2 weeks Ago By Aimee Meade
You can’t avoid the news in our house, as much as we might like to.The media plays a big role in all our lives. Both my husband and I are journalists, our older son has written for his student paper, and our younger has a show on hospital radio.
He’s also studying for a media A-Level.We listen to podcasts, consume TikTok, read news sites and subscribe to at least two national newspapers. Even our dogs listen to Classic FM when it’s bonfire night and the fireworks are going off.
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addToArray({"pos": "inread-hb-ros-inews"}); }According to a survey from the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism, our family’s news consumption habits might be even more unusual than we thought.The top line of the international survey is that nigh on 40 per cent of respondents actively avoid news to a certain degree. And it’s not hard to see why.
The agenda feels like it is a constant diet of wars, crime, climate change, political uncertainty and a cost of living crisis. And that was even before “tariff” became a word we all needed to learn again. While the news cycle doesn’t make me want to switch off – it’s my job, I’m curious and my tolerance levels are perhaps higher because I’ve been a journalist for almost three decades – there are small things that help when everything feels heavy.
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addToArray({"pos": "mpu_tablet_l1"}); }I’m not in any way making light of world and domestic events – I talk about them every night on Newsnight after all – but sometimes it’s good to think of a few fairly simple bits of your life that lift you.For me, it includes the cuddle I have with my two cocker spaniels when I arrive home after midnight from the BBC. They are sleepy, warm and delighted to see me.
Or watching my younger son doing his hospital radio show live on TikTok. Or hearing my older son’s endearingly high-pitched giggle.It could be getting the latest edition of Private Eye delivered, or discovering a fantastic series and then realising there are loads of episodes.
In-jokes on the family WhatsApp group which only we get. Knowing I have tickets to see Elbow in the summer. And a spontaneous kitchen disco with friends.
Women and younger people are the most likely to feel worn out by news. The Reuters report’s leading author Nic Newman says people feel powerless – that “they have no agency over massive things that are happening in the world”.I fell in love with journalism in part because I felt it was a way of potentially changing, or at the very least influencing, things.
Plus I love talking to people and, crucially, listening. It may sound idealistic but quite a few of my journalist friends and colleagues feel the same way.That by shining a light on an injustice, exposing hypocrisy, giving people a voice, holding power to account, things might get a little – a little – better.
A fairly recent example might be the journalists who worked tirelessly to help bring attention to the grievously wronged Post Office sub-postmasters, or the scandal about undercover police officers deceiving women into relationships.if(window.adverts) { window.
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adverts.addToArray({"pos": "mpu_tablet_l2"}); }I don’t think people have stopped caring when they actively switch off the news – there’s just so much more to care about.So what can journalists like me do to help people feel less burnt out by the news? We can learn from the best podcasts which seem more personal, accessible, take more time to explain and are also transparent.
That sense of lifting up the bonnet and showing your workings is a fascinating area and can help people stay engaged with the news. A decade ago, one programme on the World Service World Have Your Say decided to open up their editorial meetings to listeners – you could phone in, listen in, and even contribute. It was an interesting way of opening up the decision-making process.
Another thing occurred to me when I read that it was the 25th anniversary of the death of the singer songwriter and national treasure Ian Dury. At the height of the riots and recession of 1981, he and the Blockheads had one of his biggest hits with “Reasons to be Cheerful” – a list of things (“the juice of a carrot/the smile of a parrot/a little drop of claret”) that made him smile amid all the madness.#color-context-related-article-3325573 {--inews-color-primary: #3759B7;--inews-color-secondary: #EFF2FA;--inews-color-tertiary: #3759B7;} Read Next square VICTORIA DERBYSHIRE How I live a life with no regrets - even dancing toplessRead MoreThe former newsreader Sir Martyn Lewis (not the money-saving expert) talking about positive news not making bulletins argued that editors should give good news stories the same weight and consideration as the more regular grim stories.
Do Ian’s and Sir Martyn’s words have resonance now? One way to re-engage audiences might be to reassure them that yes, nothing important will be missed, but we’ll also add some joyful content too. There’s a movement called “constructive journalism” which aims to reinstall trust in the idea of shared facts and shared knowledge; it is seen as a response to sensationalism and negativity. if(window.
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adverts) { window.adverts.addToArray({"pos": "mpu_tablet_l3"}); }While I was researching this piece, I came across an actual online nonprofit news organisation – founded by the artist and musician David Byrne – which writes about possible solutions to some of the worlds most pressing problems, like the environment, and balances “healthy optimism with journalistic rigour”.
It’s name? Reasons to be Cheerful.No one is saying that journalists shouldn’t be out there telling all the important stories. But positive stuff is vital as well, and if it helps re-connect people with journalism, then that might be good news too.
Victoria Derbyshire is a journalist, broadcaster and host of BBC Newsnight and Ukrainecast.
