Why Real-Time News Have Been Detrimental to our Ability to Create Long-Term Change and Policy-Making
And how We Can Correct the Course!
Photo by Filip Mishevski on Unsplash
‘Blatant shock is the only surefire strategy for gaining viewers in the now. In addition, the 24/7 news cycle creates a sense of a constant stream of crises that are inescapable, no matter where we go’. - Douglas Rushkoff in the Present Shock: When Everything Happens Now.
In this real-time context, policymakers need to react and behave in the present, without reflecting. ‘Policy, as such, is no longer measured against a larger plan or narrative; it is merely a response to changing circumstances on the ground, or on the tube, adds the author in his book Present Shock.
Social media has amplified this effect. ‘The focus on immediate response engendered by always-on news becomes the new approach to governance’(…), adds David Rushkoff in his book.
‘No one has time to think, and insisting on a few hours or even an entire day to make a decision is regarded as a sign of indecision and weakness’. As a result, politicians are in a constant crisis management state, trying ‘to respond to the chaos in a way that makes them look authoritative’, he adds.
As David Rushkoff emphasizes, the launch of CNN has allowed us to take control of the narrative, but most possibly to our own detriment, since no analysis nor solution is offered to us anymore.
Before real-time news became the norm, news editors were expected to make ethical decisions, when it came to releasing a story or not if they thought ‘that the unresolved nature of the story would worry us too greatly’, adds Rushkoff in his book. It’s hard to imagine today that a news network would willingly retain news about a political scandal, something common before the arrival of CNN, as Rushkoff explains- if the news were not ‘fit to print’, promised the New York Times.
I used to work in a newsroom. I enjoyed the adrenaline of seeing the action happen in real-time. I was convinced this made me a better and more informed citizen.
On slower days, my colleagues and I secretly wished that a plane would crash so that we would get busy again.
Every day, rather than competing to produce the best content, news editors willingly chose content that would sell best. Even if we were public television, just like private news stations, our success was measured on ads-revenues; we were always chasing more ratings.
‘Our news networks and Internet feeds compound the sense of crisis by amplifying only the most sensational and negative events, which garner the highest ratings and click-throughs, generating still more of the same. Now, the feedback on viewer ratings is instantaneous, and its relationships to ads revenues is paramount’, adds the author.
We had to capture the audience. Not only was it a race for the exclusive and ‘sexiest’ news, but we also had to be the fastest to release it.
I remember being in complete awe when I read about a study conducted by Michelle Gielan, an ex-CBS News anchor- now a positive psychology researcher-, that showed how watching only a few minutes of news in the morning can negatively affect our day. The study findings proved that those hearing only 3 minutes of news every morning, would be 27% more likely to feel unhappy six to eight hours later, comparing to those who watched solution-focused news. Real-time news not only affects our mood but also our behaviour, according to her research.
The detrimental impact of news on people’s moods is not solely based on the negative aspect of the news, but rather in the absence of a solution.
‘We move from problem to problem, avoiding calamity as best as we can, our worldview increasingly characterized by a sense of panic, explains David Rushkoff.
In her book Broadcasting Happiness, Michelle Gielan, who partnered with Ariana Huffington in 2012 for this study, suggests that solutions-oriented news, or what she calls ‘transformative journalism’ would sell.
Her study doesn’t imply that we should be putting our head into the sand and ignore problems, but that we should rather feed our mind with progress and innovation, through solution-oriented news.
‘Without long-term goals expressed for us as readily accessible stories, people lose the ability to respond to anything but terror. If we have no direction towards which we are progressing, then the only thing that motivates our movement is to get away from something threatening’, explains David Rushkoff in the Present Shock: When Everything Happens Now.
‘Opiniated, even indignant, newsreaders keep our cortisol (stress hormone) levels high enough to maintain a constant fight-or-flight urgency. (…) The pugilism creates the illusion of drama, except the conflict has no beginning and end-no true origin in real-world issues of legitimate effort at consensus’, adds the author.
If we were to hear daily solutions-oriented news, rather than living in a constant state of fear, argues Michelle Gielan, we would perceive a world of possibilities and progress.
A few years forward, after revisiting what I was feeding my mind, my mindset and outlook on life changed drastically.
I removed all negative content from my social media and replaced it with innovation and progress. I detached from real-time news most of the time. I was amazed to see how journalists and news stations were too busy being in a reactive and fearful mode to share solutions to the problems they were constantly bombarding people with.
Changing my news feed surprisingly made me become more proactive and therefore more informed than ever, and more positive about the possibilities of creating a better future for myself and all of us. I discovered that I had been putting blinds on my eyes all this time.
By choosing to focus on innovation and solutions, I was becoming more resilient and happier.
From now on, it was clear to me that for each problem, there was a solution and that most solutions already existed or could be created; we just couldn’t see them. Our brain was too busy being bombarded by negative news, which made us prone to react in a fearful way in our own lives, and with each other.
By changing what we feed your brain, we end up changing our perception of the world we live in. Just like our policy-makers would make better decisions would they take time to reflect rather than react to real-time news, we could all make better and more informed decisions in our own life, city, state and country, would we be informed mainly through solutions journalism.
In order to change our life and the world we live in, we must first change our thoughts and perception. By feeding our brain with solutions, we can start understanding that for every challenge that we experience as individuals and as a collective, there is an opportunity for growth, transformation, innovation and progress.
If you think like me that we need solutions journalism rather than real-time negative news, please share this post!