TOgetting used to the bad makes you become indifferent, leads to not reacting and not being indignant anymore. And this is exactly the behavior that too many people are engaging in today because overwhelmed by the bad news and tragedies that the news tells.
Bad news is no longer read
The endless trail of feminicides, the attack by Hamas terrorists in Israel, the deaths at the Bataclan in Paris, but even the everyday stories of cyberbullying, deaths at work, the massacres of young people on the asphalt, the disaster of climate, the migrant boats that shipwreck. At this point the amount of information you receive is so excessive which is as if the user feels some sort of need to defend themselves.
Nowadays the amount of information one receives is incredible and, it happens, it often becomes overwhelming and then it is as if one feels a sort of need to defend oneself (Getty)
What is selective logout
It is no coincidence that in these times we hear talk of selective disconnection which would be a sort of selection of news in front of which the brain is as if to say: stop bad news. This mechanism, which may seem cowardly, However, it serves as a self-defense for one’s mental health. It doesn’t just happen to Italians, in any case: reading the Reuters Institute report, the Digital New Reports 2023in which the entire system is analyzed starting from the boom in visual news on TikTok and Instagram, the phenomenon appears to be worldwidewith peaks in America where 4 out of 10 Americans purposely want to be misinformed about bad news.
How to avoid bad news
This year, however, for the first time, Reuters Institute asked about the different ways people avoid bad news and found that about half try to do so, for example, turning off the radio or scrolling forward on social media when certain news breaks. A second group tends to avoid news by taking more specific actions: such as checking the news less often, for example by turning off mobile phone notifications, or not watching the news last thing in the evening. Others instead choose to avoid some “emotionally taxing” topics that lower mood and increase anxiety.
Solution journalism, the answers from the information world
All of this is obviously creating problems for the news industry and, in fact, many newspapers are trying to address it in various ways. and generic avoidance that specific one. Some, for example, are trying to commission more positive news, others are taking different approaches, such as solution journalism, solution journalisman approach to the news that leaves the reader with a greater sense of hope or a call to action.
Not only the tragedy, but also the possible solutions
The articles in question choose in-depth analysis at the speed of narration and they talk about solutions instead of focusing only on the problems. The focus is shifted and, despite facing tough and dramatic issues, we always look for the way out of the problems, the solution. And so the reader is correctly informed but at the same time does not feel so heartbroken and lost. The so-called “solution journalism” was born at the beginning of this century and saw its turning point in 2010 with the “Fixes” column on the New York Times in which journalists inform, yes, but adding how to solve problems or highlighting what to learn from failures.
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