Do We Love War?

“Journalists are well-known for their negativity bias, their editorial predilection for misery and disaster. Journos love floods and hurricanes; plane crashes and oil spills; and human stampedes and mass starvation. 

“For your average journalist, a love of war is simply the highest expression of his negativity bias. Negativity bias makes destruction easier to write about than creation. Any editor will tell you the audience for mayhem is always bigger than the audience for kindness. . . .”

“Journalists may love war, but so does the audience.”

—Jack Shafer, senior media writer, “Why Journalists Love War,” Slate, March 17, 2022. Image: Fox videographer Pierre Zakrzewski, shown in a selfie with colleagues, and 24-year-old Ukrainian freelance journalist Oleksandra “Sasha” Kuvshynova were killed outside of Kyiv on Tuesday.

 

• Editorial Comment: Hooray for our side.

 

PeezPIX 

Spring is springing.

 

 

 

 

 

Read all about it! The March issue of Senior News: Aging & Ageism. Check it out!

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“I don’t think writers are sacred, but words are. They deserve respect. If you get the right ones, in the right order, you can nudge the world a little.”—Tom Stoppard

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Edward C. Pease, Ph.D.
Professor & Department Head Emeritus
Department of Journalism & Communication
Utah State University
Today's WORD on Journalism