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How to Watch the News without Losing Your Mind: Self Help for News Consumers

21 June, 2023 · Jessica Yellin

Founder of News Not Noise and Former CNN Chief White House Correspondent, Jessica Yellin, shares insights on how to turn down the negativity in the news and break through the noise to better communicate and achieve a happier state of mind. 

I’m a journalist. I run my own news brand, News Not Noise. My job demands that I keep my eyes on the horizon, scanning for incoming news like a pilot monitoring the sky for a bogey. In service of this goal I have my phone set to receive alerts from news outlets big and small. That means I get blasted with breaking news all day long.

Here are just a few of the headlines that alerted on my phone recently:

• “Newlywed Found Decapitated in her Home, Her Husband of 3 Months Allegedly
  Confessed to Killing Her.”
• “Harrowing Video Purportedly Shows Last Moments Inside Cabin Before Plane Crash”
• “Mother, 1-Year Old Son Killed in Alaska Polar Bear Attack,”
• “Mom dies trying to rescue 6-year-old while family house burns down.”
• “Rise in Middle Aged White Deaths of Despair”

After a day of reading those, you might want to unplug and relocate to a remote ashram for a life of meditation and prayer for the future of humanity.

The headlines reveal a truth: the news has a negative bias. News organizations highlight the awful or, as we put it in the industry, it’s only news if the plane crashes. The writers at The Family Guy did a phenomenal job of capturing that twisted reality in this clip here. (It’s funny..)

We all know that those sensational and fear-inducing stories don’t improve our understanding of the world or help us execute on important decisions. As news consumers we assume we have to endure the negative bias, in order to get the news we do need.

Why? Because fear sells. So does conflict, sensationalism, rage. The news is filled with stories selected for and framed in terms of the anxiety and outrage they’ll trigger. Conventional wisdom holds, that’s what it takes to get clicks, ratings, ads and profits in this challenging era for the media. But this misses a larger truth. Data and social science show that the news’ negative bias hurts, over the long term. It drives up depression in viewers, shuts down learning among many female viewers, and over time is contributing to the loss of trust in the media. And disengagement. In other words, the very strategies that might capture viewers in the moment, are driving away viewers over the long term.

There is another way.

I know because after 20 years in legacy media – I was CNN’s Chief White House Correspondent — I left to do the news a different way. I launched an independent media brand called News Not Noise. And we did the impossible: we built an organic high powered audience on social and digital media on the promise that we will give our audience information not a panic attack. We do the news without sensationalism. It’s short, shareable, fact-filled, with context and explanation. I was warned this wouldn’t break through. I’ve proven that wrong. Amy Schumer announced her pregnancy on my Instagram newsfeed (@JessicaYellin on Instagram) giving us a global following. The head of Instagram, Adam Mosseri, calls me the disruptor in the news space. I achieved industry leading engagement, organic growth and bootstrapped success by providing smart information in context. And audiences eat it up.

There are a lot of lessons here:

• Understanding the news’ negative bias and orientation to conflict, can help frame a pitch to the press or prepare a client for negative press coverage.
• Understanding the research around news negativity and mood can change the way you and your family/friends engage with the news. I suggest a news diet that can bring mental health learnings into your news habits.
• Understanding how audiences respond to information can help you reframe your pitch or message to build trust with customers, grow an audience, and stand out from the pack.

Anxiety drives clicks short term, but depresses the audience long term. Plenty of people want facts, not panic attacks. I’ve proven that in my own life. I left legacy news to create a more positive, substance focused news brand, and it’s thriving. Lesson: we can counter the news’ negative bias with information, personality, context, and occasionally messages that inspire awe and curiosity. Do that. Reject the dead-mom-plane-crash-polar-bear-attack model of capturing an audience’s attention – and you’ll find yourself with a loyal audience, a winning strategy to break through the noise, and a better, happier state of mind.

Jessica Yellin

An astute political journalist, Jessica Yellin gives audiences an inside look at the issues and personalities shaping current events.