159804
The Weekly Sceptic Live The Weekly Sceptic Live The Weekly Sceptic Live
  • Log in
The Daily Sceptic
No Result
View All Result
  • Articles
  • About
  • Archive
    • ARCHIVE
    • NEWS ROUND-UPS
  • Forum
  • Donate
  • Newsletter
The Daily Sceptic
No Result
View All Result

News Headlines and Song Lyrics Are Becoming More Negative

by Noah Carl
27 February 2023 11:00 AM

Do you have the sense that everything is becoming more negative? Does what you hear on the radio, and what you read in the news, seem altogether gloomier than it did ten years ago? That’s because it is – say two new studies.

The first, by David Rozado and colleagues, tracks ‘sentiment’ in U.S. news headlines since the year 2000. (We’ve covered Rozado’s work before on the Daily Sceptic.)

His team quantified ‘sentiment’ – i.e., how positive or negative the headlines were – using machine learning tools. In simple terms, they used an algorithm to identify strings conveying positive emotions (e.g., ‘good’, ‘benefit’, ‘praises’) or negative emotions (e.g., ‘bad, ‘cost’, ‘attacks’), and then assigned an overall score to each headline.

Results are given in the chart below. There are three lines: one for left-leaning outlets, one for centrist outlets, and one for right-leaning outlets. (The researchers used Allsides ratings to classify outlets.)

There is a clear shift from toward negative sentiment for both left-leaning outlets and right-leaning outlets. For centrist outlets, by contrast, the shift is much less clear.

To home-in on exactly how headlines have been changing, Rozado and colleagues looked at six different categories of emotions: anger; fear; sadness; disgust; joy; and neutral. They found that the first four have all been getting more common, while the last two have been getting less common – at least since 2010.

As to why headlines have been getting more negative, the researchers suggest it may have to do with what goes ‘viral’. Studies have found that statements with strong emotional valence – particularly those that convey animus towards an outgroup – spread fastest on social media. Outlets are presumably tweaking headlines with this in mind.

The second study, by Charlotte Brand and colleagues, tracked ‘sentiment’ in pop-song lyrics since the 1970s. One of their key findings is shown in the image below.

Each point is the average across songs in the US Billboard Hot 100 in a particular year.

It indicates that “love” has decreased as a proportion of all song lyrics, while “hate” has correspondingly increased. These are just examples: the researchers found a “substantial decrease” in the use of many positive emotion-related words (and a corresponding increase in the use of negative words).

Interestingly, when they ran models predicting whether a particular song lyric was negative, they found that chart position mattered: negative lyrics were more common in songs that reached positions in the chart (i.e., closer to ‘Number 1’).

It’s unclear exactly why this would be the case. One possible explanation is the rise of rap and hip hop in the 1990s, which gave rise to more songs about themes like gang violence and breaking up. Though this is speculative.

What the two studies do suggest is that your average American is now exposed to more negative emotional content in his daily life – assuming he reads the news and listens to an occasional pop song. Faced with this finding, it’s worth reminding yourself: things could always be worse.

Tags: David RozadoSong lyricsThe media

Donate

We depend on your donations to keep this site going. Please give what you can.

Donate Today

Comment on this Article

You’ll need to set up an account to comment if you don’t already have one. We ask for a minimum donation of £5 if you'd like to make a comment or post in our Forums.

Sign Up
Previous Post

The Fight Against Climate Zealots is Just One Front in the Battle to Preserve Freedom and Democracy

Next Post

Lab Leak Most Likely Origin of COVID-19 Virus, Says U.S. But What Do We Really Know?

Subscribe
Login
Notify of
Please log in to comment

Profanity and abuse will be removed and may lead to a permanent ban.

12 Comments
Oldest
Newest Most Voted
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments

NEWSLETTER

View today’s newsletter

To receive our latest news in the form of a daily email, enter your details here:

 

DONATE

PODCAST

Nick Dixon and Toby Young Talk About the Attack on Kellie-Jay Keen by Trans Rights Activists, the BBC’s Perverse Insistence on Calling a Rapist “Her” and the Brutal Cancellation of Alfie Brown

by Will Jones
28 March 2023
1

LISTED ARTICLES

  • Most Read
  • Most Commented
  • Editors Picks

Britain’s Backlash Against LTNs: Fed-Up Residents Torch Road Blocks Hours After They Were Installed

28 March 2023
by Will Jones

In Defence of Andrew Bridgen’s Speech to Parliament on the Risks vs Benefits of Covid Vaccination

28 March 2023
by Norman Fenton, Clare Craig, Martin Neil, Jonathan Engler and Mr Law

The Great Food Reset Has Begun

28 March 2023
by Will Jones

The Dumb Chain of Events that Brought Face Mask Tyranny to the West

28 March 2023
by Eugyppius

News Round-Up

28 March 2023
by Will Jones

In Defence of Andrew Bridgen’s Speech to Parliament on the Risks vs Benefits of Covid Vaccination

31

The Bad Science Behind Sadiq Khan’s ULEZ Anti-Car Crusade

30

The Dumb Chain of Events that Brought Face Mask Tyranny to the West

25

Britain’s Backlash Against LTNs: Fed-Up Residents Torch Road Blocks Hours After They Were Installed

19

News Round-Up

35

In Defence of Andrew Bridgen’s Speech to Parliament on the Risks vs Benefits of Covid Vaccination

28 March 2023
by Norman Fenton, Clare Craig, Martin Neil, Jonathan Engler and Mr Law

The Dumb Chain of Events that Brought Face Mask Tyranny to the West

28 March 2023
by Eugyppius

The Bad Science Behind Sadiq Khan’s ULEZ Anti-Car Crusade

28 March 2023
by Ben Pile

Mainstream Media’s New Obsession: Labelling Criticism of 15-Minute Cities ‘Conspiracy Theories’

27 March 2023
by Rebekah Barnett

Almost Everything Is “Institutionally Racist”

27 March 2023
by Noah Carl

POSTS BY DATE

February 2023
M T W T F S S
 12345
6789101112
13141516171819
20212223242526
2728  
« Jan   Mar »

SOCIAL LINKS

Free Speech Union
  • Home
  • About us
  • Donate
  • Privacy Policy

Facebook

Twitter

Instagram

RSS

Subscribe to our newsletter

© Skeptics Ltd.

No Result
View All Result
  • Articles
  • About
  • Archive
    • ARCHIVE
    • NEWS ROUND-UPS
  • Forum
  • Donate
  • Newsletter

© Skeptics Ltd.

Welcome Back!

Login to your account below

Forgotten Password?

Create New Account!

Please note: To be able to comment on our articles you'll need to be a registered donor

Already have an account?
Please click here to login Log In

Retrieve your password

Please enter your username or email address to reset your password.

Log In
wpDiscuz
You are going to send email to

Move Comment