For many of us, keeping up with the constant barrage of covid-19 news is becoming an untenable situation. It’s a story that’s complex, constantly evolving and filled with uncertainty.
The coronavirus pandemic arrived at a time when multiple factors have dramatically changed how we get information. We almost take for granted how exhausting the social-media-driven, 24-hour news cycle has become. As the pace has settled into warp speed, we’re in an ongoing battle over the very nature of facts.
At the same time, local news deserts threaten to disconnect people from what they need to know about their communities. On a typical day, that would be a tragedy. During a public health crisis, it’s reckless.
I wrote here about news fatigue – the sense of being exhausted be the pace and content of the news. This feeling appeared to be on the rise even before covid-19. A recent Pew Research Center study found that 66 percent of those surveyed felt worn out by the amount of news out there, compared with 59 percent in 2016.
For years, I’ve worried that news fatigue – and avoiding news – may pose a greater threat to journalism than the usual suspects – flagging local news organizations, the collapse of an advertising-based business model and the steady rise of misinformation, an issue that Big If True has pledged to fight.
Part of my concern is that people will check out during a time when our engagement makes the difference between a functioning or defunct democracy. Without participation from most people – and that includes knowing what’s going on – what exactly are we doing here?
During the last month, I’ve waged a battle with my own aversion to the news. While asking people about their news fatigue, I heard several things again and again that I identified with. For some of us, it’s hard to decouple what’s happening from senses of hopelessness and helplessness – that there’s nothing that we can do, and even if there were, it wouldn’t make a dent.
Millennials are often pegged as being overly precious about the weight of challenges posed to our generation. But in a way, covid-19 has become a stand-in for me for other seemingly implacable obstacles. Among them: Climate change and rising inequality. And for its part, the coronavirus story is also one of inequality, as regular Americans struggle to get tested for the virus, to pay for medical treatment and to hold onto their jobs as the economy grinds to a halt.
One of the things that surprised me most while working on my story was something I heard from University of Tulsa psychology professor Elana Newman, who also serves as research director for the Dart Center for Journalism and Trauma. Newman said the training for clinical psychologists involves learning to acknowledge their emotions so they can be more objective and effective in their work. The idea is that if you know your triggers, you can have a plan in place to deal with the issue, set it aside and keep it from getting in the way of your work.
This was revolutionary to me. On some level, I’ve always associated journalism with being tough and active, not reflective. Newsrooms never struck me as places with room for certain emotions. And if you’re struggling after writing a particularly heart-wrenching story, there isn’t necessarily time to take a beat and acknowledge how you’ve been affected. There isn’t necessarily industry-wide support for doing that, either.
For my story, I also talked to Truth or Fiction managing editor Brooke Binkowski about burnout in general. Something she said while selling the idea of “giving your brain a break” has stuck with me.
“That’s kind of what we all have to do from time to time, because we only have so much work we can do and produce before it takes a toll on us, and we can’t let ourselves fall to this,” she said. “We can’t buy into the sort of forces that benefit from a whole burned-out cadre of reporters, because look what happens when we’re not around. It becomes totalitarian.”
It’s vital that not just journalists, but all of us, take care of our mental health so we can keep doing what we do.
And for anyone on the verge of ignoring the news, I feel the solidarity.
A final word from Newman: “Be forgiving. We’re all adjusting to this new world.”
You can find my story here and hear our podcast episode about news fatigue, with interviews from Newman, Binkowski and others.
Thank you for reading Hard Reset. If you like what we do, consider supporting Big If True.
Send me feedback, questions and tips: bryant@bigiftrue.org and 405-990-0988.
– Mollie Bryant