More and more people are opting out of reading or watching the news. They are overwhelmed by the scale and urgency of global crises. But it is precisely now that we need more people to get involved in finding solutions to global problems.
Here are a few tips, to help you not give up hope for the world.
This article was first published in Danish by “World’s Best News” at www.verdensbedstenyheder.dk
Over the last two years, media coverage has been saturated by bad news, about issues such as COVID, the war in Ukraine, new heat records and skyrocketing consumer prices. In response, new research is showing that many people are now actively opting out of the news. .
The figures show that more people turn off the news because it puts them in a bad mood, or overwhelms them. And research in Denmark has shown that particularly young people, those under 35, are choosing to avoid news that makes them feel powerless.
People are tired of the media’s focus on problems and conflict. The problem is that ignoring the news can have consequences that are far more serious than a bad mood.
When people stop following the news, they are not only less informed about the world around them, they can also end up withdrawing from the discussions that are the lifeblood of our democracy. Trust in our political institutions is already under pressure, at a time when we need as many people involved in the search for solutions as possible.
Therefore, before you turn off the news completely, remember:
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Journalism tends to focus on conflicts, and on the here and now.
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International development and human progress, on the other hand, often take many years – and that is why the big stories rarely become breaking news. The “news” has not covered some of the biggest stories of our time. In a huge number of areas, we have made astonishing progress: Since 1990 1.2 billion people have lifted themselves out of extreme poverty; two billion people have gained access to clean drinking water since the year 2000; 20,000 more newborns survive every single day compared to 1990; and for the first time ever nine out of every ten children in the world are now enrolled in education. The list of advances does not stop here, although they rarely make the front page. The world’s problems are real – but so are the solutions and the progress we are making.
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The constant focus on problems influences our perception of the world.
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News coverage tends to reinforce our stereotypes of the world, and the news agenda influences our political agenda. Research shows that very few people realise that poverty rates have fallen worldwide, and many people believe that crime rates are going up, even though the opposite is the case.
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Although solutions may not be obvious, we ARE making progress.
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Climate change is the biggest global challenge of our time, and the scale of the challenge is enough to overwhelm even the biggest optimist. The truth is, we are not on the right track – emissions are not falling. But the work the world has done since the Paris Agreement has lowered the projected temperature increase by about one degree. It’s big, and it proves that the transition is underway. The roll-out of green energy is beginning to pick up space, as prices will continue to fall, and more and more people are making the changes that we need to see happening.
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Long-term progress may well exist alongside current crises.
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With Russia’s attack on Ukraine, the reality of war has become closer to us than it has been in a long time. Many people indicate that they are feeling insecure and anxious, and that they are uncertain about the future. But if we look up from the current crisis and put it in a more long-term perspective, great progress is also being made worldwide when it comes to peace and justice. After the Second World War, deaths from wars have decreased, half of the world’s mine-plagued countries are now free of landmines, global deaths from terrorism are falling significantly again, several countries are abandoning the death penalty, and the global murder rate has fallen sharply. Also remember that even the world’s most seemingly intractable wars (such as those in Colombia, Angola and Sri Lanka) have come to an end. Of course, this does not diminish the horrors in Ukraine, or the seriousness of the situation, but remember that the world may well develop in the right direction in the long run.
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The world is not black and white.
Follow different media that give you a nuanced picture of the world. Many media organisations these days use constructive journalism, covering the challenges of the world by looking at solutions, potential and perspectives on how we move forward.
There are many, many problems and crises in the world. But there is also a lot of positive progress. Just remember that the daily diet of news items we consume obscures that fact.