Bad news revisited: The portrayal of violence, conflict, and suffering on television news.
Abstract
Television news broadcasts were monitored over a 6-month period and analyzed for the amount and type of 5 categories of The programs selected included national network news, local news, independent superstation news, and cable network news. In terms of both news time and news stories, more than half of the news depicted various forms of violence, conflict, and suffering. In addition, bad news received further emphasis by placing it earlier in the broadcasts.
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Most news items have a negative valence.
“Although media news can have positive, neutral, or negative content, most news items have a negative valence [1,2].”
From Impact of Media-Induced Uncertainty on Mental Health: Narrative-Based Perspective. (2025) · cites this paper as [1]
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- Authors
- Johnson, R. N.
- Affiliations
- Ramapo College (US)
- Corresponding author
- Johnson, Roger N.
- Venue
- Peace and Conflict: Journal of Peace Psychology
- Published
- 1996-09
- Volume
- 2
- Issue
- 3
- Pages
- 201-216
- ISSN
- 1078-1919 (ISSN-L)
- 1532-7949
- OpenAlex
- W2072571224
- Cited by
- 50
- References
- 56
- Citations by year
- 2025: 2 · 2024: 2 · 2023: 3 · 2022: 3 · 2021: 2 · 2019: 2 · 2018: 6 · 2017: 1 · 2016: 1 · 2015: 2 · 2014: 3 · 2013: 4 · 2012: 2
- FWCI
- 3.15
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Peace and Conflict Journal of Peace Psychology (publishedVersion)
- Funders
- Harry Frank Guggenheim Foundation
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Communication › Media Studies and Communication
- Social Sciences › Communication › Journalism and Media Studies
- Social Sciences › Communication › Communication and COVID-19 Impact
- Keywords
- television news, media coverage of violence, news coverage of conflict, negative news, news framing, local news, cable news
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