Negative News being used to control us?

We all know the evening news, and it's barrage of negative images and stories that are thrown at us from all over the world every day, nary a feel good story rarely in sight. But is it just a way of keeping us informed of world events, or is something far more sinister at work here?
Consider this..
news.bbc.co.uk...

A study in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences links "negative" brain activity with a weakened immune system.

Not just keeping us in a state of despair, but a state of illness as well.

And not just controlling our reality, but our dreams.

Did you now that 87% of our thoughts are negative? It’s not a wonder everyone dwells on negativity and one of the major reasons we have so many negative people in this world.

www.lawofattractionsimplified.com...

And controlling our future, through our children.

Children often see or hear the news many times a day through television, radio, newspapers, magazines, and the Internet. Seeing and hearing about local and world events, such as natural disasters, catastrophic events, and crime reports, may cause children to experience stress, anxiety, and fears.

www.aacap.org...

Their is far more to the Media than meets the untrained eyes.

Interesting point, but I reckon in this society, negativity has just become natural to us. We'd rather argue with the person next to us on the bus than have a nice chat with them. I don't believe 'they' conciously use it to control us, it's just become part of what they do. This explains why bad news sells.

I think that this particular subject deserves much more attention from the scientific community. If nothing else the constant barrage of negative and troubling stories and images that we are subjected to simply has to desensitize us as individuals.

reply to post by PeaceUk


You don't think bad news sells because we have been conditioned that way?
To look for the bad and the ugly, and disregard the good as something that happens in fairy tales?

reply to post by RubyGloom


Oh I do indeed. In fact that is what I was trying to get at. It has become such a part of our society now that we've learnt to be negative, and in turn are teaching it to the next generation. Negativity is the new positivity.

Originally posted by PeaceUk
reply to post by RubyGloom

 

Oh I do indeed. In fact that is what I was trying to get at. It has become such a part of our society now that we've learnt to be negative, and in turn are teaching it to the next generation. Negativity is the new positivity.

Very sad to say, but true. I agree with the other post about being desensitized as well. When negative is all you hear, and see, it all becomes one big blur, and nothing really stands out anymore.

reply to post by RubyGloom


This is an interesting post. I think that a constant barage of negative news does affect the psyche and the subconscious. I feel that over the last 18 years there has been a consitent attempt to "dumb down" the average citizen, through entertainment and The Media.

One thing that I also find disturbing is the proliferation of graphic and violent crime dramas on American national TV, centering around law enforcement. I feel it has the simultaneous effect of causing people to mistrust their neighbors and the people around them, while learning to trust, out of fear, law enforcement. It is a new form of subtle propaganda, designed to make people willingly subservient to authority.

I am amazed at how passionate some people are about watching "Law and Order" or CSI two or three times every week. Everytime I see those shows I am repulsed by the stories and murders.

This isnt a new thing "Only bad news are good news" has been a saying in the media industry since they invented printing. The dramatic of aristoteles teaches us that to tell a good story the hero must fail, though in the 4th act it must look like he could succeed, to make the plunge more devastating int the 5th. That is 3000 year old "negativity" Actually hollywood turns that around more often as not (works too, 4th act looks like the hero is going to fail, just to rise even greater in the 5th)

News are *supposed* to report the bad stuff, because the good stuff people will talk about willingly. Want to know what good a company does? just visit their website. Want to know if you *really* want to buy their stocks? watch/read the news

Bad news may be good news for the media industry, but who dictates what they read on the air?
Completely filtered I assure you.
And for the most part, folks around me talk about everything negative, not positive. Their health problems, their money problems, the state of the world and economy.
The bad news by the media is creating a society, of fearful, overweight, unhealthy or angry and violent individuals.
There is no good news in that statement.
I fear for our children, and the future.

News, like all things, don't have a nature. That is the news is is never "good" or "bad". Good and bad are just your own personal conceptual positions.
Another example of this is the rain. Rain is just rain, it is inherently neutral. If you choose to call it "bad" weather when it is raining that is perceptual choice, but the rain itself is not "bad"
Being aware of this disarms any attempt by anyone to manipulate you. Unless of course you choose to let them.

[edit on 7/4/2008 by schrodingers dog]

reply to post by schrodingers dog


I would consider the constant...
War on Terrorism
Violence
Crime
Global Warming
Rising gas prices
Horrible housing market
Rising food prices
Rising statistics of death due to disease
Celebrity faux pas
To be a parade of BAD news always being thrown at me.
Occasionally there is a "Feel Good" story thrown in at the end of the broadcast, or the last page of the newspaper. I suppose this is their idea of a slight balance.
Perhaps this is as you say, my own personal conceptual position.
But Iam not alone.
There really is no point in complaining of the weather, as it cannot be changed. And I rather like the rain.

reply to post by RubyGloom


I'm not trying to say that all those things you mention don't affect us.
I was talking more to the point of manipulation and how it can be avoided throw awareness. Of course your feelings will be affected, but they will not be the tool of those who may wish to manipulate you.

reply to post by schrodingers dog


I see now, what you are saying. However, the masses are very easily manipulated, and that is well known by the media and those who control it.
www.bigeye.com...

He who controls the media controls the masses. Today, America's media is controlled exclusively by fewer than a dozen multinational conglomerates and their many interests. NewsCorp, AOL, Viacom, General Electric, Disney and others have formed a media oligarch that reaches into every American home and most every citizen. These few omnipresent entities hold as paramount the belief in assuring for themselves perpetual loyalty from as many of the masses as possible. Revenue and profit, corporate growth and power, executive pay and ego, these are all determined by us, the masses, and helps explain why the oligarchy has decided to invest and take an interest in all forms of media that reaches and influences us.

*********

"The conscious and intelligent manipulation of the organized habits and opinions of the masses is an important element in democratic society. Those who manipulate this unseen mechanism of society constitute an invisible government which is the true ruling power of our country.

We are governed, our minds are molded, our tastes formed, our ideas suggested, largely by men we have never heard of. This is a logical result of the way in which our democratic society is organized." - Edward Bernays

www.informationliberation.com...

Having worked in Media, I've seen clearly what controls broadcasting. You're living in a dream world if you believe there's some governmental group controling USA media. The only thing controling the media is money, namely ad revinues, namely numbers, namely selling you crap, namely the largest bulk of the population, namely YOU.

Those dollars that control the media are your dollars. If you don't like it, shut it off.

If it looks like a duck, quacks like a duck, and walks like a duck it must be a duck.
I guess being a realist is now hazardous to ones health.

reply to post by RubyGloom


I know.
But careful with words like "masses" and "manipulation". One person's manipulation is another person's sales pitch or religion. And "masses" is an inherently misleading word.
It is but a collection of individuals who make individual choices and who are responsible and accountable for their complicity.
Rarely do you see a Christian go to a synagogue or mosque to learn about other religions.
Few democrats watch Fox news. It's like any relationship, even if manipulative, it requires one's consent. And in many occasions the manipulation is actually invited, if only to reenforce a persons views and ego.
Awareness and denial of your consent will always keep you close to the truth.

The unobserved ego remains a product of the system and ripe for manipulation.


[edit on 7/4/2008 by schrodingers dog]

reply to post by Incarnated

You're living in a dream world if you believe there's some governmental group controling USA media.

Working in the media, does not make you the all seeing eye of what goes on behind the scenes. I do not recall using the term "Governmental Agency" anywhere either.
The dream world, is the one created BY the media..FOR US.

Originally posted by schrodingers dog
"But careful with words like "masses" and "manipulation". One person's manipulation is another person's sales pitch or religion. And "masses" is an inherently misleading word.

You are correct, but that is the word I chose to make my point, as it is the most widely accepted when speaking of all grouped together in society.

reply to post by RubyGloom


Interesting post. I have often wondered myself the very same thing!
It's strange that when you open a newspaper, its full of articles about murders, stabbings, kidnapping but there seems to be an insignificant amount of articles relating to something nice (positive) in comparison.

I'm not sure if this is a deliberate amount to control or manipulate us and I reckon it probably is purely down to money. However, two interesting questions can be raised:

1. Like someone has previously said, it would be very interesting to have a scientific evaluation of how listening/reading these negative news articles on a daily basis affect us?

Imagine when you driving in the car on a long journey and your listening to the radio, top story is a stabbing in London for example & the suicide of a TV presenter, these two stories get repeated at each and every news broadcast that day (usually on the hour and half past the hour) If you was driving an 8 hour long journey then you would have listened to these stories 16 times!!! Can't be good to be exposured to that much negativity!

2. The second question is slightly more depressing (or worrying?), as someone has said "only bad news is good news" which I agree with, not personally as I would rather read something nice in the paper, but from my experience most people wouldn't. Why is it that as human beings we seem to enjoy reading negative stories??? We seem to be filled with a morbid/twisted curiosity to read about these stories/events.

It's kind of sad when people would rather read an article in the paper about someone being kidnapped, tortured and raped than an article about a little ten year old kid getting his black belt, for example. Does this reflect the attitude of the human race and what we have become??

[edit on 5-7-2008 by Death_Kron]

The only real control mechanism is fear. And in these times those of us that see themselves as rulers of earth want to use media transmitted fear to keep people in a mild trauma state so that they are more easily manipulated. As technology evolves whatever they can find to reinforce this control is added, like fluoride, EM radiations, left brain school systems and so on. It's all part of a conditioning process to institute fascism and incrementally totalitarism, in the process dehumanizing the human race and destroying family as an institution, till all that left is socially isolated and scared individuals controlled by an elitist neonobility.

Television is a hypnotic process that is used to transmit memetic warfare, assaulting you with the news, twisting you with the social conditioning in publicity. There are of course exceptions, but the rule is your TV is at war with you.

reply to post by Death_Kron


Scientific study..as was linked in my OP.
news.bbc.co.uk...

To answer your second question, we have been conditioned to focus on the negative as the only "interesting" news, because that is the majority of what is being reported. We are made to believe that it is more important.
It creates a feeling of despair that good things rarely happen to people anymore, or if they do, it's just not that important.
When we think negative thoughts, it creates negative actions, hence justifying all the increased security measures around the world.
Connect a few dots, and it all makes perfect sense.