Have you ever heard of the term “if it bleeds, it leads”? The phrase was coined in the late 19th century by William Randolph Hearst, who noticed that stories involving horrific incidents were the ones that got the most attention.1 This certainly still holds weight today, and if you were to turn on the news right now, you’d probably be met with something distressing.
A generation ago, you had to actively seek the news out, but nowadays, it finds you. If something big happens in the world, you’re going to know about it within a few hours through your phone notifications or social media posts. This creates an information overload that can seriously affect your mental health without you realizing it.
Understanding that the news can affect your mental health is one thing, but knowing exactly how this happens can help you recognize when it’s happening. In this article, we look at six ways news-induced stress can affect your well-being, and what you can do to manage it.
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How Global News Can Impact Your Mental Health
1. An Increase in Anxiety Symptoms
When you’re exposed to constant negative headlines, it can keep your brain in a low-level state of alertness. You might not be directly affected by the events being reported, but your nervous system doesn’t know how to make that distinction.
Studies back this up and have shown that exposure to news coverage of traumatic events predicts symptoms of anxiety even in people who weren’t involved and have no connection to what happened.2
One study showed that higher media consumption was strongly linked to higher levels of both anxiety and depression across the general population.3 The problem is that media anxiety can build gradually without you realizing it, which can make it so difficult to manage.
2. Emotional Fatigue
24/7 news is a big factor in news-induced stress. Just the sheer number of stories you’re exposed to on a daily basis can max out your emotional capacity. Our brains have limits on how much information we can process at once, and if you’re constantly overloading it, this can lead to feelings of detachment or burnout.4
This is what’s sometimes referred to as news fatigue, and it’s a recognized response to information overload and anxiety.
The COVID-19 pandemic and resulting lockdowns presented the perfect opportunity to observe this. One study found that self-reported anxiety and depression increased as exposure to distressing news about the pandemic continued.5 The people in the study weren’t able to build resilience to the coverage, and instead, the continued exposure led to ongoing traumatization.6
If you’ve noticed yourself feeling emotionally flat after consuming the news, science recognizes that response makes complete sense.
3. Feeling Helpless
Global problems like conflict or climate change can feel impossibly large. You’re aware of them, but there’s very little you can do to change them.
This creates a gap between awareness and control, which can lead to frustration and feelings of helplessness.
Psychologists have studied this pattern for decades. When people are repeatedly exposed to problems they can’t control, they can begin to disengage.6 In some cases, this can mean they completely give up on trying to change anything at all.6
4. Impact on Sleep
Most of us are aware of how bad a habit scrolling before bed is. Part of this comes down to the screens themselves, as blue light can suppress melatonin production, which can cause problems with sleep.7
But it’s also the content you’re absorbing that can have an effect. If you’re doomscrolling distressing news before bed, it keeps your brain in an alert state that makes winding down for sleep much more difficult. This can leave you feeling more anxious and stressed the next day.
5. Mood Changes Throughout The Day
A decade or two ago, you might have caught your parents reading the paper over breakfast or watching the evening bulletin before bed. The news arrived at set points during the day, and then it stopped. Now it doesn’t. It’s available around the clock, and with that constant access comes the possibility of it influencing how you feel at any given moment.
You might start the day with something positive, scroll past something irritating on your commute, read a worrying headline over lunch, and then come across something genuinely distressing on your break. Each one lands differently, but they stack up.
Research has shown that this kind of daily news exposure is directly linked to fluctuations in worry and optimism, with the effects accumulating through small exposures across the day.2
6. Social Tension
Aside from conflict and devastation, the news also regularly covers political and ideological issues that people feel strongly about. Disagreements with friends and family about these hot topics can become very frequent and incredibly heated.
Research has shown that news consumption is associated with more polarized attitudes on social and political issues. One study found that the type of news people consumed predicted how strongly they held certain political views, and that this effect persisted over time.8
How to Manage the Emotional Impact of Global News
In an ideal world, the simplest solution to dealing with the emotional impact of global news would be to disconnect from it completely. But the reality is that it’s not practical for most people. Some of us need the news for work, others just want to stay informed about what’s happening around them, and there’s nothing wrong with that. What matters is having a few strategies in place so that staying connected doesn’t come at the cost of your mental health.
Below, we take a closer look at actionable tips to cope with media-induced stress:
Control the Amount of News You Consume
A lot of the effects we have covered come back to how much news you’re consuming and when you’re consuming it. Rather than cutting it out entirely, try setting a specific window during the day to check updates and sticking to it. This gives your brain a clear boundary between being informed and being overburdened.
If your sleep is being affected, creating a cut-off point in the evening, ideally an hour before bed, can let your brain unwind. The goal is to stay informed on your own terms rather than being pulled into fear-based news and anxiety every time you pick up your phone.
Understand How the News Affects Your Perception
When most of what you’re reading is negative, your view of the world starts to reflect that. News is curated to highlight extremes because that’s what generates attention, but it doesn’t always represent the full picture.
Actively seeking out context around stories, or balancing your intake with data-driven or solution-focused reporting, can help ground your perspective. For example, when you read a distressing new fact or stat, try to find the source of the claim within the article. If it’s a reputable source, there will be links for you to continue your own research.
When you’re able to independently research the sources and information that a news story presents to you, it gives you a chance to fact-check it for yourself.
Dealing With Feelings of Helplessness
Global issues can feel impossibly large, and consuming news about them without any way to respond can leave you feeling stuck. The fix here is to shrink the focus to something within your control.
For example, if you’re worried about climate change, you could learn different ways to manage your own energy consumption. You don’t need to solve the problem on a global scale. By doing what you can within your own means, you can help to lift the feelings of helplessness.
What if I’m Struggling to Manage the Impact of News on My Mental Health?
If you’ve found that even after taking protective measures, chronic stress from media is still causing issues with your mental health, it may be worth looking at why that is.
In some cases, the coping methods covered above are enough to bring things back to a manageable level. But if the emotional response to news has become something more ingrained, this is sometimes referred to as headline stress disorder.9 This term is used to describe a persistent state of stress and anxiety that is directly tied to news consumption.
It’s not a formal clinical diagnosis, but it describes a pattern that therapists and psychologists are seeing more frequently.
If you’re finding that your reaction to the news is affecting your sleep, your mood, your relationships, or your ability to get through a normal day, that’s worth taking seriously.
Speaking with a mental health professional at AMFM can help you understand whether what you’re experiencing goes beyond general stress and into something that would benefit from structured support. Contact A Mission For Michael today, and a member of our team will happily listen to any questions you may have.
References
- Reis, J. (2023, April 14). If it bleeds, it leads: Crime reporting. International Council for Media Literacy. https://ic4ml.org/blogs/if-it-bleeds-it-leads-crime-reporting/
- Kellerman, J. K., Hamilton, J. L., Selby, E. A., & Kleiman, E. M. (2022). The mental health impact of daily news exposure during the COVID-19 pandemic: An ecological momentary assessment study. JMIR Mental Health, 9(5). https://doi.org/10.2196/36966
- Neill, R. D., Blair, C., Best, P., McGlinchey, E., & Armour, C. (2021). Media consumption and mental health during COVID-19 lockdown: A UK cross-sectional study across England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. Journal of Public Health, 31. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10389-021-01506-0
- Cowan, N. (2010). The magical mystery four: How is working memory capacity limited, and why? Current Directions in Psychological Science, 19(1), 51–57. https://doi.org/10.1177/0963721409359277
- Grygarová, D., Adámek, P., Juríčková, V., Horáček, J., Bakštein, E., Fajnerová, I., & Kesner, L. (2022). Impact of a long lockdown on mental health and the role of media use: Web-based survey study. JMIR Mental Health, 9(6), e36050. https://doi.org/10.2196/36050
- Maier, S. F., & Seligman, M. E. P. (2016). Learned helplessness at fifty: Insights from neuroscience. Psychological Review, 123(4), 349–367. https://doi.org/10.1037/rev0000033
- Han, X., Zhou, E., & Liu, D. (2024). Electronic media use and sleep quality: Updated systematic review and meta-analysis. Journal of Medical Internet Research, 26(1), e48356. https://doi.org/10.2196/48356
- Earle, M., & Hodson, G. (2022). News media impact on sociopolitical attitudes. PLOS ONE, 17(3), e0264031. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0264031
- Stosny, S. (2017, March 14). Overcoming headline stress disorder. Psychology Today.https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/anger-in-the-age-entitlement/201703/overcoming-headline-stress-disorder
