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Negativity drives online news consumption

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Re: Negativity drives online news consumption

#91

Post by luckylion »

dsfyu404ed wrote: post #62
wafriedemann wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Very interesting point. The other type is people who think they'll be on top after a society-breaking external event. It's a very bitter and passive attitude. Something to hold on to for the ones who don't have the power to do things themselves. I guess News just mirror that attitude. In a less dramatic way negative News distract you from your own problems for a while.

Of course everyone loses to an extent in a collapse but power is relative. And short of a meteor collapses are usually partial (e.g. the roman empire fell but the church remained and consolidated power). You can only paint with a broad brush but it's not exactly hard to pick out groups that will be net recipients of relative power and wealth in various collapse scenarios. If the financial system collapses people who…

In my experience, it's not those that are likely to be better off after a catastrophe who are looking for it. They are already pretty well off, they have a lot to lose in chaos.

Those who don't have a lot to lose are more interested in a chaotic phase that rolls the dice and will quickly reshuffle the social order. The rich are moving into gated communities, they're not looking forward to living in a mad max world -- they're trying to keep that world out.

Re: Negativity drives online news consumption

#92

Post by russellbeattie »

This is just one form of “information ochlocracy” in all forms of media. Ochlocracy is the evil cousin of democracy - basically mob rule.

Because the business model of media (old or new) requires a large audience, the least common denominator inexorably pushes content towards the basest human emotions and targets the least educated (as they are the vast majority of people).

This is how we end up with the History channel focusing on Nazis and Ancient Aliens and Bravo transforming from a channel focused on the arts such as Opera, to broadcasting Real Housewives non stop.

In terms of social media, it’s the same incentives. Those that post or share the most inflammatory content get more reactions and engagement. Even cat pics produce the same level of emotion, except on the opposite end of the spectrum.

What’s not rewarded is intelligent discourse. See also “eternal September”.

A nice new trend is the small newsletter subscription model, where those that most appreciate in-depth, detailed thought are able to support it directly. But this model is simply a boutique solution, and it won’t result in another Time Warner.

Re: Negativity drives online news consumption

#93

Post by jckahn »

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…

I consider myself a happy person and love to stay on top of the news. It makes the day more interesting.

Re: Negativity drives online news consumption

#94

Post by npunt »

glomgril wrote: post #79
olliecornelia wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

That's kinda how the pandemic felt to a degree. A happier than average time in my personal life, despite (or perhaps due in part to?!) all the carnage and pandemonium throughout the world. Feels wrong to say, but I will look back on my experience of the pandemic fondly.

Agree, the pandemic didn't hit the way I expected and I've heard many with similar experiences. This type of response (generally speaking, not necessarily you) may for some be driven by hypervigilance, as one of the ways it manifests is a level of calm in emergencies when others are freaking out. Rather paradoxical on the surface, but has to do with adaptation to certain stress levels and threat/friend response. The pandemic made a lot of friends into threats, if you were trying to avoid covid. Safety came from a greater level of suspicion and alertness to surroundings; an unhealthy response in everyday life but rather suitable for a pandemic. Another example is soldiers who come back from war can feel really out of place in civilian life, but in wartime can feel like they're 'home'.

Re: Negativity drives online news consumption

#96

Post by wrp »

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…

Tell me, Avram, surely somewhere there are good things happening? Can't you buy a paper that prints those things?

--The Rabbi in Fiddler on the Roof

Re: Negativity drives online news consumption

#97

Post by glomgril »

npunt wrote: post #94
glomgril wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's kinda how the pandemic felt to a degree. A happier than average time in my personal life, despite (or perhaps due in part to?!) all the carnage and pandemonium throughout the world. Feels wrong to say, but I will look back on my experience of the pandemic fondly.

Agree, the pandemic didn't hit the way I expected and I've heard many with similar experiences. This type of response (generally speaking, not necessarily you) may for some be driven by hypervigilance, as one of the ways it manifests is a level of calm in emergencies when others are freaking out. Rather paradoxical on the surface, but has to do with adaptation to certain stress levels and threat/friend response. The…

Yeah that is consistent with my experience for sure. Probably true for lots of others too. I'm pretty neurotic about dumb shit on a day-to-day basis, but the few times something actually extremely serious has gone wrong in/around my life, it's rarely felt particularly scary or panic-inducing -- maybe even less so than the usual "oh my god I probably left the stove on and the building will burn to the ground and it'll be all my fault!"

Re: Negativity drives online news consumption

#98

Post by now__what »

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…

Happy person speaking. I subscribe to the physical edition of several (paid) local news publications, mostly to keep tabs on local events, new businesses opening, and stuff that requires political engagement (votes, borough and city meetings, etc.) It makes me feel more connected to my community, and I never run out of fun stuff to do :)

I don't bother with online news; most of it is irrelevant to me. If a national story has some bearing on my life, it'll usually end up in the local Sunday paper anyway.

Re: Negativity drives online news consumption

#99

Post by poo-yie »

ilamont wrote: post #81

A tale that predates the "yellow journalism" movement. One of my favorite anecdotes about Ben Franklin (via the Isaacson biography) was his tendency to deliberately gin up stories or controversy in his publications, using fake letters to the editor and other tricks. This was in the mid 1700s. TV news has the same problem. After the Eagles broke up, drummer Don Henley nailed it with one of his first solo hits, Dirty L…

I came to make same comment about Don Henley's song Dirty Laundry. The song sums it up perfectly. It's also a great song musically.

Re: Negativity drives online news consumption

#100

Post by ShroudedNight »

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…

I can definitely recognise similar patterns in my own behaviour and how they relate to mood. Infamy is very effective at rallying what is essentially an ad-hoc community, and so is viscerally attractive when I feel lonely or have feelings adjacent thereof. But the company I find in misery ends up being especially unproductive and unconstructive and hostile to calls to action that are collaborative, or can't guarantee immediate ROI. And so, the payoff I need to feel better, collaborative edification and mutual restoration of hope, doesn't happen, and so I can find myself having spent hours hopping from outrage to outrage, getting progressively worse until exhaustion demands a rest that (hopefully) provides the respite and reset required to pursue a more productive alternative.
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