America's bad news bias is a feature not a bug
On Good Friday 1930, BBC listeners heard 'There is no news tonight'
Bad news bias is not breaking news. Recently published research by Bruce Sacerdote (pdf), an economics professor at Dartmouth College, asked a troubling question: “Why is all Covid-19 news bad news?”
The paper covered the negative “tone” of the US media, versus non-US media. It found that 87 per cent of pandemic coverage in the US is negative, versus 50 per cent for non-US major sources and 64 per cent for scientific journals. The persistent negativity had nothing to do with the political leanings of the audience.
It was all so different from the way the media once regarded the news. A London Review of Books piece (paywall) noted that on Good Friday 1930, listeners who tuned in to the BBC for the 6.30 evening news bulletin heard that “There is no news tonight”. And “piano music filled the hiatus before the next programme”.
It’s fair to say things are a lot less wholesome now, especially in the US. Professor Sacerdote’s paper …
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