Why News Leaves Us Confused and Reactive

In order to transform the way we consume news, we need to understand that in today’s news media landscape, information takes a backseat to attention.

I remember as a kid thinking news was an acronym for North, East, West, and South, but it’s simply the plural of new. It’s the communication of new things, events, or happenings.

Following the news in the 21st century is overwhelming and exhausting. Centuries ago information was in short supply, but today it’s an endless flow from millions of voices vying for our attention. On top of that, news is often sensationalized or politicized, and the bad news seems to outstrip the good news. Now we also wonder if what we’re consuming is fake news, misinformation, disinformation, or even something generated by AI. The outcome is the illusion of perspective. It’s confusion and reactivity, instead of clarity and resiliency.

That confusion and reactivity is the result of a centuries-old evolution of the news industry’s constant tension between attention and information. It’s difficult to have one without the other. You can’t share information if you don’t have someone’s attention. Ask anyone who coaches youth sports.

While advertising has almost always been a part of news media, today’s online world has created a misalignment where attention is more valuable than information. Information still has value, and exclusivity and accuracy are real motivating incentives for news outlets, but the shift to digital distribution now primarily drives revenue through attention.

Let’s lay the foundation with an oversimplified history about how the medium, means, frequency, and incentive of news has changed over time.

Movable type was first created in China and Korea, but it really exploded when Gutenberg’s printing press ushered in mass production of broadsides, pamphlets, and eventually newspapers. In the early days of print, information was scarce, and it still took physical distribution of information like on horseback or a ship. Local news could take days to spread and global news would take weeks. During the Revolutionary War, news of declarations, battles, and developments in the American colonies took weeks to reach England. Advertising was in play, but the primary incentive was the information itself.

The 1830s saw the emergence of local penny presses in the United States with daily papers subsidized by ads so the average person could afford to purchase. Sensational headlines were commonplace and incentivized attention, especially as competition increased. In the mid-1800s, the telegraph revolutionized the speed and distance at which news was disseminated and allowed newspapers quick access to distant news wherever transmission lines allowed. The limits of text that could be transmitted helped shape the ideal of objectivity and gave birth to wire services like the Associated Press. With photography advances, magazines and periodicals helped provide space and time for in-depth reports or investigations with fuller context.

Then came the airwaves, radio and television signals that brought us daily curated broadcasts where our attention was synchronized. We would watch the evening news together. When cable news was introduced, it became an endless space for sensationalism, punditry, commercials, and sponsorships. We would watch as events unfolded, and our eyes stayed glued to screens even when accurate information wasn’t understood or even available. In these cases information was necessary, but the primary incentive was attention.

The rise of the internet and domination of social media caused the decline of print and synchronized viewing. Newspapers, magazines, and television broadcasts have had to adapt with syndication across apps and social media platforms. People now primarily consume news filtered through algorithms that, among other things, incentivize confusion and reactivity, and news outlets now play by the social media kingdom’s rules.

What are some of those rules? Algorithms that create echo chambers that lack alternative viewpoints. The infinite scroll and mindless consumption of information with an endless flow of fresh content. Notifications to grab our attention and condition us to constantly grab our phone or device. Live-streaming, trends, and “Breaking News” to create an urgency that plays on our fears or fear of missing out. Social validation (or what we identify as the illusion of influence in our training) from comment sections, polls, likes, re-posts, or new followers that feeds our desire for human connection. And sensationalism and curiosity gaps in thumbnails, captions, and titles that hype headlines or intentionally leave out pieces of information to get you to click.

If the attention economy emerged with the penny press, it was fortified with broadcast news, amplified with the 24/7 cycle of cable news in the 1980s and unleashed with social media. We went from broad demographic ad targeting (one to many) and niche-based ads in exchange for our attention (one-to-some), to personalized ads in exchange for our attention and data (one-to-one).

Attention became the financial king and information (or lack thereof) its pawn, and in the process... we lost perspective.

Ironically, we should first be informed on how news media works, before being informed by news media. Once we see behind the curtains, we might realize consuming news solely through a social media feed often leads us to confusion and reactivity, instead of clarity and resiliency.

Wait before you react. Recognize the headline trick before you click. Shut off notifications. Pause to verify facts before you post. Know your biases. Analyze alternative takes and factors, and take breaks before you keep scrolling. In an age where news media is incentivized by attention instead information, patience, self-awareness, and critical thought are indispensable virtues.

Postscript↓

We encourage you to check out our website when you get a chance. We created Driver’s Training for the Online World to help individuals and families navigate social media, gaming, AI, and online safety. Every purchase helps pay for web hosting and content development with more guides like this, where we’re now exploring how news media works (Know Your Vehicle), how it affects you (Find Your Compass), and how you can take back the driver’s seat (Choose Your Path).

Be sure to subscribe, so you don’t miss out when we continue our news media series with: the illusion of perspective and how our perception of reality is shaped by the news we consume, why finding unbiased news is as productive as snipe hunting, how national media conglomerates influence local social media feeds and broadcasts, the interplay between press and politics, how AI will transform the dance between information and attention, and ultimately how you can consume news with less confusion and reactivity, and more clarity and resiliency.