What has happened to "journalists" & mainstream media in 2020?
When you read or listen to the news, sometimes it can feel like the only things reported are terrible, depressing events.
Why does the media concentrate on the bad things in life, rather than the good?
It isn't that these are the only things that happen. Perhaps journalists are drawn to reporting bad news because sudden disaster is more compelling than slow improvements. Or it could be that newsgatherers believe that cynical reports of politicians, elections, climate change, bush fires, global pandemic, trade wars, border closures, house prices falling, stock market wiping billions off the market, soldiers being trialled by media or other unfortunate events make for simpler stories.
Bad news tends to dominate the headlines and one explanation involves something called the negativity bias. This term describes the tendency for people to give more weight to negative information over positive information.
This bias towards negative content has important repercussions where media is concerned, since it affects what gets reported in the news and ultimately how citizens view current affairs.
In 2020 it was a crazy year.
Looking at a timeline of news headlines, you can understand where the negativity comes from…
January
Death toll from bushfire season in the south coast of NSW rises to 7
Death toll from bushfires in Victoria rises to 2
A hail storm sweeps through Canberra. The hail caused significant damage to thousands of cars and homes
Australia confirms its first COVID-19 case in Melbourne
February
A fundraising concert ‘Fire Fight Australia’ is held in Sydney following the Australian bushfires - raising over $10 million
March
Australia records first death from COVID-19
Major supermarket chains begin to ration toilet paper sales, after the pandemic in Australia triggers cases of panic buying
2020 Australian Grand Prix is cancelled due to COVID-19
PM Scott Morrison announces that all travellers arriving in or returning to Australia from overseas must self-isolate for 14 days
Cruise ships were barred from docking in the country
PM Scott Morrison announces that all non-essential indoor gatherings of hundred people or more will be banned. Schools, workplaces and essential services will be exempt.
PM Scott Morrison announces that from 20 March all non-residents will be forbidden from entering the country
Northern Territory, Western Australia & South Australia announced that from 24 March anyone arriving from overseas or interstate will have to self isolate for 14 days
PM Scott Morrison announces from 23 March all pubs, clubs, restaurants, cinemas, and indoor sporting venues across the country will be shut down indefinitely
The cruise ship Ruby Princess disembarked passengers in Sydney, despite several passengers showing symptoms of coronavirus. At least 12 deaths & 700 cases of coronavirus in Australia are linked to this incident.
As a result of the indefinite closure of venues within the hospitality, tourism, leisure, fitness & entertainment industries, the Centrelink and MyGov websites crashed on 23 March, when too many people were trying to apply for unemployment benefits. Huge lines of unemployed people are seen outside Centrelink offices across the country.
The 2020 NRL Season is suspended on 23 March until 28 May.
From 26 March further restrictions were put in place. Weddings limited to 5 people, Funerals limited to 10, food courts closed, social gatherings of more than 10 people are discouraged.
Queensland close borders to other states on 26 March
31 March saw further restrictions implemented. With a two person limit on public gatherings, the banning of all indoor gathering in households, and the closures of playgrounds, skate parks, and outdoor gyms.
April
The high court unanimously quashes Cardinal George Pell’s convictions and substitutes verdicts of acquittal. The Court's summary of its judgment states that there was "a significant possibility that an innocent person has been convicted because the evidence did not establish guilt to the requisite standard of proof"
Perth Airport blocks runways with bulldozers to pressure Virgin Australia Airlines to pay its $16m debt.
In America, the death toll of COVID-19 surpasses 10,000, with 22 million Americans filing for unemployment.
May
Jackie Trad resigns as Deputy Premier of Queensland
A Queensland man is fined for saving the life of a whale
On 28 May, the NRL season resumes
In America, 1.5 million confirmed cases and 90,000 deaths
June
Protests are held in cities across Australia, part of a series of George Floyd protests around the world
11 June the AFL season resumes
A large scale cyber attack against the Australian Government is believed to have occurred.
In America, confirmed cases pass 2 million
July
Victoria locks down its city for six weeks after a surge of coronavirus cases
The border between NSW & VIC is closed for the first time since 1918
An increase in COVID-19 community transmission cases in Sydney are traced back to a resident of Melbourne who travelled across the border before the restrictions came into effect.
Victoria records 428 new cases on 17 July
Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews advises face coverings will be mandatory for all residents of Melbourne when leaving their homes.
In America, President Trump suggests delaying the 2020 presidential election, saying increased voting by mail could lead to fraud and inaccurate results.
August
2 August - Due to the COVID-19 pandemic and escalating numbers of infection rates, especially in the workplace, Victoria declares a state of disaster and stage four restrictions are put in place. This including a police-enforced curfew in metro Melbourne and Mitchell Shire between 8 pm and 5 am, the shutdown of a number of non-essential businesses, exercise only allowed for one hour a day and only one person per household allowed to go shopping once a day and within a 5 km radius of home. As a consequence of rising infection numbers imported from metropolitan Melbourne all other areas of regional Victoria are to enter stage three restrictions previously placed on Melbourne and Mitchell Shire on 5 August
In America, the Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden names Senator Kamala Harris as his vice presidential nominee.
September
The Australian economy goes into recession for the first time in nearly 30 years.
Penrith Panthers win their first minor premiership since 2003, with the Brisbane Broncos claiming their first wooden spoon.
October
Richmond defeat Geelong in the AFL Grand Final in Brisbane
Melbourne defeat Penrith in the NRL Grand Final in Sydney
November
The Australian Defence Force releases the final report of the inquiry by Justice Paul Brereton into alleged war crimes during the War in Afghanistan.
In America, Joe Biden is projected to have won the election. With over 15m cases and 285,000 deaths now recorded in America.
December
Lockdowns, border closures, and wider restrictions across Australia are starting to ease, with the economy starting to open up.
We saw the media add the following words into the Australian vocabulary
Iso - an abbreviation of isolation
Rona - an abbreviation of Corona Virus
Social distancing - means keeping a safe space between yourself and other people who are not from your household.
Doughnut day - days when there were no new cases or deaths from COVID-19
bubbles - used widely to refer to a group of countries, areas or people that formed a closed system to reduce the risk of spreading coronavirus.
COVID normal - A state of adapting to an acceptable level of COVID-19 in the community.
Lockdown - locking people in their homes is now considered a public health measure in Australia
Doomscrolling - the practice of continuing to read news feeds online or on social media, despite the fact that the news is predominantly negative and often upsetting
All in this together - politicians, journalists & celebrities reminded Australians that in a pandemic, individual actions affect everyone, and we all need to do our bit to prevent the spread of COVID-19. However, many Australians found this term a little patronising to suggest that we are “all in this together” when some of us have enough money to cope with this year’s uncertainty without feeling stressed and some of us don’t; some of us have jobs we can seamlessly perform from home and some of us don’t; some of us have enough childcare options to cope with kids being at home and some of us don’t; some of us have to expose ourselves to infection because of the job we do and some of us don’t; some of us absolutely struggled this year and some of us didn’t; and some of us are celebrities with big houses who can make anodyne statements about how we’re all in this together when our lives couldn’t be more different from the millions who spent 2020 struggling to get by as their lives shattered through no fault of their own.
New normal - The change that has taken place is our new normal. Work, home, and social life have all been altered due to COVID-19.
Quarantini - One of several iso-cocktail puns that did the rounds as part of what became the International Year of Copious Drinking. The best recipe includes gin, a hint of vermouth, an olive, a toothpick and a large quantity of absolutely crushing loneliness.
Jobkeeper/Jobseeker - new terms the Australian Government gave to unemployment benefits
Hand Sanitiser - being locked down at home with soap & water was not sufficient to combat the COVID-19 virus, hand sanitiser was promoted as the only thing that could stop, prevent and protect you against COVID-19.
Then there were some common words that were used more frequently to exaggerate the story:
Uncertain times
All in this together
Herd immunity
New normal
Now more than ever
Uncharted waters
Unprecedented
Different lens
Many lazy “journalists” continued to fall back on the same words and phrases to describe what is happening
“As uncertain times have become the new normal…”
A new study involving more than 1,000 people across 17 countries spanning every continent but Antarctica concludes that, on average, people pay more attention to negative news than to positive news.
The findings hint that this human bias toward negative news might be a large part of what drives negative news coverage. But the results also revealed that this negative bias was not shared by everyone, and some even had a positive bias — a sign that there may be a market for positive news.
During negative news stories, participants across all countries showed higher heart rate variability than during positive new stories, which could be due to heightened attention and arousal. Furthermore, those watching negative news showed a greater change in normalized skin conductance levels compared to those watching neutral or positive news. This suggests again that negative news evokes greater physiological arousal from consumers across the globe.
Researchers note the great significance of these findings, which suggest that people all around the world react more strongly to negative news content. While journalists are responsible for producing more negative news, it could be that consumers are demanding it, consciously or not.
Among academics, one explanation for this bias was that journalists were angry people were skeptic that they produced a bunch of negative content, that was bad — as in bad for democracy & bad for people reading news. The suspicion was that the way news looked wasn’t purely a function of what journalists felt but more about what audiences responded to.
There are some evolutionary reasons as to why negativity bias exists, the scientists pointed out. For one thing, it can be much riskier to ignore negative information (a storm is coming) than good news (a dog rescued a boy from a tree). Paying attention to negative news, the researchers said, is generally an effective survival strategy.
What does the media & journalists have to do with your wealth & finances?
For many people, they have limited financial literacy.
Watching the 6pm news of an evening is the only finance news they consume each day.
Therefore, if we know that negative news sells, we understand why the media outlets sensationalise a fall in share prices.
As illustrated below, we can see that billions of dollars were wiped off the share market at different times this year.
However, when the market improves or rises in value, the media brush over the information and start the share market has risen 100 points.
You would be forgiven to think that the Australian Share market had fallen by 15% or even 20%. Or that your super fund had lost tens of thousands of dollars.
However, the YTD performance of the ASX 200 is 0.49% since the start of the year (to 30 November).
On a good day in the market, the positive events are rarely elaborated upon.
Good news does not sell.
There is a lot of white noise out there that can get you off track when you are building your portfolio or achieving your financial goals.
One of the keys to investment success is to avoid the noise. Investment noise is the constant drumbeat of extraneous information that we’re all subjected to day in and day out. It comes to us via the financial press, the internet and even in the workplace. Ignore this noise and your odds for success increase.
The information we listen to or look at affects our outlook and ultimately our actions, even if we don’t believe it does. This is dangerous because our brains are wired for negativity. We listen for bad news three times harder than we listen for good news. This makes it appear that bad news overwhelms good news, which isn’t true in reality.
We’re inundated with negative information in our wired world. The 6 o’clock and 11 o’clock news almost always begins with negative stories of murder, war or natural disaster. On the business front, when the stock market declines by 1% the result is many more negative economic stories than positive ones. On a good day in the market, the positive events leading up to the good day are rarely elaborated upon.
Successful investors begin with a realistic plan for achieving a truthful goal. Then the plan must be implemented and maintained in a cost-effective way. The final step is to stay the course, in part by ignoring the noise. Learn to recognize noise, and then learn to tune it out. This leads to better investment results.