Plot to blow up Heathrow jets, T.V girl’s stalking, Brit woman executed by Taliban, Alarm as violent crime soars, City worker kills wife - just another average week or so in the newspaper headlines, as we are left scarcely wondering where the saying “no news is good news” comes from. More often than not, what we read about in the paper, and what we see in television reports is in many ways morbid, in most ways heart-wrenching, often tragic or saddening and rarely without the stigma of fear attached. But why? – Surely there is some good in the world? - We all know that there is. Surely the mass media can find something, many things to report on that are positive and comforting? Or is it simply in their interest to keep the public fearful?
Consider this: Every day, your chosen newspaper only ever reported on good deeds and upward turns, the news you watched at night only ever showed pleasant and heart-warming images, and ever so slowly you felt safer and more secure with each passing day. Eventually, you stopped watching the news and would rarely read the paper, as you found less and less reason to pay money to be comforted. - The mass media relies on our fear to create consumption. If we weren’t worried about where not to go at night, if we weren’t fearful of terrorism coming to our homes, if we weren’t worried about murderers, rapists, paedophiles and other criminals, if we weren’t worried about our kids becoming drug addicts, if we didn’t fear rising oil prices or dire inflation and economic times we would rarely find the need to find out where, how, when and why it was going to happen next. Granted, the mass media plays a certain role in ensuring public safety by allowing that we know these often gruesome facts, but how often are the headlines and more ambiguous details misconstrued in ways that pique our fears, and play on our often fragile emotions. How many people are going to walk past a newspaper headline that reads: Man kills family in brutal home invasion?
The human race has long been living vicariously through other people’s misery. We gain perspective and positivity in our lives by lapping up the misery that others are experiencing - whether we like it or not, and whether we are actually even aware or free to choose. We tune in to our favourite reality T.V shows to see who gets voted off next (and how many of those are saturating our screens these days!) we watch documentaries on the lives of the latest, sad freaks of nature that television producers have found in some obscure community somewhere in our world, we watch people dying in horrific accidents on the latest “World’s scariest moments caught on tape!”, and the news itself - you get what I am talking about …
So what’s my point? - The point is, while there is obviously some need for us to be aware of what bad is being done in our world, maybe the gross amount of fear that the mass media creates (almost always for their own gain) is actually perpetuating the violent crime and addictions, rising oil prices and economic hardship that we are being warned against? -Maybe the fear that is ensuring our consumption is far more real and far more prevalent than it needs to be? After all, no news is good news right?
