Poll Reveals TV News Too Negative

A recent Time/CNN poll in the USA has discovered that 75% of people agreed that the news media is “sensationalist”, 63% found it “too negative” and 73% said they are “sceptical about the accuracya” of the news they are receiving.

Local news programmes in the USA are so dominated by stories of violence and crime that other topics like government, education and the environment are left with little airtime. Network broadcaster John Walters claimed, “This lack of information has resulted in negative feelings towards the media.”

Crime reports, which often serve as lead stories, make up an average of 30.2% of news time on local TV news programmes in the USA. Media researcher Bob Smith reported, “53% of crime reports are about murder, but it is one of the least frequently committed crimes.” Another media study revealed that 42% of all local TV news broadcasts are stories about crime, disaster and war.

One possible reason for this is the local television news is ratings driven. Some market research suggests that viewers like to see stories of crime and violence, which increases the ratings of newscasts. Higher ratings mean higher advertising revenues. Mike Adams, a television executive, explained, “The increase in crime reports is because, on average, almost half the money a local station makes comes from news.”

Many experts believe a steady diet of violence-oriented news broadcasts has serious effects. A spokesman for the National Television Violence Committee stated, “There are three main risks associated with viewing media violence. People learn aggressive behaviour. They become desensitised to real-world violence. These lead to an increased fear of being a victim of violence, resulting in mistrust of others.”

《时代》周刊和美国有线电视新闻网最近在美国进行的一项民意调查发现，75%的人认为新闻媒体是“耸人听闻的”，63%的人认为新闻媒体“过于负面”，73%的人表示他们对所收到的新闻的“准确性持怀疑态度”。

美国的地方新闻节目充斥着暴力和犯罪故事，以至于政府、教育和环境等其他话题几乎没有播出时间。网络广播员约翰·沃尔特斯称：“信息的缺乏导致了人们对媒体的负面情绪。”

犯罪报道通常作为头条新闻，在美国地方电视新闻节目中平均占30.2%的新闻时间。媒体研究员鲍勃·史密斯报告说：“53%的犯罪报告与谋杀有关，但这是最不常见的犯罪之一。”另一项媒体研究显示，42%的地方电视新闻报道都是关于犯罪、灾难和战争的。

一个可能的原因是地方电视新闻是收视率驱动的。一些市场研究表明，观众喜欢看到犯罪和暴力的故事，这提高了新闻节目的收视率。更高的收视率意味着更高的广告收入。电视主管迈克·亚当斯（Mike Adams）解释说：“犯罪报告的增加是因为，平均而言，地方电视台几乎一半的收入来自新闻。”

许多专家认为，长期收看以暴力为导向的新闻广播会产生严重影响。国家电视暴力委员会的一位发言人表示：“观看媒体暴力有三大风险。人们学会了攻击性行为。他们对现实世界的暴力变得麻木。这导致人们越来越害怕成为暴力的受害者，从而产生对他人的不信任。”