News fatigue in layman’s terms is when you get sick and tired with the avalanche of news that bombards you on a daily basis. News fatigue is a real thing. I would group news fatigue in the same class as fake news and misinformation because news fatigue leads to news avoidance. How on earth can we entertain a situation where people end up avoiding the news in a time of Covid-19?
Truth is, it is happening. People are slowly but surely becoming fatigued with the news. But what do you expect, though? You cannot throw the same thing in someone’s face over and over and not expect them to grow tired! It’s unavoidable. It is almost human nature. Now that we understand what news fatigue is and its underlying consequence, we need to look at solutions. How do we battle news fatigue? How do we make sure people keep consuming news? The answer is entertainment! It has always been entertainment.
The problem right now is that every media house in Namibia, including media houses with a core focus on entertainment, have become CNN times ten! When you switch on the radio, corona. When you open a newspaper, corona. While watching your favourite soapies, corona! What amplifies my annoyance is the pedestrian focus on statistics, doom and gloom around Covid-19.
As much as media houses are doing a service to their listener/reader/viewer by pounding them with hardcore Covid-19 content every day – right throughout the day, it’s actually starting to have the opposite effect. That opposite effect is news fatigue, which ultimately leads to news avoidance.
I think we have pretty much established that we cannot afford news avoidance in a time of Covid-19. Entertainment has the ability to remind people during tough times that they are still human beings with other beautiful emotions like happiness. Entertainment has the ability to unite and move mountains!
Since our first case of the novel coronavirus was confirmed in the land of the brave on the 11th of March, we have done nothing but house negative emotions like fear, sadness, anger, and disgust. It’s exhausting. Hence news fatigue!
All media houses need to re-look at their coverage of Covid-19. Let’s explore different angles apart from hardcore stats, doom and gloom. I’m not saying be ignorant of the current global crisis; all I am asking for is a human face. A human being is a multifaceted creature. Why are media houses only focusing on one element when human beings are multifaceted?
Lighten up, mense. Let’s make people smile again despite the unknown. I would rather have someone laugh to a corny corona joke as opposed to having people suffer from news fatigue, ultimately leading to news avoidance.
Until the next loop, we say “GMTM”!
NSK is a professional MC. For bookings, email naobebsekind@gmail.com
@naobebsekind (twitter)