What's Wrong with the News?

I had to write a persuasive essay for school, just before the winter break. Just got it back after it was graded by my teacher. Score 100/100 - cool! 

We first had to pick a topic, then write a plan then then write a draft. . The our teacher had us submit the essay to a site called turnitin.com which checks the essay for plagarism. Then we had to submit our essays to her

What’s Wrong with the News?
(Violence, a consequence of  TV News!)

We were in the airport departure lounge for a mere 40 minutes. The same news channel was on all of the half-dozen TV screens all around. Two rapes, a murder and a teacher's affair with a minor student! All in rapid succession -one after the other!  The graphic images of these violent acts carried on in the viewer's mind, long after the news program was done. I now get why my family does not watch much TV news anymore!

When did news morph from "information" to "all that's violent in the world"? Why not just call them crime reports or sensational reports.

One may well argue that "crimes" and other such "news", needs to be reported, just so that people are aware of the injustices of the world. That it is, in fact, a moral obligation. Indeed, many efforts to rectify problems arise from our awareness of their existence in the world. Would the rest of the world been aware of the Tiananmen Square massacre of student protestors (instances of human rights abuse), if they had not been seen it on the news? Freedom struggles throughout the world have benefited from the exposure of their issues on TV. In that sense, such exposure is noteworthy. 

However, since when did positives stop being newsworthy? Surely, the entire human population (or even a subset of your city) is not engaged in heinous acts 24x7. Does a "positive" have to cross the threshold of "sensational" to become newsworthy?  Man, a social animal, is constantly shaped and conditioned by what he sees, hears and is exposed to. Can this constant and focused bombardment of crime and negativity be   positive for the psyche of our society? Have we thought through its implications?  And we wonder why crime and violence is on the rise in our cities. According to the Senate Judiciary Committee Report, 1999, "Television alone is responsible for 10% of youth violence."

Truth be told, this constant diet of violent images is desensitizing our minds to the act of violence itself. As each mental threshold to violent images is crossed, the networks seek out and display, even greater violent images. Violence has acquired lighter shades of gray, where it's "acceptable" or even "ok".

There has been much talk of legislative regulation of media violence with regards to its effect on children. This has been the result of studies focused on children’s entertainment programs – movies, games, cartoons etc. Such initiatives are indeed commendable. Shockingly, such statistics and guidelines on TV violence do not include the “news." Parents are given guidelines (PG 13 etc) for “fictional” programming. However, the V-chip on newer TVs (which blocks transmission of violent programs into homes), does not take into consideration news and sports programs. Are we sending confusing signals, when it comes to the news programs? Is this violence "ok," because its “real-life,” compared to violence in other programming? 

Invariably, children do end up seeing a lot of violence via news programming. Even if it's limited at home, it's on the TV monitors at the gym (even places like the family friendly YMCA), at restaurants, and yes, even the airport. And one does come across the news inadvertently, when looking for other programs on TV. According to Dr Juliette H. Walma van der Molen(1)  , “children depend heavily on television news to stay informed.” 

Just this month, a fifteen year old held his classmates hostage, and finally killed himself. It was widely reported and analyzed on the news. Are you surprised? Such incidents no longer seem like random acts of violence. Indeed, it could well be that the continual influence of violent images psychologically leads to more mental disturbances and aggression. Studies have indeed confirmed these effects.  For instance, Huesmann LR, Moise-Titus J, Podolski CL and Eron LD(2)  observed “short-term aggressive behavior” (due to heightened arousal processes) and long-term learning of violent-scripts” (after repeated exposure to violence on the news)”. Since the “real-world” is presented as constantly violent on the news, children feel justified in being aggressive themselves, as a means of conflict-resolution.

What about it's effects on adults? The human life span extends a good 8-9 decades. A good portion of the human life is spent in adulthood. Can the human mind sustain such incessant bombardment? Just as we are told about the power of positive thinking, it is possible that the reverse (negative behaviors) may be the effect of negative thinking brought on by incessant negative images. A study done by Tamyra Pierce(3)  , showed that repeated use of words like, “shoot, kill, gun etc. by the media, triggered aggressive thoughts in insecure individuals.” 

Crime, violence and negativity make for a "Good News Day!" News programs seem to relish dissecting and analyzing every gory detail of each crime and spend an inordinate number of hours on doing so. Newscasters seem more to try to influence viewers by interjecting their views, or those of "agreeing" experts, than give facts, which is what "news" was supposed to be about.

Sadly, violence has now become an addiction of sorts for our society. We have lost empathy and have become insensitive to acts of violence. We crave to see more and hear more of it. Its influence pervades all aspects of our life. And as with all addicts, we are in a state of denial about our addiction.

In recent times, the only real positive news that took up significant news airtime was the Miners rescue in South America. It was indeed a fine example of the Humanity of Mankind at its best. As a society, we need to re-look and re-examine what “news” really means. If it is a show about trying to influence people’s views and filled with “expert” opinions, it should not be called “news” at all, and should be subject to the same regulations as any entertainment programming. 

Furthermore, news itself need not be negative-centric and need not be extreme. Above all, it should not be sensational-oriented.  Awareness of issues can be brought about without excessive rhetoric and excessive use graphic images, which have such severe negative psychological effects on society.  We also need a good dose of the “positives” to balance the psychological load.   If TV news were more representative of a fair balance, inclusive of the positives of society, and less sensational, would there not be less violence in our society?

How can we bring about this change? Simple action by individuals cumulates into compound results on society. There are the traditional forms such as letters to the editor and letters to your congressman. With the power of the today’s Internet, one can take a single opinion or issue out to millions and help bring about change fairly rapidly.  It takes but a single drop of snow to start an avalanche.

Man as a race, has overcome many an obstacle that has come in the way in the past. There have been periods in our civilization when we have wandered off the main path, but we have always found a way back and have managed to correct some of the wrongs. Man as a race, will continue to do so in the future. That is the power of the Homo-Sapien mind! We can find solutions if we put our mind to it.

- Hari Srinivasan 

Sources
1. Walma van der Molen PhD, Juliette H; “Violence and Suffering in Television News: Towards a Broader Conception of Harmful Television Content for Children” (Department of Communication, University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands)
http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/cgi/content/full/113/6/1771

2. Huesmann LR, Moise-Titus J, Podolski CL, Eron LD. Longitudinal relations between children’s exposure to TV violence and their aggressive and violent behavior in young adulthood: 1977–1992. Dev Psychol.2003; 39 :201 –221

3. Violent News Coverage is Triggering Additional Violence
http://mentalhealth.about.com/library/sci/1102/blvoilence1102.htm

4. National Crime Prevention Council “ Violence in the News”
http://www.ncpc.org/topics/by-audience/parents/media-literacy/violence-in-the-news

5. KidsHealth.org, School Violence and the News
http://kidshealth.org/parent/positive/talk/school_violence.html

6. Violence of TV: The Desensitizing of America
http://www.ridgenet.org/szaflik/tvrating.htm