The Scary World Syndrome: News Orientations, Negativity Bias, and the Cultivation of Anxiety

ABSTRACT

Negativity bias is one of the most salient features of news reporting. According to cultivation theory, this bias can foster anxiety about societal issues among news audiences. The relationship is, however, likely to depend on the audience’s news orientations and the issue under consideration. Drawing on a content analysis of mainstream and alternative news media and a three-wave panel survey, both conducted in Sweden, we examine how general and alternative news orientations relate to egotropic anxiety (worry about being personally affected or harmed) about violent crimes and climate change. The results show that while alternative news media portray violent crimes more negatively than mainstream news media, the opposite is true for climate change, which mainstream news media portray more negatively than alternative news media. Consistent with this finding, alternative news orientation is related to higher levels of anxiety about violent crimes, while general news orientation is related to higher levels of anxiety about climate change, illustrating how people seek information that concur with and thereby maintain or reinforce their beliefs. These results have consequences both for cultivation theory and for our understanding of the role played by mainstream and alternative news media in society.

Supplemental data

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed online at https://doi.org/10.1080/15205436.2023.2297829

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

¹ This study was subject of an ethical application and was deemed exempt from full review by the Regional Ethics Board, Gothenburg. The reviewing body gave an advisory statement declaring no objections to the study (Dnr. 2017/1005–17).

Additional information

Funding

The work was supported by the Data collection for this study was funded by the Swedish Research Council (VR 2016– 02262).

Notes on contributors

Kim Andersen

Kim Andersen is Associate Professor at the Centre for Journalism, Department of Political Science, University of Southern Denmark, and Affiliated Researcher at the Department of Journalism, Media and Communication, University of Gothenburg. He does research on people’s news consumption and its consequences for their political knowledge, beliefs, and engagement.

Monika Djerf-Pierre

Monika Djerf-Pierre is Professor at the Department of Journalism, Media and Communication, University of Gothenburg. Her main research fields are journalism, political communication, risk- and crisis communication, and gender and media.

Adam Shehata

Adam Shehata is Associate Professor at the Department of Journalism, Media and Communication, University of Gothenburg. His research focuses on media use as well as media effects on public perceptions, opinion, and political engagement.