Negativity drives online news consumption

Post by [deleted] » Fri, Mar 17, 2023, 4:25 PM UTC

pmarreck wrote: post #13

gwbrooks wrote: post #10

Former newspaper city editor here. With few exceptions, positive stories -- although readers clamored for them in surveys -- never drove newsrack sales the way negative stories did. That's why we had a whole section for feel-good features but they didn't usually get prime front-page real estate. In the age of infinite content, headlines have become a sort of drama arms race. But the basic dynamic of what works and wh…

Do you think this is just how we're wired? What is so extremely disappointing to me is that, across many objective measures, many things seem to be improving, yet the perception most people have of reality is the complete opposite, thanks to this perverse incentive.

Post by pixl97 » Fri, Mar 17, 2023, 4:29 PM UTC

SV_BubbleTime wrote: post #27

slickdork wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thank you, that's a great way to describe why I always check the news the moment I wake up.

I figure if that were to happen, the first clue would be the Internet being out. So, might as well load something better than the news.

Post by bleuchase » Fri, Mar 17, 2023, 4:31 PM UTC

Post by gerad » Fri, Mar 17, 2023, 4:35 PM UTC

Post by wafriedemann » Fri, Mar 17, 2023, 4:38 PM UTC

olliecornelia wrote: post #3

numbers_guy wrote: post #2

Maybe it is because happy people do not consume the news? Happy people tend to have full lives and are therefore too busy to waste time ingesting news about events that are not going to personally affect them. Whereas, I can only speak for myself, but when I am down (like right now), I spend lots of time doing nothing but browsing news aggregator websites and leaving comments like this one. And of course, negative ne…

Some people are hoping for a catastrophe that will render all their personal problems irrelevant, be it World War III, environmental disasters or societal collapse. Like a snow day for your whole life.