The COVID crisis, soaring energy prices, the war in Ukraine… Headlines that are worrying more and more people. According to a VUB survey, 63% of respondents say they avoid following the news, while in 2017 they were only 48%. As for those who no longer follow them at all, we have gone from 2 to 9% in 5 years. What are the reasons for this news leak? What can I do to find these people? Is the news too depressing?
Eddy, a resident of Péruwelz in Hainaut, came to testify in “It’s not every day on Sunday.” He says he follows the news less. “It’s horrible. It’s only war, misery, bankruptcies, ministers who take us for fools. At some point, I’d rather cut than get upset, feel bad. I prefer to take my dog for a walk in the woods.” Eddy dates his news hijacking to January of this year with the energy crisis. “It becomes hellish. We don’t know where we are going. We no longer know what we are going to do, if we will be able to go to work, if we will know how to feed our children, pay for their education…“, he lets go.
“We are over-informed”
Anne-Françoise Meulemans, psychotherapist, points to the race for the hearing in this diversion of the gaze towards the news: “It’s true that the world is going badly and that events are depressing. Being well in a depressing world would also be questioning. But there is the media interface between the two. Having information in a way repeated, frequent, at mealtimes, supper, etc. The fact of having a mode that also has to attract audiences We are over-informed, a bit like the information fast food has trouble digesting (the information).”
Christopher Giltay, grand reporter chez RTL INFO, nuance: “You have to be informed, you have to know what is happening. But now, you can choose your media. I don’t completely agree with the idea that you have to be sensationalist to get an audience“The journalist took as an example the 1 p.m. news from TF1. Television news that has the most audience in France”while 80% of his diary is made up of anecdotal subjects. There is also a psychological approach to how information can feel. In the history of the press, there has always been an increase in the sale of newspapers, for example, in times of war or serious crisis. People need information.”