This week's EcoTrain Question of the Week (QotW):

To what extent is the negative media bias responsible for depression?

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Influence

We become more like the top 10 people that we hang out with, just like we start to think along the lines of the information that we take in (especially when consuming information in a non critical nature like with TV consumption- more on that later.)

In fact, the first definition that comes up when you google Influence, the example the dictionary provides is an oddly close representation of the television's influential impact.

I think it goes without saying that the media and television in general have a huge influence on the people who consume it.

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I say consume because media is prepared and presented to us in a way to make it easily slip into our consciousnesses. There are many documentaries and studies which go into this. Perhaps the most complete is a British television documentary series called The Century of the Self.

In episode one, Curtis says, "This series is about how those in power have used Freud's theories to try and control the dangerous crowd in an age of mass democracy."

Television as a Means of Control

It is clear that "those in power" have long used the television as a way to sway and control the masses. Advertising is the backbone of this. Giving us cues in what to WANT, how we can consume to be better, prettier, more, cooler, etc ad naseum.

It makes sense, then, that the negative bias of the media is a calculated approach by those in power. Why would it be anything less?

Given the shocking but not surprising statistics on the television use, there is no question that the media has sway on the minds of those who consume it:

A few US statistics will show us the extent of the phenomenon: 99 % of households own at least one TV; there are 2.24 TVs per family; the television remains open 7 hours a day; 66 % eat in front of their television sets. The addiction starts right after birth, since 30% of kids who are 0 to 1 year old and 47 % of the 5 to 8 year-olds have televisions in their rooms. A typical US child spends 3.5 minutes per week in meaningful conversation with a parent, but 1680 minutes per week in front of TV. Is this why television is called the “one-eyed babysitter”? By the time they are 65, most people have seen 2,000,000 TV ads. This phenomenon is becoming global.

and furthermore:

Tavistock hastened to study the effects of television on human behavior as early as the 1940’s. Its researchers discovered that 30 seconds after one starts watching TV, the brain automatically begins to produce alpha waves, a modified state of consciousness. The viewer goes into a trance-like mode, a type of light hypnosis. All their attention becomes concentrated on the screen, while the rest of their environment is ignored. In this semi-conscious state, they become highly susceptible to the messages contained in the programs, especially the commercials, which are created especially for that purpose.

Given that the subconscious deals in symbols and images and given the hypnotic nature of the television, there is no doubt that the negative media bias is causing depression.

We are in a less critical state because of the very nature of the medium. The overwhelmingly negative media bias cannot help but then seep into the television consumers on a deep level.

This added with human's natural "negativity bias" is a ripe recipe for depression.

There is no shortage of psychology studies explaining why we love to read and watch bad news. Our brains make us do it. Negative events are more memorable and emotionally impactful than good ones. And the media only give the people what they want.

Perhaps we're asking for it with our attention!

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Vicious Cycle

To this effect, I believe that the media FOCUSES more often on negative news because it sells. We in turn are overrun with negative news which we keep watching as it's "stickier" and we're even oddly drawn to it.

Anxiety, depression, violence, feelings of powerlessness, negative outlook about life and our future, isolation, Othering... these are all outcomes of this vicious self perpetuating cycle. This allows the people in control to further their wars, hateful rhetoric and "othering" as people buy into the news stories with their attention and belief.

An interesting question that arises for me, then, is if the media portrayed more positive information would we be as interested? Would we want to watch?

Some studies say that we wouldn't- that positive news doesn't sell. If this is the case, then, humans are choosing this anxiety-producing news and therefore stuck in a cycle of depression.

As British psychologist Dr. Graham Davey says about this depressive cycle:

“These images change our overall mood to a more negative one — more sad or more anxious — and it is this change in mood that leads to psychological changes in the way we attend to things around us (e.g. we are more likely to pick out things in our environment that are potentially negative or threatening),” Davey explains. “This can have a vicious cycle effect on mood generally for some time.”

Kill Your TV

Personally I don't watch the television. I can't stand commercials and their bids at our attention to "tell us what we need" or how we should live. Furthermore, The media bias is not only negative, it is also usually not the full news or such a swayed version that I can't even stand to watch it.

Each time I turn on the local news, for example, the focus on negativity and the "uglyness" of the world just truly turns me off, so I turn it off. Why fill our minds with that?

I am all about understanding and keeping up with current events and I do keep myself informed with democratic and non-elite funded or edited news sources like Democracy Now, but I take this in small doses when I have emotional space to clearly perceive the world situation. I think one reason that depression and anxiety is such a large side effect of traditional media consumption because people take it in all too often.

We don't need to "close ourselves off to the realities of the world", but neither do we need to be continually burdened, saddened, overwhelmed by the news either. We must seek a healthy balance in taking in the "negative" news of the world.

Just a gentle reminder: If you find yourself getting lost, turn the TV off for a while...
-- Or turn on some Positive News --

Seán Dagan, founder of Positive News, the world's first newspaper dedicated to reporting positive developments and potential solutions to the problems society faces, champions a more balanced and constructive news media. His TED talk is worth watching:

The Positive Future of Journalism

“What fascinates me about the media is that it doesn’t just mirror society; it also moves society. Where the news places its focus affects our thoughts, our focus, our conversations, our beliefs, and our choices and actions, which ripple out into the world."

“We have a choice as to which lens we take to look at the world, and a choice as to what kinds of stories we create and bring our attention to. So my vision is for a news media that increasingly waters the seeds of transformation by reporting in a way that, rather than triggering fear, instead triggers the human spirit. We can bring our attention to those stories that make us come alive. Because if we change the story, we change the world.”

What are your thoughts? Feel free to write your own post answering this week's #ecoTrain QotW.