Crime is going down, but you wouldn’t know that from looking at national media because we still cover the same number of crimes, the same number of murderous trials, so there is a danger that we are not reflecting the world.

– Tony Gallagher

If it bleeds, it leads. – Adage about the news

How does the news affect my health?

In 2014, Harvard researchers asked 2,500 American adults what causes stress in their daily lives. Forty percent admitted that “watching, reading, or listening to the news” was one of their top life stressors.¹ Since then, more studies have shown that learning about bad news hurts our mental health more than listening to good news helps our mental health.²

Unfortunately, the media spends more time focusing on bad news than good news. One study found there are seventeen bits of bad news shared for every one that is about something good.³ That’s because consumers are more likely to pay attention to stories about war, terrorism, bad weather, and natural or manmade disasters.⁴ Psychologists call this our “negativity bias.” We tend to react to bad news faster and remember it better.⁵

All of this bad news damages our health in the following ways:

• Increasing stress hormone (cortisol) levels in our body⁶
• Increasing depressive symptoms, loneliness, and hopelessness⁷
• Creating feelings of anxiety that last beyond the news program⁸
• Making us feel more threatened by others around us⁹
• Triggering post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms^10,11

Studies done after the 9/11 attack and the Boston Marathon bombing showed that people who watched the news had more flashbacks about the attacks. Some even experienced more anxiety than the people who were present at the attacks.^11,12