but human nature is what it is, so I think it’s safe to assume there’s overlap between the two groups, at least in terms of what content catches the eye.
It’s also worth noting the web experience differs from print in the sense that people are often looking for quick bites of news rather than a full-blown story, so that skews what they’re likely to read.
Qualifiers aside, it’s still evident that news organizations, which live in a world governed by ratings and page views, know they’re likely to draw far more eyes to a story that’s negative in tone, which is why we get a steady diet of such content.
It’s difficult to quantify the news value of any story, which makes comparisons difficult, but when looking at those of similar weight, one positive, the other negative (or heavier), the latter always scores better, often by a considerable margin.
We’ll continue to write some of those "newsier” pieces, but on the bright side, the Western Wheel will also keep telling you about the outstanding young people in town, the accomplishments of your neighbours, those many acts of kindness and all manner of positive news.
These stories might not score well online, but they’re what a community is all about and they’ll definitely be good for your mental health.
