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A recent Reuters survey found that more people are avoiding news in general due to the constant drumbeat of “depressing” coverage of topics like the coronavirus outbreak.
Nic Newman, the author of the study from the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism, noted that issues that journalists believe to be the most pressing of the day “such as political crises, international conflicts, and global pandemics, seem to be precisely the ones that are turning some people away.”
The study found that 43 percent of those surveyed said they are frustrated by the repetitiveness of coverage regarding round Covid-19 and divisiveness of politics.
The number is nearly twice as many compared to 2016. The survey found that the BBC saw the most noticeable decline and saw a 20 percent drop in interest.
Economists studied English-language news articles written from January 2020 to 2021 and found that 87 percent of stories published by major media outlets in the U.S. were “negative in tone versus 50 percent for non-U.S. major sources and 64 percent for scientific journals.”
The 2021 study, co-authored by Bruce Sacerdote, Ranjan Sehgal, and Molly Cook, also pointed out that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention actually recommended that Americans don’t spend too much time watching the news to preserve their mental health.
News outlets in the U.S. tend to stick with what works. We’ve seen that recently with the Gabby Petito murder. The Trends Journal also reported that mainstream outlets saw the coronavirus as a potential ratings bonanza.
CNN, at the beginning of the outbreak, essentially set up its business model to promote COVID-19 fear. (See “CNN+ CRASHES AT LAUNCH: PUBLIC WON’T SWALLOW CARTOON NEWS CRAP,” “CNN CLOWN SHOW EXPOSES MEDIA’S POLITICAL TIES” and “CNN, HOW LOW CAN YOU GO?”)
CNN’s disgraced former head Jeff Zucker urged editors and producers at the network not to shift focus from coronavirus news updates despite weeks of wall-to-wall coverage of the pandemic.
“You need to stay on the news,” Zucker said, according to a person who listened. “People are coming to CNN for the news right now.”
TRENDPOST: News viewers often forget that the outlets that they watch are owned by media companies that make the bulk sum of their money in movies and entertainment. CNN’s new chief, Chris Licht, made his bones in what these clowns call “journalism” as the executive producer of idiotic Stephen Colbert late night live cartoon show.
However, regardless of the county, the vast majority tune into mainstream “news,” and obediently swallow the crap that they are fed.
As we say, “Stay on the mainstream and stay out of touch.”