The grim global picture portrayed by the media stresses them out; the influx of redundant news wears them out. To escape the ambient doldrums, more and more Quebecers are deciding to drastically reduce their exposure to news, or even cut themselves off completely. A situation that pushes newsrooms to do information differently.
“Between COVID-19, the intransigent society, conspiracy theories, the war in Ukraine, everything was going wrong. The more I read, the more I harbored a great disillusionment with the future, a fear that my children would experience a catastrophe,” says Nathalie Boucher.
It was in the summer of 2022 that the 56-year-old woman became aware of the impact of her relationship to information on her quality of life. Just retired, the ex-occupational therapist had settled on an island in the Bas-Saint-Laurent without TV or Internet for a month. Quite a change for the one who regularly read the newspapers and watched the news on TV or on her cell phone.
“I saw a drop in my stress level. At first, I associated it with the end of the job,” she recalls. But when she got back to her informational routine, the ailments of the previous months came back at a gallop: weariness, lack of energy, sadness, restless sleep. “I understood that I was doing a overdose bad news. »
Nathalie Boucher therefore completely cut herself off from information to rediscover her joie de vivre. “If the planet is going to blow up, there’s no point in me stressing out a year, six months or three weeks before. I can’t do anything about it, ”she says, counting on those around her to warn her of important news. “I admit: it’s an ostrich. But I feel good, ”she adds.
Wanting to get news is a normal reflex, according to Marc-Simon Drouin, professor in the Department of Psychology at UQAM. “With continuous news, the proliferation of platforms, we have largely exceeded our ability to assimilate all this information. It creates high levels of tension and anxiety, a feeling of helplessness, of loss of control, ”explains the psychologist.
Since the pandemic, more and more of his patients are adopting an avoidance strategy. “It’s okay to take breaks, but cutting yourself off completely, especially when you’re isolated, can put you at risk of becoming unconscious, of being ill-prepared for situations that concern you,” he warns.
Evil of the century?
Few studies have looked at information fatigue, but the Digital News Report, an international survey conducted annually by the Reuters Institute, shows an upward trend in the phenomenon. In 2022, 71% of Canadians said they had actively avoided the news; they were 58% in 2019.
“And again, the last sounding goes back to before the war in Ukraine,” notes the director of the Center for Media Studies (CEM) at Laval University, Colette Brin, who coordinates the local section of the Digital News Report and participates Saturday in a panel on information fatigue at the Carleton-sur-Mer International Journalism Festival.
She acknowledges that the news over the past two years may have been very anxiety-provoking, but argues that information fatigue is a longer-standing problem. “We have been talking about infobesity for decades. Above all, the phenomenon has accelerated and exacerbated, people have become fed up. »
This is the case of Karine L’Ériger, 38, who let go in 2012, during Maple Spring. “The media was always talking about the same thing: demonstrations and demands, and nothing changed. I got tired. In general, the news is too repetitive, too negative. At the time, she started and ended her day by watching the news on TV. “In the morning, it prevented me from being positive for the rest of my day, and in the evening, it was difficult to fall asleep,” she recalls, explaining that she thus abandoned her routine to prioritize her well-being. .
Eleven years later, his media diet continues. She has no television, she listens to the radio as little as possible and she rarely consults the newspapers on her own. “I’m lucky to have an entourage that is very knowledgeable. If there’s big news, I’m sure I’ll know about it. And that doesn’t stop me from going to read articles if something appeals to me. »
Awareness
Through studies or testimonies collected by The dutythe reasons invoked to justify this attitude of avoidance overlap: excessively negative news, overload of information, repetitive subjects, divisive opinions.
The major media have also become aware of this situation, which pushes them to report differently. “We are sensitive to the fact that people need information other than the essential news, which some consider to be bad news. […] We are doing more in-depth series, portraits of inspiring models, ”explains the director general of information at Radio-Canada, Luce Julien.
Same story on the side of other media consulted. At 98.5 FM, we seek a balance every day by diversifying the subjects and speakers, to bring more “lightness” to the programs, underlines Julie-Christine Gagnon, program director. AT The Press, we offer more “inspiring, entertaining, positive” subjects, says associate editor François Cardinal. At Duty also, we focus on more “fun” content and “inspiring stories”.
“But we cannot, in the name of information fatigue, deprive ourselves of playing our role of informing citizens by raising our noses on difficult subjects. We can’t do without going out to meet our audiences on the various digital platforms either,” maintains the director of the Duty, Brian Myles. An opinion shared in particular by Luce Julien.
Colette Brin, of the CEM, adds that the survival of the media is also at stake, now in competition with all sorts of more or less reliable sources and which have most of the advertising revenue stolen by the Googles and Metas of this world. . “I understand that it is difficult to get off the carousel. To do less is to risk ceasing to exist in the eyes of the public. But I think the media would benefit from slowing down, putting aside the click race to dig deeper into the important topics. »