If you read a front-page news article, chances are an event has occurred in some part of the world. An earthquake, a bridge collapse, an airplane crash, a conflict in a third world country… all of these stating people dead or dying, and this, even though you might not feel it, releases a cascade of glucocorticoid, triggering your stress levels which in turn turns into a psychological chronic stress.
Why does this happen? Take for example the missing Malaysian plane, flight 370. You read a headline “Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 missing, zero survivors found”. What do you notice on the cover? A stock image of a crashed plane. What does your brain tell you? That flying is dangerous and you will most certainly die.
But what if someone had told you, that the chances of your specific plane going down is one in 11 000 000 000 and that 95% of these crashes have survivors? And that driving a car is around 100 times more dangerous than you hopping on that plane?
Another example of this is terrorism. We live in constant fear of a terrorist attack in our homeland or our city, as those are the most televised and read news of this century.
Why is this? News lead us on the wrong path by producing these kind of cheap news. A human mind is far too sentimental and protective to think rationally on occasions like this, where the risk of actual death by the cause broadcasted is far less than they make it seem. You have a much higher chance of being struck by a lightning (one in 5.5 million) than being in a plane crash or dying from terrorism, yet watching that airplane crash on television makes you feel less comfortable with flying.
In summary; news appeal psychologically to our human nature. They are constructed to make us read the horrible sides of a story, instead of thinking about why we actually are afraid of something that by probability will never happen to you. So why do we keep reading and trusting them instead of thinking rationally?
This post is a thought-provoking discussion about a matter that many of us have experienced. The facts and statistics were interesting as well as relevant and I found them to help put things in perspective.
ReplyDeleteI would have liked to see some sources at the end of this post to confirm those numbers seeing as they are quite specific. I like how the post gets straight to the point, however it could've been even longer in my opinion. The post leaves the reader enlightened about how the modern media works and I think it has fulfilled its purpose by doing so.
Annina makes some good points above, and I must agree with her- this is an effective blog post.
ReplyDeleteIt would be a good addition to try and answer the question you pose in your title, as you end with the same notion (in the form of a question).