Overkill

I don't think there is any need to categorise the glut of bad news as a deliberate policy to keep us all cowed and obedient. The media always emphasise bad news, the more spectacularly tragic and gloomy the better. Every so often viewers rebel and demand to hear better, more optimistic, stories and the channels appear to listen and comply, but they drift back into preferring the sensational stuff. There's no selling papers (or getting bums on seats) with good news!

Our local BBC news channel had a FB live chat session last week. Several people asked for more positive news instead of the daily interviews with tearful relatives who’d lost loved ones. They did listen and have been interviewing survivors instead. Much better.

I’d begun to think there was no point in staying in, I might as well catch it and get it over with. It would get us in the end anyway.

Hasn't the news always been repetitive? I used to find I'd watched the news and weather just while having quick tea and toast before going to work. Basically, the same stuff would repeat at 6 pm when I got back.

It's hardly in depth, just surface headlines with a (deliberately chosen) silly 'uplifting' item tacked on the end - to cheer us up, it seems.

People with anxiety will have problems regardless of what's on TV. They'll tend to always think 'worst case scenario', want certainty and need to plan ahead.

The anxious feelings will be attached to some threat, real or imagined. Of course, Coronavirus is plainly here as a real threat - but often the worry is diverted to something smaller and more managable.

Examples;

An entire garden dug over and dedicated to growing fruit and vegetables. There is no shortage, of course, but it makes a good diversion.

Daily phone calls (to myself and others) to check that we're all OK and have enough food stored in our houses - along with a reminder to not go out. (She knows that I walk the dog but wishes I wouldn't.)

Transferring worry from self to others works well, it seems.

The whole 'Project Fear' used to ensure we complied with lockdown rules was being emphasised by continuing news stories

I agree, I think this is the sub agenda. Terrify everyone so they'll obey the lockdown.

I take the point that people at work might watch at different times of the day. On the other hand, there are threads on GN which seem to point to some people not being fully aware of anything that's going on. Neighbours having relatives round, etc. Do they ever watch the news at all, I wonder.

I'm normally one of those news freaks that HAS to see the news several times a day, - BUT not at present. It has become so boring, repetitive, scary and downright depressing that I find myself switching it off or turning over, or simply not switching it on at all... other than just once a day so I keep up to date.

I’m glad other people said they don’t want to see any more distressed relatives. I’m also tired of the constant drip of bad news.
I usually have the daily propaganda on while I’m prepping dinner. Not really listening but alert for anything important and truthful.

My TV isn't working at the moment. I am not rushing to get it fixed.

If I want news, I can get it online. If I want to watch a video, a concert, a documentary, a cookery demonstration, whatever, I can find that online too. I look at what I want to, not what some channel controller thinks I should see. I don't buy a newspaper or read the Sun, Express, Mirror or Sunday Times either online or on paper.

I am as well-informed as anyone else about the progress of the virus and what is being done about it, but I am not made unbearably anxious by being bombarded with pessimism and/or rumour.

Use the off-switch, and unplug the TV from the socket. You won't miss much.

I agree with you bluebelle how are we going to 'unterrify' people and persuade them to go back to work etc.

Quite early on in the lockdown I realised that what was really getting to me and causing me to feel really depressed was the total overload of dire news.
Even the so-called 'good news' stories put out in the morning by BBC Breakfast made me feel more unhappy.
At a time when what so many of us at home so much need is good, light entertainment we have been failed.
The whole 'Project Fear' used to ensure we complied with lockdown rules was being emphasised by continuing news stories, and I wont even go into what some of the (so-called_ 'news'papers were doing.
Took myself in hand.
Just watch Breakfast now for 10-15 minutes each morning, use Red Button to scroll through main news stories (nothing there not about CV0), do watch weather (I find it pretty accurate). Then I turn over to Aljazeera english news channel which tells me what is happening in the rest of the world. Yes, a lot to do with CV19, but also other stories -not necessarily good of floods, storms, shootings, but does remind me that I live on a large planet.
Watch the 5 pm briefing for about 10-14 minutes see the graphs. And that is it.
Thank goodness for my Humax, I have loads of programmes of genres that I enjoy and can watch those. Lots of escapism - for me that is Sci Fi and have many different episodes of Star Trek series I can watch. Also, programmes on Monkey World primates, etc.
This has considerably helped me and I have re-gained my normal optimistic view of the world.
Also found FutureLearn and am thoroughly enjoying a course on there and am spending loads of time absorbed in jigsaw puzzle.
None of the soaps have dealt at all with this - do feel pity for the scriptwriters. Corrie has cut from five to three episodes a week, Neighbours also from five to three. I note now that even The Archers has run out of recorded episodes and are just doing odd repeats.
I am looking forward to next year and planning all the things I had intended to do this year - for me 2020 will become the year that never was.

Im very much with Jane10 on this and personally I think the media have been dire. Some newspapers have almost delighted in whipping up things to frighten people and it's not on. It should be responsible, measured reporting. I watch the headlines and keep updated once a day. I don't buy newspapers as apart from one or two, they are nothing but sensationalist scandal sheets.

Let’s not forget that every channel has 24 hours that they have to fill, but they aren’t allowed to have people in the studio!
It’s easier and cheaper to stick to talking about 1 news subject than try to find other news around the country, with no film crews.
I can foresee endless repeats for years to come, or watching D list celebs pouting in their front rooms, or putting their bins out in their posh frocks.......
Thank heavens for Sky, Amazon and Netflix, their numbers must be increasing.

Definitely we are being subjected to information overload. For people who are anxious or depressed this is just too much but they will feel the need to watch all the reports.
I agree with Luckygirl about grieving relatives. Unfortunately the constant barrage means that the impact is reduced.

I believe what the opening poster and some others are missing is the fact that a great number of people are working, and in that, carrying out long unsocial hours to maintain essential support of all others.

Those persons do not have the opportunity to watch or listen to the news throughout the day. Therefore to see or hear the news broadcasts before the start of their shift or after may be the only opportunity those essential workers get to hear of developments in a situation that places them in far higher risk category just by carrying out their employment.

Of course, to some the extra news broadcasts on their favourite tv channel is "a huge inconvenience" and that is so disturbing to them that they start a thread on the matter on a social media site.

Therefore can I suggest such persons tune to the huge number of television and radio channels available on Freeview and elsewhere that often never broadcast any news whatsoever.

They could then live their lives in sheer bliss.

I agree with BlueBelle that the constant in your face pandemic updates will be causing and exacerbating all sorts of mental health problems that we will have to deal with in the future. I know personally of people with anxiety issues who are finding it impossible to stop watching constantly, despite support and encouragement from their families. It must be so much worse for those on their own.

For most of us, yes, just don’t watch. We sometimes switch the news on at 10pm, otherwise I check the BBC website a couple of times a day for news updates. It’s obvious from there that some major crimes and events that are unrelated to the pandemic are simply not being reported on the TV and radio news now, which is another worry.

I don't think it's overkill considering how the virus is affecting every aspect of our lives, worldwide.

Other major events e.g. terrorism, AIDS, mad cow disease, even wars, never resulted in lockdown, mass loss of jobs, closure of whole industries, shutdown of most public transport and schools, all at the same time. There can be no-one who is not affected.

It's only overkill if you sit glued to the TV all day - which a lot of members seem to do even during normal times!

Yes Luckygirl, positively ghoulish how the camera zooms in on some distressed daughter or heartbroken husband of 50 plus years.
That’s not news, it’s just padding out the facts with what we can well imagine ourselves.

I’m glad the press in this country has the freedom to inform us of the issues that we need to know about and Coronavirus
understandably takes all the headlines right now. They do bang on though!
Anyone whose mental health is fragile - and I’m one of those people - has to keep perspective. I can easily tip into negative thoughts. CBTherapy teaches how to filter out negative thoughts and not allow them to grind you down.
Start each day with positive thoughts about your life, your blessings.
I kept my “help” pages used on my course and read through them often and re-practise them. It keeps me much calmer and more contented with life and lockdown.
Craftyonr - Spot on. I find distraction is a great coping strategy.

Well said, lucky.

One actually doesn't need to watch/listen to any TV or radio to get the news. Reading works as well. Better, probably, if it's in depth commentary you want and different points of view on the same thing.

Luckygirl And nor do I need to see anyone else in tears over a sick or deceased relative. We all know what it feels like to lose someone and do not need to eavesdrop on another's grief

Thank you for saying that. I thought it was just me.
Like others, I listen to the actual news twice or three times a day, and switch off as soon as the petty nitpicking and backbiting starts.

watch youtube about Transylvania (Romania) what a very beautiful laid back country, Don`t watch tv, don`t listen to news or lbc. Watch marie kondo on netflix to inspire you to do do something other than watch tv

Yes tv and radio 4 have this completely wrong, they should be broadcasting uplifting films and programmes

The reason the last two pandemics (1957 and 1968) killing millions worldwide are barely remembered is because we didn’t have this dreadful dreadful constant drip drip drip of all the media’s... newspapers, tv, radio in huge overkill and causing so much panic that is really bad for our mental health

Yes I can switch off and I do, but what about the people who are hanging on to every word and listening to all these constant programmes and becoming totally mentally ill I have one friend who is too frightened to even come to her front door she’s totally spooked

about 2 months ago someone on the radio pointed out that this must be the first time that all over the world the same subject will be on the news.
that brings home the enormity of it.
even the world wars would not have been on the news every day in countries not involved.
take care everyone. don't let your guard slip.

It's a worldwide pandemic that has killed many thousands of people and which has closed down whole economies, building up all sorts of problems for the future. It could be argued that other issues pale into insignificance.

Some might also feel there is not enough coverage of the current virus situation, when very little is being said about the potential for a massive tragedy in poorer areas of the world and in refugee camps.

If you are finding the overload of virus news too much to deal with, just watch the news in the morning and later at night. There are plenty of other things to watch on TV or to listen to on the radio.

And nor do I need to see anyone else in tears over a sick or deceased relative. We all know what it feels like to lose someone and do not need to eavesdrop on another's grief.

I employ the off switch a lot at the moment. I am happy to receive the necessary facts, but I do not want the media to keep trying to find a new angle on the subject - they are flogging a dead horse.