Add “stress” to the list of emotions generated by the never-ending news cycle. In the most recent of the American Psychological Association’s annual surveys Stress in America, published November 2017, many of the close to 3,500 adult respondents said they felt “conflicted between their desire to stay informed about the news and their view of the media as a source of stress.” While 95 percent said they follow the news regularly, 56 percent said doing so causes them stress, and 72 percent said they believe the media blows things out of proportion. “Understanding that we all still need to be informed, it’s time to make it a priority to be thoughtful about how often and what type of media we consume,” said Arthur C. Evans Jr., PhD, the APA’s chief executive officer, in a statement issued when the association’s poll was released. Elaine Ducharme, PhD, a public education coordinator for the APA and a psychologist in private practice in Glastonbury, Connecticut, says the solution used to be as simple as turning off the TV. “But now, that doesn’t come anywhere near shutting off the news. When you get to your social media pages, you find news as well as friends on both sides commenting and saying deplorable things about both parties. It’s invasive.” Dr. Ducharme adds: “It’s hard to get a thoughtful report and just feel up-to-date.” One thing to consider, Ducharme says, is not just what the constant onslaught of news and anger and noise is doing to your sense of well-being, but also to your physical health. “The constant-ness of our engagement with the news puts us into hyperarousal mode and can make us angry,” she says. In that ongoing state, the body is releasing hormones such as cortisol and adrenaline, which can affect the immune system, cause headaches, disrupt sleep, and trigger or exacerbate anxiety disorders, she says. “Cut back,” Ducharme says, “to a point where you feel informed, not overwhelmed.” Like Ducharme, Frank Sesno, a former CNN anchor who now heads the School of Media and Public Affairs at George Washington University in Washington, DC, advises watching in moderation. “New organizations overproduce,” Sesno says. “Don’t over consume.” In his home, he says, there is no binge watching the news before bed, “to help improve the chance of getting a good night’s sleep.” “News consumers have to find a way to manage among the noise and decibel level,” he says. Sesno also encourages periodic watching and reading of channels and outlets with viewpoints other than your own, even if it’s hard. “For our own civil society, we must tune people in even if they disagree with us,” Sesno says, “and right now we are not.” One big change, he says, is that with so many outlets to choose from — often all in the same evening — the “responsibility for peoples’ news diets has shifted from TV news producers to the consumers themselves.” That means we each are responsible for creating a news diet that is healthy not just in terms of when and how much, but also what we consume. “Bring the skepticism of a producer to stories, and question what you read and watch,” Sesno says. “Look for bylines, datelines, an organization behind the story. Especially if a story is sensational, click on the masthead, usually listed at the top, the bottom, or on the site map, to see if the writers and editors are listed and make themselves available to be contacted, and whether they post their standards and practices.” E. Alison Holman, PhD, an associate professor at the University of California in Irvine school of nursing whose work focuses on different types of stress, says there aren’t good data to suggest that any one medium is worse or better than others. Dr. Holman’s guess is that radio and print may be the least harmful. Holman was the lead author of a study published in January 2014 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences that found six or more daily hours of exposure to media coverage of the Boston Marathon bombings in the week afterward was linked to more acute stress than having actually been at or near the marathon. Holman says the media you choose really can matter when it comes to your stress level. “Radio news, but not radio talk shows, tend to be more informative and less over-the-top than TV news and many of the stories you get on social media,” she says. And print (or its digital version) is one of the least harmful and sensitizing. Still images, rather than graphic video, may sometimes be less upsetting. “I’d encourage people to do more reading and listening to radio news such as NPR rather than viewing,” says Holman. The best bet, Holman says, is to become sensitive to your emotional response and shut down the news source as soon as you begin reacting strongly. “We have a long way to go before we truly know the least stressful way to consume the news,” Holman says, noting that her future research will include teasing apart the different aspects of the media that might be damaging, and asking whether it’s the time spent, what we see or hear or read, or how often it’s repeated. “There’s still a ton of work to do,” she says. Have faith in yourself, say experts. In a recent essay for Recode, a technology news website, the University of Texas psychologist Mary E. McNaughton-Cassill, author of Mind the Gap: Coping With Stress in the Modern World, writes: The “paradox of the modern world is that the same technology that has made our lives so much easier physically has also created new mental challenges. I choose to believe that our brains are up to the task of figuring out how to cope.”
