Are you avoiding the news? Why news fatigue and avoiding the news matters

Does the news ever overwhelm you? Does it leave you feeling depressed and powerless? 

These days, more of us seem to feel that way. About a third of people, especially young adults, say the news lowers their mood. And more than a third now say they sometimes or often avoid the news, according to a report from Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism.

Headlines over the last few years have been distressing: A war across the ocean in Ukraine. Political polarization in the U.S. Police shootings. Climate change.

When asked why they don’t take in the news, people say it leaves them demoralized, that stories seem disconnected from their lives or that the news is repetitive.

MPR News host Angela Davis talks about news fatigue and news avoidance. Why does it matter? And can we change the way news is delivered to make the public more hopeful?

Guests:

• Amanda Ripley is a journalist, book author and host of the Slate podcast “How To!” Her recent piece in the The Washington Post is called “I stopped reading the news. Is the problem, me — or the product?”

• Benjamin Toff is an assistant professor at the Hubbard School of Journalism and Mass Communication at the University of Minnesota and a senior research fellow at the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism at the University of Oxford in England.

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Use the audio player above to listen to the full conversation.