“Bad News” by Bev Sykes is licensed under CC BY 2.0. 

The world hasn’t gotten more dangerous in the past 50 years. In fact, it’s gotten remarkably safer - but that’s not what certain news outlets want you to think. 

Since 1993, 20 out of 24 annual polls regarding perceived levels of crime show that at least 60% of adults in the United States believe national crime rates are on the rise. In actuality, the overall violent crime rate in the U.S. decreased by 74% between 1993 and 2019. The world has become significantly safer in the past two decades. So why do we feel like we're caught in a relentless downward spiral?

The answer lies in a phrase coined back in the 1970s by journalist and scholar George Gerbner: “Mean World Syndrome.” Mean World Syndrome is the phenomenon that occurs when depictions of violence in the media cause viewers to perceive the world as more dangerous or “meaner” than it really is. The effects of this phenomenon are becoming more visible now than ever. The media has undoubtedly become more violent as the years have gone on.  Though this shift in the media’s display of violence is not an accurate reflection of reality, the depiction is not an accident.

The American news media sector is primarily composed of privately owned outlets, many of which belong to massive conglomerates. As private entities, one of their main objectives is to generate profit. This often conflicts with their duty to provide the people they serve with accurate and unbiased information. 

A perfect case study of Mean World Syndrome can be found in an examination of the Sinclair Broadcast Group. Sinclair is the largest telecommunications conglomerate in America, owning stations in over 100 media markets and 34 states, reaching almost half of all U.S. households. These stations annually survey their viewers to determine the following year’s coverage. According to the company’s executive chairman David Smith, the main question in these polls is simply, “What are you most afraid of?” 

By targeting people’s fears, Sinclair is able to capture the attention (and the finances) of millions of viewers across the country. According to the Washington Post, the Sinclair Broadcast Group “plays on its audience’s fears that America’s cities are falling apart” by focusing their coverage on things like crime, drugs, illegal immigration, homelessness, and a variety of other equally upsetting topics. This leads to more views, more money, and more people living in fear - convinced the world is falling apart before their very eyes.  

While the stories they report may be true, they often lack context and are reported on at an incredibly high frequency, making the world appear full of danger and disarray. Sinclair stations “play up crime stories in a way that is disproportionate to their statistical presence,” says Anne Nelson, journalist and author of “Shadow Network: Media, Money and the Secret Hub of the Radical Right.” By giving these types of stories more coverage than they elicit, Sinclair weaponizes the agenda-setting power of the media in the name of their own self-interest - sacrificing their responsibility to accurately inform their audience for the sake of a higher profit margin.

In a survey conducted by the Virginia Review of Politics in November 2024 of adults ranging from 18-80 years old, 74% of people who either read the news “often” (an article or program at least once a day) or “constantly” (specified as on cell phones or on TV in the background) reported that they believe the world was getting more dangerous. Further, 60% of them believe that the world is getting worse as a whole. This data shows a correlation between the amount of news people consume and their negative views on the state of the world.

 Unfortunately, this issue doesn’t end with Sinclair. This pattern can be found across the media industry, and it became particularly problematic with the rise of social media as a news source. Professional news outlets face FCC regulations when it comes to violent content, but platforms such as Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, and TikTok make it incredibly easy to share extremely graphic videos with millions of people. Constant exposure to these horrific images can alter people’s perception of the world around them –contributing towards general public desensitization to violence and gore.

Another factor contributing to the rise of Mean World Syndrome is the loss of local news. When local news vanishes, income inequalities increase, communities lose their government watchdogs, and people stop voting. Communities also lose the diversity of their news. National news stations take over for faltering local outlets in order to fill the gaps, but these stations are often owned by broadcast groups who also control many other stations across the country. This leads to homogenization of the news, explaining why multiple stations throughout the country get caught repeating the same stories word for word. Through this, media conglomerates are able to take advantage of the trust people have in local media stations and use that trust to further their own agendas.

According to reporter Israel Balderas, who worked for Sinclair’s WPEC CBS 12 station in West Palm Beach, “the reporters are given scripts to follow, and if they refuse, they risk losing the assignment.” A viral video in 2018 showed dozens of news anchors giving the exact same speech to their viewers, sinisterly echoing on-the-nose phrases like “the sharing of biased and false news has become all too common on social media” and “some members of the media use their platforms to push their own personal bias.” According to the New York Times, many of the anchors who were forced to read these scripts at their local stations were reportedly unhappy and uncomfortable with repeating the speech. 

Sinclair is closely aligned with the Republican party and the Trump campaign, and it could be argued that their use of extreme fear-mongering tactics is contributing to the political polarization our country is currently facing. 

It is evident that Mean World Syndrome is an issue affecting America, and one that is only continuing to grow. Once this has been acknowledged, we can take action to rebuild our media system to better serve Americans. There are many possible ways to do this. One leading idea is solutions journalism - an innovative approach that focuses on both the problems and the ways they are being fixed, providing a hopeful angle to every story. This type of story is less likely to leave people feeling scared and demoralized, and more likely to encourage people to look for ways to fix the problems they are concerned about. 

Another idea would be the enforcement of stricter regulations on large broadcast groups like Sinclair, such as establishing larger ownership caps that restrict the amount of local stations one company can own.

On a slightly larger scale, one way to eliminate the issue of newsgroups reporting fear-driven stories to increase viewership and profits is to switch to a public or non-profit media system. Since these types of media outlets are not as financially motivated, they are far less likely to prioritize entertainment over news. Some highly esteemed non-profit outlets include AP News and ProPublica. Similarly, NPR is an example of a semi-public media outlet, receiving both subsidies from the government and money from its subscribers to fuel its work. 

But for now - crime rates are decreasing, incredible new scientific advancements are being made every day, and poverty is declining. Global happiness is rising and global income inequality is decreasing. The world is getting better, even if you have to dig through the bad news just to see it.