by Gyulim Jessica Kang
Photo by Kelly Sikkema on Unsplash
During lockdown, complete solitude rendered technology my sole means of communication with friends, some of whom live in the United States. We'd type furiously into group chats every day, our conversations encompassing all that we'd encountered in the news: headlines about how receiving vaccination won't ease any limitations because there still exist too many unknowns. How highly contagious virus variants blunt the vaccines’ efficiency, exacerbating growing concerns that the nation teeters on the cusp of another surge. Even after lockdown, the increasingly negative news cycle left us all in relentless distress, skewing our abilities to think objectively; we came to view even the occasional good news along the way with a growing cynical eye.
In times of reigning uncertainty and vulnerability, it’s often our first instinct to turn to the authorities—to the news. No doubt, there’s nothing wrong with realism and caution in proportion.
But what if the authorities too are lost in fear, bombarding our inboxes day after day with anxious speculations about worst-case scenarios and forlorn claims of impending catastrophe? The critical issue of today’s “bad-news-bias” is how specific facts are thrust into the spotlight while others remain neglected backstage, effectively downplaying triumph and amplifying alarm.
A Dartmouth-Brown study sheds further light on this trend, conducting keyword analyses dissecting the tones of COVID19-related English-news articles written since January 2020. According to the findings, 87% of COVID coverage in national U.S, major media possessed a dominant-negative writing style compared to 51% in international media. COVID19 vaccine stories in the U.S. were also 38 percentage points more likely to be pessimistic than stories within non-U.S. general media.
These results reflect an angled representation of reality present within the media’s emphatic warnings about the vaccines’ limitations. By drastically reducing hospitalizations and deaths, all five vaccines have turned the tables for humanity since their swift launch and implementation. As even mild cases count towards failure, the vaccine efficacies reported in the news are often understated. What’s more impressive is the capability of vaccines in these “failed” cases to turn COVID19 and its rampaging variants into the typical flu: a truly profound success.
Many journalists may worry that a heightened sense of security arising from positive coverage will lead to reckless behavior, eventually reversing our hard-earned progress. Though understandable, the most effective, authentic communication can only occur when the media adopts complete transparency with its audience. Establishing mutual trust relationships will empower the press to discuss the pandemic in more concrete, illuminating terms: the hows, the whys, and their implications.
Let us begin to envision a better future.
Not because the end is imminent, but because that’s how we humans make it through the finish line—by fully commemorating past victories and recognizing the work that still lies ahead.
References
Leonhardt, David. Bad News Bias. 24 Mar. 2021, www.nytimes.com/2021/03/24/briefing/boulder-shooting-george-segal-astrazeneca.html?smid=url-share.
Leonhardt, David. “Good Vaccine News.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 1 Feb. 2021, www.nytimes.com/2021/02/01/briefing/vaccination-myanmar-coup-rochester-police.html?smid=url-share.
Ries, Julia. “A Comparison Of The 5 Leading COVID-19 Vaccines.” HuffPost, HuffPost, 12 Apr. 2021, www.huffpost.com/entry/how-covid-vaccines-compare_l_60186e8fc5b6aa4bad36a3b0.
Sacerdote, Bruce, et al. National Bureau of Economic Research, 2021, Why Is All COVID-19 News Bad News?, cpb-us-e1.wpmucdn.com/sites.dartmouth.edu/dist/4/2318/files/2021/03/Why-Is-All-Covid-News-Bad-News-3_22_21.pdf.
Sax, Paul. “Covid-19 Vaccine—Frequently Asked Questions.” https://www.nejm.org, The New England Journal of Medicine, Mar. 2021, www.nejm.org/covid-vaccine/faq.
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