Coronavirus in the United States - news and thoughts

Wondering how much the weather in the midwest and northeast is going to affect the numbers the next few days,got to think alot of testing sites either will be closed or people can not get to them.

 

I don't think people want good news or bad news. They want important news. They want news that matters. And bad news is usually more often important than good news. If the bridge to Puggslyville is out, I want to know so I can adjust my travel plans. If the bridge has been redecorated by a group of volunteers, it doesn't really make any difference in my plans.

 

Again. Watch your local news tonight. Your city will be 99.9% normal people living normal lives. People helping others etc. But that one dude, in that one drug deal, will be the headline. Or that one crash on the interstate.

There is a reason for this.

 

Sure. People don't take 30 minutes to find out about somebody that they don't know getting gas or going to the grocery store each day. That is the reason for this. People don't need to know that a person that lives eight miles from them lived their life today. People don't want to watch that. The news shows events that deviate from the normal substantially. That tends to lean pretty heavily negative.

Look up the concept of revealed preference:

Revealed preference - Wikipedia

By definition, if people want positive news, then negative news wouldn't sell.

 

my point is all throughout the spring,summer, and fall covid, and all the negatives was the lead story on every national news cast, now, that for the time being is it getting much more under control, nothing.if you continue to hammer home the negatives, at least acknowledge the positives, maybe i am, wrong, i just do not see that happening.

 

Granted, but regardless even in that case the good news doesn't really sell. At the end of the day I think that is the issue. The bad, or important, news will often be all people see. This begins to cloud the collective thinking. Everyone knows the Fairy to Puggslyville is a much more scenic experience btw

 

Exactly. The media knows what gets eyeballs. They focus on that. It's all I am saying. But it certainly has a cumulative effect. Especially in our 24 hour zest for news as entertainment these days.

 

i think in times like these good news gives people hope, and hope is always better than despair,which is what you get being hit over the head day in and day with negative covid news, and guess what, there are still people who only get the news from tv broadcasts, not the internet, they need to know what is going on also.

 

No one is arguing WHY it gets ratings. The point is negative sells. That has a cumulative impact.

 

So, as I said, the comment that "I think what people want is a fair representation of both" is false, by the premise that emotional valence should be itself a criteria. If they aren't buying it, then by definition, that isn't what they want.

BTW, I went to my local news website. Top story: "Looking for Mardi Gras house floats in New Orleans and beyond? See official map with 3,000 locations." What is the emotional valence on that?

 

Do we "want" good news? Of course we do. But is that what drives you to the TV or your phone? What we "want" is not always what drives us to information.
We all want the Gators to win, but nothing drives traffic here like a loss or firing a coach.

 

i want both sides of a story, not just what abc, nbc, cbs,fox think i want.

 

A great example of news leaning negative. CNN has 24 stories in its first level.
All 24 are negative/bad news. All 24. (RIP Screetch )

This one is the lead. It quotes people predicting it could be 2024 before normalcy returns.:

'The end of the beginning.' The dark winter is here and Americans see no end
As millions of Americans await vaccinations, more contagious variants of the virus have emerged and expectations of a return to normalcy are fading fast

You read that headline assuming some bad new discovery has led to a change in optimism, only to find some of it is just quoting an unnamed HS teacher.
The article is lengthy and does quote others that give you more reason for pause, but is mostly just speculation based on variants.

FOX is similar, though the layout makes it harder to count articles.
Their lead story:
Cuomo loses 9 top health officials after downplaying experts while crafting vaccine rollout plan: report

MSNBC to my surprise was a bit less doomsday in their front page headlines.

 

Sure, but to where? If all news is negative what city could I relocate to that has positive perception?

 

Well people have already proven they don’t handle good news about Covid all that well. Too many reports of how great things are going will have too many people making irresponsible decisions which will then reverse the positive trends.

 

I didn’t say I don’t agree that the majority of the news is bad, I think we just disagree on why that is.