The news has been absolutely miserable (more than usual) for over a year now, for reasons aside from the pandemic. I fully believe that rather than the media aiming to keep us updated and motivated, it has been used as a platform for scaremongering and convincing everyone that the world is far worse than it actually is. When you’re constantly being fed news about the latest riots, deaths and racial battles, do you really want to go out? Or would you rather say home, binge watch a boxset and order pizza to make yourself feel better and avoid the chaos on our screens?
It’s not a new discovery to know that the media cherry picks what it wants to tell you, but there’s still a worrying number of us who will accuse the media of bias, and yet believe it when it shows what they want to see. Case in point; back in 2017 I went to California, and we used Lyft taxis rather a lot. This was still quite soon after Trump became president, and my colleagues actually advised me against going to America due to all the unrest over there. Riots and protests were being shown on every news outlet, but when we got there, I didn’t see a hint of trouble. One of our Lyft drivers, a young black gay actor and one of the perceived targets of Trump’s agenda, was actually in support of him over what rioters there were, and critical of how the country was being shown to the rest of the world. In fact, he’d not seen any riots either.
The thing is, if we see a story reported constantly, it convinces us that it happens much more often than it does. It was the case for the tragic terrorist attack in Manchester at the Arianna Grande concert. It was reported persistently for weeks, and dominated our screens on a daily basis. People started avoiding large crowds altogether. Perceived risk was at an all time high, but actual risk was still at rock bottom.
I also question why the media reports a lot of what it does for any other motive than to frighten. The blood clot scare of the Astra Zenica vaccine, for example. Worldwide news was made because 6 people had been found to have developed blood clots, and these 6 people were 6 of 8 million who had received their first dose. The chances of the blood clot as a side effect was literally lower than the chances of dying on the way to getting the vaccine via car. So why did we need to know that there was a suspected link? We didn’t, not until it was confirmed. As of today, it’s still stated as a ‘possible link.
The thing is, the news reports on the out of the ordinary. If a plane crashes, this rare anomaly will typically be reported for weeks and perhaps months. If there is an act of violence committed by one group to another, it will be reported. If it’s within the group, such as male on male violence? Not so much. Why? Because it’s more common place. But when this is all we see of a world in which we cannot travel to these places ourselves, we paint a picture based on evidence. This creates animosity and outlandish suggestions of curfews for men as a solution to violence against women, or courses for white people to convince them that although they do not actually care what race someone is, they are expected to see race and treat people differently by the same groups who say they want equality. Or a group of people get tarnished with the same brush because one unreasonable person is chosen to represent them on breakfast shows. Generally, we are good, reasonable people who just want to see the world as a better place. But that means interacting, not just witnessing. It means talking to people and learning about their thoughts and opinions, not shutting them down because they’re different to your own. If you don’t want to be friends with them, you dont have to be. If you don’t want to watch the news, you dont have to. If you want to but don’t like what you see, do some research. You might find what they leave out.
Paint a Mental Picture 