OPINION: USF students need more positive news

Which article are you more likely to click on: ‘Florida man adopts his 11-year-old grandson’ or ‘Florida man charged with throwing alligator into Wendy’s’?
Chances are you would go for the classic alligator story, but why?
If it bleeds, it leads.
This motto describes not only how most journalists approach reporting news, but also the habits of consumers.
Negative articles are almost twice as likely to be shared on social media platforms than positive ones, according to a 2024 study conducted by Scientific Reports.
The last thing students need in their life is more negativity. This is why students should prove the motto wrong and make an effort to consume and share more positive news.
“Journalists and editors often lean into this negativity bias thinking that will be a solution to having people read, watch and listen,” said Joshua Scacco, an associate professor in the Department of Communication.
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Being intentional about news consumption is necessary because humans are hard-wired to focus on negativity, according to “Humankind: A Hopeful History”, a book by Dutch journalist Rutger Bregman.
These instincts helped us stay alive back in the hunting and gathering days, but arguably do more harm than good in modern society, according to Bregman.
Thinking the world is full of dangers and mean people discourages attempts to make the world a better place.
Bregman explains that negativity bias tells us to pay attention to the bad and makes the negativity stick. Availability bias tells us what we remember, which is the bad, is more common than it actually is.
Negative news can cause feelings of hopelessness and anxiety, according to a 2022 study on Covid-19 related news from the Journal of Medical Internet Research.
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To make matters worse, what consumers choose to pay attention to influences how news is reported on. News headlines have become increasingly more negative since 2000, according to a 2022 study from PLOS One.
If negativity is what is demanded, that is what consumers will get.
This positive feedback loop of negativity causes news avoidance.
Two-thirds of Americans surveyed avoided news about the 2024 election at some point, according to a 2024 survey by USF’S Center for Sustainable Democracy.
“People are just turning off the news altogether, which can be really risky in a democracy,” Scacco said. “Journalists are, in a lot of ways, one of our democracy defenders. The accountability function of journalism is necessary to a democracy.”
Solutions Journalism Network and the Constructive Institute are examples of organizations that aim to improve journalism in order to support democracy. These organizations conduct research and plan events to educate journalists and communities on how to focus more on solutions and less on problems.
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But, what can students do?
Students can practice gratitude in their day-to-day life to promote emotional well-being, without having to avoid news all together.
“Positive psychology focuses on what people can do, instead of what they can’t do,” said Chih-Chin Chou, an expert in positive psychology. “We don’t really learn about showing our gratitude every day. Research shows that if you remind yourself to be thankful, even for the smallest things, it will actually improve your emotions overall.”
Staying up to date on national and global news is especially important for students because what happens today affects our future. While avoiding news might seem like the easiest option, there are far better solutions such as seeking out more optimistic news.
Positive news does not have to be a fluff story, but can also be about real social progress.
Correction: The original version of this story incorrectly cited the National Library of Medicine (NLM) as the publisher of a study about the shareability of negative news. The original version also cited the NLM as the researcher of a 2022 study on the negative impacts of COVID-19 related news and cited the NLM as the researcher on a study about increasing negativity in news headlines.