Do You Feel the Press Are Responsible for Many of Society's Ills?
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When i was a kid I had no idea of the evil going on in the world, and was safer and happier for it. Kids as a rule did not have mental health issues.
Nowadays there is no limit to the language and explicit stories they can publish. They exaggerate, sensationalise headlines, describe in detail the most awful crimes which put ideas in the heads of evil people. They have told us we can STEAL (shoplift) up to £200 worth of goods with impunity and then report on the overwhelming rise in that crime, often accompanied with aggression and violence.
I am not saying we should not be privvy to what goes on but keep it real, not fake, and do not set out to scare and upset people, you are reporting the news not writing a graphic novel.
I think you’re right about the press, they are definitely guilty of scaremongering which has got completely out of hand.
jms19 I think the headline that got me recently was 'the Queen was FURIOUS about Harry and Meghan using Lilybet for their daughter's name'. Furious? Why not upset? Originally they told us she didn't mind at all.
As for scaremongering, a week ago I thought we were about to be bombed and WW3 was starting!
Im honest with my older one and tell her what happens or what can happen I think it's important she finds out this stuff from me instead of friends or online when she was younger she would ask me a lot of stuff and if I thought she wouldn't understand I would tell her that and I would explain when she's older lucky it worked out for me
Yes, I think the media have a lot to answer for. The nastiest of many articles and perpetuating stereotypes turns me off 
They can literally destroy lives.
I feel it's not necessarily the individual journalist's fault, rather the business model online news sites rely on which is advertising to mass eye balls. So by default they're under pressure to create click bait at massive scale. I know some newspapers where journalists have to make 20-40 articles a day. There's no chance they're going to fact check anything at that level, and then it becomes about how to make everything as hyperbolic as possible to get clicks. Subscription based news companies tend (not always!) to have less hyperbole, but then are less successful as the public don't like paying for online news. Of course, that's no excuse for making stuff up. It just seems to be a systemic issue. Not sure what the solution is.
I try not to read the news any more, but use services such as Feedly to gather news topics I am genuinely interested like supermarket news and personal finance (hence why Latest Deals News tends to be those topics!).
I think the press regularly exaggerate the weather situation with all manner of ways of describing what will happen.What about snowbomb which is over the top.All we need is a basic, correct forecast.
I think social media has a great deal to play in this too. Kids nowadays are never off their phones and every other week I seem to hear the grandkids mentioning a different site I’ve never heard of. It’s scary how much they can watch even if you have age limits on your child’s phone
I like to be up to date with what is going on but sometimes they go on about a subject far too long and endlessly recycle it. It can get a bit overwhelming so then I tend to switch over or off. I cherry pick what I want to hear about. Had enough of wars and sport. Actually prefer the local news bulletin.
JLouM I try to keep up to date too but it just seems that as soon as you’ve gotten her head round 1 there’s another 1 up and running. My two 16yr old grandkids tell me every wk bout some new site but I can’t stand it when they text me with all that shortened words r should I say letters and I’m trying to decipher what they’re saying. After few mins if they see I’ve read it they’ll ring me and ask what I think and I tell them I’m still trying to work out what they’re saying 
Teenage text speak! I c what u mean! They r difficult to read. I think they fast text with their thumbs. Completely different in my day as a touch typist with full English language and grammar on a manual typewriter!! 
Its more annoying as to what is deemed to be 'news' these days. Someone was complaining their Burger King wasnt very warm the other day - and somehow that made the local news site.
I’m not sure the press is to blame but tv programs and movies. Too much explicit violence.
I never buy newspapers and don't have access to live TV due to lack of TV license so end up only reading websites for news or listening to radio news. I actually feel my mental health has improved since stopping my TV license. I can still watch streaming services but news programs don't tend to be on that.
However when I visit my mother's who does have a TV license I do get to see some news occasionally.
I look at news websites like the Express website and the Guardian website with one being right wing and the other left wing and you get to realise actual reality is often between the two. Their own bias destroys the news they are providing but looking between both you can see a truthful viewpoint.
The focus on trivia is the biggest annoyance for me. The royal family are of no interest to me. I couldn't care at all what is happening between royal family members and whose done and said what. I have no interest in the lives of politicians or celebrities either. On other major issues there is no analysis of what has happened or is really going on.
On politics there is huge amount of news stories about benefits and money and services for people but very little news stories about how the economy makes money to provide these services and the damage caused by a trade deficit and sending huge sums abroad. They will complain about austerity but never explain in detail why austerity is happening and why it can't be prevented with our current level of debts. It seems many people who provide news have little or no understanding of the background of what is actually going on in those news stories.
If you increase the minimum wage for example which we all want there is no explaining of the fact that means products and services go up in price, we will export less and import more creating more debt. This can lead to more job losses and factory closures over time. We become less competitive as a society. It's not difficult to work out yet such simple information is often absent which means viewers who don't follow economics just get a one sided unrealistic viewpoint of the minimum wage which is wholly positive.
Ultimately people don't seem to understand the mechanics of what is causing our problems so its like a mystery to them because the news services also don't understand themselves or hide such information due to their own bias.
I find the incompetence and bias of many news services really annoying and hugely damaging so in the end after waves of relentless stupidity and naivety its better to just not watch it.
Yes they do make things worse. Mental health has always been there for all. It was just hidden. People thankfully talk about it now.
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