The Effects of News on Anxiety and Depression
Alyson Jones
School of Behavioral Sciences, Liberty University Online
PSYC 380: Physiological Psychology
Mrs. Kate Jarvi
August 8, 2022
Introduction
The mainstream media and news media has a ton of influence on the daily lives of
everyone who spends their time watching it. It absorbs them because It can tend to be very
interesting to watch. The watcher must know what is going to happen next or if everything is
going to be okay tomorrow. It can also be so heavily influenced by a bias, one way or another,
that people refuse to hear another side, causing constant stress, which can lead to anxiety and
depression. The heavy bias also causes news to either be over exaggerated or under exaggerated.
Sometimes, the important things are not even reported on. The job of a news reporter is to spread
truth and awareness about a current situation, good or bad. However, most news outlets only
report what they want to report and what will get them the most views. In this case, falsities can
be spread, and news outlets can cause a lot of fear for the people watching. News outlets harness
a lot of power, and if not used wisely, can cause widespread panic; as seen with the COVID-19
pandemic. The way this event was reported on caused anxiety, depression, and fear to rise in
people around the world. Fear, that has still not been diffused, two and a half years later. This
paper will explore how constantly watching the news can affect a persons’ mental well-being.
Anxiety and Depression Among Youth
Over the years access to electronics has increased exponentially. Youth in America have
access to smart phones, television, and media around the clock, now more than before. Youth and
adolescents spend about 4.5 hours a day watching TV and the same amount of time on the
internet (Caporino. 2020). Exposure to news has also increased with the rise of social media. The
amount of time media is used is associated with people viewing the world as threatening, more
so than they did 10 years ago. With the rise of social media and the exposure to new, violent or
non-violent, anxiety and depression have also increased among adolescents (Caporino, 2020). In
a recent study, 374 caregivers were recruited through Amazon Mechanical Turk and were asked
to report on their child’s anxiety about 15 different voting issues since 2016. About 50% of the
caregivers stated that their child had worries about at least one political issue. The most common
worries were those about environmental care and gun violence. It was also found in this study
that youth with clinical levels of generalized anxiety were experiencing more severe worries
about political issues than youth that only had minimal anxiety (Caporino, 2020). This article has
strength in that it looks at where anxiety and depression start, the youth of the world. The
weakness lies also with that it only looks at the youth. It’s possible to see where fear continiues
to grow with youth and social media and how that carries over into adulthood, but it would be
beneficial to look at how social media affects adults and their anxiety and depression. The
definition of depression can be hard for some people to agree on as it can look different
depending on who the person is (Stringaris, 2017).
Social Media, Depression, and COVID-19
COVID-19 is a very well-known disease by now. It is known for causing the shut down
of the United States for a couple of weeks and for causing a worldwide pandemic. It is also
known for causing a spike in anxiety and depression among people throughout the world.
COVID-19 alone, did not cause anxiety and depression to rise around the world, social media
and news consumption during the unstable times were a large factor in contributing to the rise in
mental health disorders. In a recent study, a group of Lebanese adults were studied. The
researchers were looking for an association between social media news consumption and
depression and suicidal ideation. This study showed that having caner, lung disease, more fear of
COVID-19, or more time spent on social media for news were associated with more depression.
Whereas, those who had a pet in the house and those who worked in the medical field were
associated with less depression (el Frenn, 2022). In return, those who had higher depression had
higher odds of suicidal ideation and those with lower depression were not as likely to have
suicidal ideations. This study also showed that although social media new consumption did not
have much of an effect on suicidal ideation, it was associated with higher depression among
Lebanese adults. This study pertains to the research topic in that is looks at how social media and
news media can affect depression and anxiety in adults.
In February of 2020, 701 individuals from different parts of China were asked if the
amount of time they spent dwelling on pandemic news influenced their depression. It was shown
that the duration of attention on COVID-19 news influenced an individual’s depression (Wu,
2021). This article pertains to the topic of how news affects anxiety and depression because the
study done, looks at exactly that. It’s weakness is that it is only looking at one particular group of
people, it would be interesting to see a larger group of people chosen from many different parts
of the world, particularly America where social media and news are all consuming.
Parents Influence on Anxiety
Parents can have a lot of influence on their children, or no influence at all. Anxiety is one
of the most common mental health disorders in the adolescent population with one in four to five
youth in the United States meeting the criteria for a severe mental disorder. There are studies
done previously that show that youth with anxiety have poor family relationships, low life
satisfaction and don’t reach as high academically as youth without anxiety (Francis, 2021). This
study is relevant in that it shows where anxiety starts and what it affects, around the victim.
There is also evidence that anxiety and psychological distress among adolescents can be
somewhat associated with parents characteristics, such as aggression, anxiety, and
authoritativeness (Francis, 2021). Children are mirrors and sponges. They look at everything
around them and they notice more than adults think they do. What adults say or do can stick with
a child forever and can drastically alter their mental well being or their thought processes. It is
very important that children do not see their parents react to news in a negative way or with
anxiety because children will then learn to behave in the same way their parents have behaved. If
a parent does something or says something, the child, who looks up to that parent, will then
behave the same way or say the same thing.
News Exposure Effects on Anxiety and Depression
The COVID-19 pandemic brought a lot with it when it hit the world, including
misinformation and an increase of anxiety and depression. The effects of exposure to and
perceived accuracy of news media on anxiety and depression were looked at in a recent study.
An online survey was conducted with 480 American Adults to understand the frequency and
duration of news media exposure and how the adults perceived the accuracy of coverage of
COVID-19 done by media outlets (Hoyt, 2021). It was found that increased exposure, predicted
greater anxiety and decreased frequency of exposure and perceived overreaction in news
coverage were linked to greater anxiety and depression (Hoyt, 2021). It is very important that
new media outlets are sharing truthful and trusted information because it can help mitigate the
mental health of the people who spend most of their time watching any kind of news.
Effects of Polling News on Behavior through Pride and Anxiety
A study done in 2021 used two online surveys before and after the 2018 Mayoral election
in Seoul, South Korea. The results show that the perceived positive effect of polling news is
linked to reinforcement of support through pride, particularly in those people who were voting
for the winning candidate. The negative effect of polling news is associated with discourse
through anxiety (Kim, 2021). What they results of this study show is that peoples emotions are
greatly influenced by the news, especially when it is news about something they are either for or
against. People put so much worth into news media outlets that they forget that the news media
outlets do not determine the outcome of a particular situation. Just because a media outlet says
something, good or bad, positive or negative, doesn’t meant that it is set in stone. There is so
much weight put on the news that whatever one outlet says, if someone agrees with it, that is
how it will forever be. This study is relevant because it looks at what people tend to focus on
when watching the news and how their fears influence them to vote politically.
Eye-Tracking Study on Depression
In a particular study, eye tracking was used to determine what people were more focused
on. Dysphoric or positive stimuli. This research has shown that people have show attentional
biases towards dysphoric stimuli and away from positive stimuli. The website that the
participants were directed to had positive and dysphoric news articles and was a fictional
website. 60 individuals, 30 with high levels of depression and 30 with minimal levels of
depression were instructed to look at the website for 3.5 minutes. The results showed that those
with high levels of depression lingered on the dysphoric articles for more time than they did on
the positive articles. It also showed that those with minimal depression showed no favoritism and
looked at both the positive and dysphoric articles for the same amount of time, not lingering on
one more than the other (Rudich-Strassler, 2022). The participants with high levels of depression
also rated the dysphoric articles as being more interesting than the positive articles and those
with minimal depression said they were both interesting (Rudich-Strassler, 2022). This shows
that news articles can cause depression to linger. Looking at depressing news articles does not
help people who struggle with depression. This was an interesting study because it was tracking
where people were looking. It gave big insight on peoples mind and where they were mentally
when looking at the news. It showed how the news can affect someone’s anxiety and depression.
It also showed if they already were truly dealing with depression and anxiety in their daily lives.
Christian Worldview
Fear, depression, and anxiety are not traits and emotions from God. He did not create a
spirit of fear in us. 2 Timothy 1:7 says, “for God gave us a spirit not of fear but of power and
love and self-control.” This verse is important to remember because it is truth, there is no fear in
the presence of God. He is in control of all things and all things will fall into place according to
His plan. If His children rely solely on Him and don’t rest on the things of this world, fear would
be greatly diminished. When someone allows fear to enter their lives, something that does not
come from God, they become further from God than before the fear entered. Sometimes it is
really hard to not allow fear to be apart of daily life as this is a fallen world and sin has entered it.
2 Timothy not only states that God did not give us a spirit of fear but we have been given one of
love, power, and self control. In the absence of fear, fruits of the spirit will grow. Fear stifles
growth and doesn’t allow the fruits God has given, to be seen. To know the Lord is to not know
fear. Even though fear may enter at times, it should have full control of an individual as
depression and anxiety can take over. That is not the life God has for His Children. He wants His
children to flourish in his love and grace.
Conclusion
All of these articles gave good insight into how the news media and social media can
affect a persons anxiety and depression, daily. The research shows that an individuals anxiety and
depression can increase or decrease depending on what they are looking at or watching. It also
shows that children are greatly affected by the news and social media. Since adolescents
emotions are not fully developed it is important to guard them and what they see and do in their
daily lives. What they spend the most time doing with influence them the most. If they live in a
world of fear, that could easily follow them into adulthood and it is possible that their own
children will see their fear, and follow in their footsteps. Too much news consumption can lead
to depression and anxiety in most people. It should be watched and read in moderation to protect
an individuals mental health.
References
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