The Science Behind How We Perceive News – And How Understanding This Can Help Change the World
Monday mornings can be tough wake-up calls. Whether your feet are growing increasingly tired from standing in the Dunkin Donuts line, your closet seems to have swallowed your favorite coat, or you’re seconds away from missing your train, nothing seems to go right on a Monday morning. Despite these different Monday-morning catastrophes, chances are in each of these scenarios, no matter what is going on, the news is also on.
It can be on the Dunkin television, the headphones of the person who cannot find their coat, or in the hands of the person about to miss their train. The news is everywhere, at all times. One of the most enthralling aspects of having a 24/7 informational avenue that’s accessible to everyone, is when you think about the different lives that it connects daily. Millions of people can be caught watching the same channel or reading the same article at the same time, connecting them, even if only for a few seconds.
However, this fascinating, endless cycle isn’t perceived as positive nor exciting to many of the viewers, listeners, or readers in today’s age. According to the Pew Research Center, the percentage of people who follow the news has dropped dramatically in the last few years. From 2016 to 2022, the percentage of U.S. adults who said they followed the news all or most of the time dropped from 51% to 38%, (Forman). Additionally, 38% of people who consume news said they try to avoid it, which is up from 29% in 2017, (Coster). In the annual digital news report from the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism, around 36% of people said the news lowers their mood, (Coster). Yet, these statistics come as no surprise to the public or to the journalists responsible for telling these stories. In recent years, there has been a large hike in the negative aura around the news for its likelihood to leave people feeling sadder than they were before they consumed it. Additionally, research has shown that online news about controversial issues including climate change has further increased polarization and politicization, (Liu and School of Journalism and Communication, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, China).
Yet, despite a mass of negativity, journalism is not something that developed overnight and decided to stick around. The first traces of journalism date back to Rome circa 59 B.C. where news was recorded in a circular called the Acta Diurna, (“A Brief History of Journalism: How We Arrived to Where We Are”). This is because people are naturally curious and drawn to knowing what’s going on around them. Today, the news can be found virtually anywhere including on televisions, phones, tablets, computers, watches, radio stations, social media, and of course newspapers. The news is one of the few things that is constantly updated and changed, yet not too many adults follow it closely.
According to the Pew Research Center, only 31% of U.S. adults follow local news closely. Most of that percentage is made up of older Americans, black adults, and those with a high school education or less. (Shearer et al.) The Pew Research Center analyzed the local news habits of multiple demographics and found that those least likely to follow the news closely are white adults aged 18-29 with a college degree. (Shearer et al.) Furthermore, the research center found that 86% of Americans get their news from digital devices rather than print. (Shearer).
Each of these statistics has been sounding the alarm in newsrooms for the last few years, as it seems the public is declaring the media the enemy. Visual storytelling in journalism has the power to evoke positive feelings like empathy, pride and inspiration, but it can also evoke negative feelings like fear, pain and discomfort. Emotions play a massive role in people’s daily lives, which is why people have begun shunning away from the news. According to designer Aaron Walter, this also has to do with the way our minds perceive and organize visual information. Gestalt psychology is the term psychologists have coined for how to understand the way our brain perceives visual experiences (Walter). It believes that the whole of anything is greater than the sum of its parts. For example, when reading a line of text in an article, a person will read the individual words in a sentence as a group, rather than just seeing individual words.
Gestalt Psychology
In addition to grouping information, our minds also have a hierarchy of needs that delineates what we need to be fulfilled. This can be applied to any aspect of our lives, including visual perception (Walter). According to this theory, humans need visual stories to serve their basic needs by informing them, making them feel safe and secure (2nd tier), by evoking feelings of love and care (3rd tier) and then by making them feel inspired to take a course of action that is higher than themselves (5th tier). Visual storytelling can hit each of these tiers in journalism, yet not all stories are geared with this in mind, and that may be part of the reason people find the news less fulfilling.
To better understand how the public began to think cynically about journalism, we must further understand how our brains naturally perceive the news we consume.
When we learn new information, our cells will receive that information and send it to the brain. During that process, receiving novel information also allows for the release of dopamine. According to Neiman Lab, novel stimuli excite dopamine neurons and activate certain brain regions (Barr and Artley). Dopamine is a neurotransmitter associated with reward anticipation and is often known as the “happy” or “rewarding” neurotransmitter. Due to this rewarding feeling, our bodies are constantly seeking ways to feel this way, and therefore we are seeking out new information, which we can find in the daily news. This is one of the most prominent reasons that scientists have identified as to why people are so curious and why they watch the news in the first place (Barr and Artley).
Aside from releasing dopamine, there is a lot more that happens neurologically once the brain receives the novel information. The primary regions involved in responding to novel stimuli, such as the news, are the hippocampus and the amygdala. The hippocampus is associated primarily with memory and the amygdala regulates our emotions (Turk-Browne #).
As visible in the image above, the hippocampus and amygdala are located very close together in the brain, which allows them to work together in some ways. According to Simply Psychology, the amygdala can attribute emotions to memories, making them more memorable. Essentially, the more emotion attached to a memory, the stronger the memory will be (Guy). Therefore, in connection to visual storytelling, the news has a strong appeal to our emotions. Visual storytellers like journalists tell stories with the hopes that it will grab the attention of their audience and evoke a certain emotional response. According to one study published by PNAS, content with a higher degree of moral emotion evokes a greater diffusion across social networks (Brady et al. #). Moral emotion is the emotion that’s linked to the welfare or impact on society and the people around us. Therefore, this means that people will be more likely to consume and share information that involves the welfare of other people, appealing to their moral emotions. This is part of the reason why “fake news” spread so easily. “Fake news” often contains a high degree of moral emotion and studies have shown that this type of news is more likely to be shared than real news (Piccillo et al. #). One example was the fake picture of Osama Bin Laden after his death was announced in 2011. The picture spread virally because it was highly emotional, yet it turned out to be completely generated by digital tools (CNET news staff). The link between sharing habits and moral emotion is a groundbreaking discovery because it insinuates that emotional content evokes a higher neurological response.
This subconscious awareness of others is what draws people into both happy and sad stories in journalism. Plus, this emotional impact only increases with the addition of visuals. Many people are familiar with the saying, a picture is worth 1,000 words, and visual storytellers use this to their advantage daily. One of the first examples of the power of images dates back to 1892 in the slums of New York City when a police reporter, Jacob Riis, arguably transformed the storytelling industry. As a reporter, Riis saw the filthy living conditions of the tenement housing in NYC and wanted to expose them (Thomson #). He began searching for a medium that was able to better capture the severity of the cramped sleeping quarters and unhealthy living conditions when he came upon flash photography. Riis took pictures of the sleeping conditions at night for the next three years and wrote the book, How the Other Half Lives, publicly exposing these unhealthy conditions (Thomson #).
SOURCE: How the Other Half Lives
This book has gone down in history as one of the first and most monumental calls for action in society due to the discovery of the power that images hold. By being able to see the conditions, versus just read them, this created a stronger emotional pull and therefore evoked a stronger response in the brain of the audiences. As a result of this visual storytelling, NYC passed the first significant legislation to curb tenement housing evils.
Another, more recent example of how images tell stronger stories was used by the Washington Post. A photojournalist took this picture of a girl crying at her dad’s funeral that was organized by government opposition in Haiti (Khanna).
SOURCE: Washington Post
The devastating, tangible look on these women’s faces is heartbreaking to look at because the emotion can be felt so strongly through this visual. This image directly ignites a response in our brains because of the emotional pull it has. In addition, some people may find that this image is heartbreaking, yet it is hard to look away from. This is because, contrary to popular belief, people are naturally drawn to bad news; a concept known as negativity bias. Negativity bias is the simple fact that your brain has a greater sensitivity to unpleasant news (Campbell). According to Psychology Today, there is a greater surge in electrical activity in the brain when we see something negative. Therefore, this surge causes people to look longer at images that are more negative, versus more positive (Marano).
Another example of a powerful photo in visual storytelling, is this picture taken in October 2023 of Palestinian worshippers praying outside Jerusalem’s Old City while Israeli forces stand guard (Perdue and Alkharouf).
SOURCE: Reading the Pictures
This image represents events that are happening in real-time and hardships that photojournalists are brave enough to capture daily. One scientific reason why images are more effective in evoking emotional responses is that our brains can process images much faster than they can process text. Researchers have said it only takes the brain 13 milliseconds to process some images, which is faster than we can blink our eyes (Trafton). Therefore, a faster processing time will allow for a faster and more complete reaction from viewers.
The work of a photojournalist is both demanding and in high demand. The job requires bravery, stamina, passion and fearlessness. By sending pictures like the one above back to the U.S. and reporting them for people to learn about, photojournalists are doing an unmatchable service to the public. According to a photojournalist with the Washington Post, “Successful visual storytelling not only has the strength to educate, it also has the power to compel us to feel, to think carefully and even to take action,” said Matt McClain, photojournalist.
The main goal of a photojournalist is to tell stories that evoke emotion so that people will take action. The purpose of pulling on emotional heartstrings is to leave enough impact, that it will ignite change in the world. However, images do not ignite change on their own (Campbell). The hard work and dedication of a photojournalist only translate to utmost success if people are able to turn around and take action against the crisis or catastrophe being exposed. Over the years, along with declining trust in news, there has been speculation about whether or not photos are manipulative. With strong digital technology and platforms, manipulating photos is a very easy task. One example of this is seen in the two pictures below.
The first picture is a manipulated photo that looks like old cars driving on the road. Yet, the second picture shows that the photo was actually three miniature car toys, manipulated in a fashion that looked like they were enlarged and on the road (Bar). These pictures often trend on social media, are exchanged between digital designers and digital specialists, but they do not typically exist in the photojournalism industry. Since photojournalism is a form of reporting, ethics are central to the practice. Photojournalists follow a code of ethics and also abide by providing the truth, without altering it a way to change the meaning (“What Is Photojournalism and Why Is It Important?”).
Ultimately, with a better understanding of how people neurologically perceive news, we can work to change both the direction of stories and the direction of public responses. Although people are naturally drawn to bad news, studies have shown that they also may feel bad about the news once they’ve viewed it. This can leave people feeling helpless, hopeless, isolated, anxious, and more (Campbell). However, there is virtually nothing journalists can change about the events that are happening around the world. Unfortunately, reporters cannot make up the news that goes on from day to day. The events and coverage that people may find difficult to watch are each really happening to people first-hand somewhere out in the world. By bringing these crimes, wars, catastrophes, and more to light, journalists are hoping to stop the violent cycle just as much as the public is.
Yet, due to declining trust, viewers and the high negative stigma around the news, it may not be a bad idea for journalists to look toward a new tactic. One idea that’s been presented is called “solutions journalism” (Dahmen). According to BBC Audience Research, around 50% of people in the UK aged 16-24 years old want their news to also provide possible solutions in addition to the problems they’re reporting (Campbell). This would mean taking on stories where a possible solution could be shared. Sharing solutions, however, does not mean avoiding the problem. The idea of this tactic is to demand rigorous coverage of responses to problems that are currently going on. Although there are many positive impacts of this idea of coverage, the negative is if it develops a “good news” complex, rather than a problem-solving one. Despite the public saying they may want to only watch positive things, having solely positive news would be very detrimental to society. It would turn a blind eye to all the crime, wars, storms, and injustices that we are unfortunately surrounded by each day. Positive news also does not serve the purpose that journalism was meant to serve; exposing wrong and igniting change. Furthermore, now that we learned about the neurological responses to novel stimuli, we know that people would not pay as much attention to positive news.
Instead, both journalists and the public must take a step back and re-evaluate the pivotal role that emotions play in our everyday lives. Journalists can use this scientific knowledge to better tell their stories, to not only get views but to get satisfied views. Additionally, the public can use this knowledge to better understand the reasoning behind their subconscious negative feelings toward the news, before even turning on the channel.
Ultimately, visual storytelling as a whole isn’t going anywhere. Our brains even proved it through the release of dopamine that it is something that people will always look for. Journalism is an integral part of society that has helped influence culture, communication, and society standards.
Works Cited
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