Darkoshi

The local news is on TV (ABC, CBS, and NBC) here at 7pm and again at 11pm. I try to catch it when I can, at least the news part of it, not the weather or sports parts. It's on at 6pm too and at 10pm on another channel, but I hardly ever watch at those times. The tone of these local news broadcasts is usually pretty calm. Watching the local news doesn't bother me unless the content itself is quite upsetting. (There is a trend however, when reporting on weather events, to perhaps over blow them. All these "alert" days, as they call them.)

The national news is on TV here at 6:30pm. I like to catch it when I can too, depending on my mood. In recent years I started noticing how the tone of these newscasts affects me. The tone of voice used by the newscasters from the major networks, as well as the video clips shown (often the same thing repeated over and over again like a clip of an ambulance driving away with lights flashing), and even the intro music (boompa-da-doom type stuff), almost always seems to shout *URGENT* *IMPORTANT* *DANGER* *CRISIS*.

I know this is done precisely because it makes people feel that they should watch the broadcasts. But it affects my mood negatively, riles me up, and can be emotionally draining.

So recently I've started watching the PBS News Hour instead at 9pm, on those days when I can catch it. Those newscasters tend to talk calmly, which is such a nice thing. The PBS News Hour used to feel rather boring to me in comparison to the other news shows, and I rarely watched it. But now I like it.