Fear Not! How To Consume The News Of The Day In Utah

I guess they just can't stop. I get it, it's a slow news day, we've got to get something out and fill up the time. We use a news service here at the radio station and the headline to the first story in our regional feed today was

Upwards of 22 inches of snow to come to some regions.

If you were to go by the headlines of the day, you would think the Snowpocalpse was going to obliterate the entire state of Utah.

To be sure, our weather today was a major change from the warm pleasant days of, well, yesterday. There were some traffic incidents, some tree branches came down and did some damage, and there were scattered power outages. Yet somehow, we managed to get through the day. And, as it was the first (certainly not to be the last) winter storm of the season, getting out information to tell people about the change was prudent. But as most headlines do now, the purpose was to invoke a little fear.

And it's not just stories about the weather on a given day. As I listen to news broadcasts and commentary programs it seems to me there is a continual effort to keep me wound up and in a mild to moderate state of fear. I wonder why that is.

In a somewhat scathing article titled “If It Bleeds, It Leads: Understanding Fear Based Media” Deborah Serani at Psychology Today opened with this salvo

News is a money-making industry. One that doesn't always make the goal to report the facts accurately. Gone are the days of tuning in to be informed straightforwardly about local and national issues. In truth, watching the news can be a psychologically risky pursuit, which could undermine your mental and physical health.

Ouch. And I feel bad because there are many who work in the newsrooms across the nation who really do work hard and getting accurate information for the public to digest. But, as I've written before, fear keeps you locked in to the media, which is just where they want us.

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Maybe I should take the position of an angel or messenger of God and begin every newscast I do by saying “fear not!” We need to not be in a panic mode when we consume the news of the day. If you look at the description of our show on our website it says “we may tell you the news, but we don't necessarily believe it.” Maybe that's why I'm not so afraid these days.