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The challenges of navigating an unrelenting news cycle
Millions of Americans absorbed a dizzying political news cycle this past weekend, trying to process a series of extraordinary headlines for an already divided electorate.
Matthew Motta, an assistant professor of health law, policy and management at the Boston University School of Public Health, does more than follow the news. He studies how consuming it affects people’s health.
Motta said the relentless headlines surrounding the attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump, a federal judge’s decision to dismiss the Trump classified documents case and the ongoing pressure President Biden is facing to halt his reelection bid left him feeling stressed.
And what his research says about such news events — especially extraordinary moments like the attempted assassination — might be surprising.
“The people who consume the most news, they’re there for a reason, they enjoy this type of content, even news that might stress them out,” Motta told CBS News, explaining that to some degree, “a fair way of putting it” is that they enjoy being miserable.
“And they are a relatively small number of people in the American electorate, but they are precisely the types of people who are the most likely to vote,” Motta said.
Normally, only 38% of Americans pay close attention to the news, according to a Gallup survey last year, but there was nothing normal about this three-day news cycle.
The assassination attempt served as a ground-shaking moment, grafting next-level news trauma on the American psyche.
America’s mindset was already racing with the pandemic, racism and racial tension, inflation and climate disasters. The American Psychological Association calls where we are now the “impact of a collective trauma.”
Most people, however, try to tune out the news, either through lack of interest or as a coping response. But that also comes with consequences.
“If people disengage, then we potentially run the risk of losing their opinions at the ballot box,” Motta said.
But in a 24/7 digital world, eventually, the biggest headlines chase those people down, and this moment in history is one of those times. It also means the extraordinary news cycle we’re in could have staying power.
Las Vegas — For nearly a year now, 32-year-old renter Mason Cunha and his realtor have been struggling to find the right home in Las Vegas at the right price.
What’s keeping Cunha from purchasing a home?
“It just doesn’t really make sense right now to buy a home with the interest rates where they are, and with the inventory what it is,” Cunha said.
Vice President Kamala Harris has said that if she wins the general election in November, she plans to work with the private sector to build three million new homes and rental units.
Cunha, a Harris supporter, is in favor of the proposal.
“I think it’s going to definitely help, if you were to double or triple or quadruple the inventory,” Cunha said.
Harris is also proposing outlawing price fixing by corporate landlords and giving first-time homebuyers who have paid their rent on time for two years with up to $25,000 in down payment assistance.
“I would want to review what the qualifications are for that,” said 32-year-old Andrew Lum of Las Vegas, a wedding DJ and married father. “Where is that $25,000 coming from?”
Lum sold his home when his family expanded. He now rents a bigger house but he can’t afford to buy. Lum says his life was better when former President Donald Trump was in office.
“In 2020 we were able to buy a home,” Lum said. “We were able to buy it at an interest rate that was possible. We were able to buy it with, you know, minimal down payments.”
Trump’s plan involves reducing mortgage rates by slashing inflation. Trump has also said he would open limited portions of federal lands to allow for new home construction, a plan the Biden administration is already enacting. As an example, one such 20-acre plot in Las Vegas was recently transferred from the federal government to Clark County, and now it has been designated for affordable housing.
According to the Congressional Research Service, 80.1% of the land in Nevada is owned by the federal government.
Trump has also said that that his promised mass deportations will make more housing available. It is an argument that both Lum and Cunha don’t seem to agree with.
“It just seems a little farfetched to me that all the houses are being purchased by immigrants,” Lum said.
“I think everything that Trump says has to be taken with a really aggressive grain of salt because he is known to inflate the truth,” Cunha said.
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