It’s a question that we often hear in our media training courses: “Why do journalists like bad news?”
Look at any news website and you’ll see the same words: “Shock,” “fear,” “fury,” “anger,” “threat,” “scare,” “risk,” and “danger,” among others. I won’t go on and depress you but I’m sure you get the picture.
The main reason for this focus on the negative and the frightening is that it appeals to the us in the media because we know that it appeals to our audiences.
“Really?” you might say. “But I’m a reasonably positive, cheerful type. Why would I want to hear about things going wrong, about scandals, failures and disasters?”
Obviously, journalists and editors don’t want bad news and nothing else. A newspaper, news website or programme that’s full of doom and gloom will soon lose you as you search for something more uplifting.
Fight or flight
The truth is, though, that negative, even frightening ideas grab our attention – and it’s evolutionary. The part of our brains called the amygdala, the area that handles the powerful “flight or fight,” mechanism, fires up very quickly and powerfully. It does more so than other areas that deal with more pleasurable or at least unthreatening situations.
The amygdala is what has kept us alive since we were the animals by warning us very rapidly and powerfully of any approaching danger.
“From a survival perspective, early humans who were hyperaware of threats were more likely to avoid danger and pass on their genes. This bias toward negativity, known as negativity bias, remains with us today, making bad news inherently more attention-grabbing than good news,” Charles Chaffin, a psychologist and Professor of Practice at Iowa State University writes in Psychology Today.
From the media point of view, bad news is also attention grabbing because it’s unusual – the man bites dog story. In our media training courses, when we look at what makes a story and what appeals to journalists, we explore how something unusual or surprising, such as a person or an event, forms a key element of the news agenda.
The appeal of bad news – it’s unusual
Most of the time things work OK. All the planes land safely at the airport, people have the correct treatment in hospital, and we all go home from work to our families without killing them (tempting though it might be, sometimes). So, when something goes wrong it’s out of the ordinary and it ticks the all-important “unusual” box for the media.
The third reason why journalists like bad news is that (and don’t laugh, please) we like to think of ourselves as flagging up problems, injustices or even scandals. These are situations that need to be fixed. As we explain in our media training courses justice and fairness are two powerful ingredients of any media story. Yes, I know that when you were a child and you said to an adult, “It’s not fair,” they replied, “Well, the world isn’t fair.” No, it isn’t – but we still want it to be.
So, what does this negativity bias, this attraction to the downside mean for public relations professionals and press officers? And what about the people that they put forward for interview? During the realistic, role play media interviews that we carry out during our media training workshops we’ll put some difficult questions to the course participants.
Handling bad news questions
As we explain, we’re doing this not because we’re out to get anyone or make them look foolish. Quite the opposite in fact – our training courses are safe spaces. We’re posing these questions because it’s what a journalist will do in real life. More importantly, we then provide the interviewees with tools and techniques that will enable them to handle difficult questions and regain control of the interview.
Using our journalistic experience (all of our trainers are working journalists operating under strict non-disclosure agreements) we’ll work with the PR execs to develop answers for these difficult questions.
But as well as handling bad news defensively, public relations professionals and their spokespeople can use the media’s love of risks and dangers in a proactive way. You can flag up a threat and then offer a solution to it.
The good news about bad news
“Companies risk…” also work well to allow you to move onto a solution or to provide advice. Not only will this appeal to the journalist interviewing you and increase the chances of your getting airtime and column inches, but it will enable you to subtly sell your services or promote your campaign.
Another little tip – don’t say too much about your solution. You want to give just enough away to pique your audience’s interest so that they pick up the phone or click on the link and give you some business.
It’s the same with the issue of fairness and injustice. Pointing out how unfair or skewed the current system is – including some vivid human case studies – will allow you to introduce your solution. Again, we have templates to enable spokespeople to do this effectively.
Bad news will always grab the headlines, but the good news is that you can use it to your advantage.
