• Login
  • Register
The Daily Sceptic
No Result
View All Result
  • Articles
  • About
  • Archive
    • ARCHIVE
    • NEWS ROUND-UPS
  • Podcasts
  • Newsletter
  • Premium
  • Donate
  • Log In
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

To join in with the discussion please make a donation to The Daily Sceptic.

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

The Sceptic EP.37: David Frost on Starmer’s EU Surrender, James Price on Broken Britain and David Shipley on Lucy Connolly’s Failed Appeal

by Richard Eldred
23 May 2025
3

LISTED ARTICLES

  • Most Read
  • Most Commented
  • Editor’s Picks

Doctor Who Star Ncuti Gatwa “Axed” and BBC Show to be “Put on Pause” Amid Falling Ratings and Woke Storylines

23 May 2025
by Will Jones

News Round-Up

23 May 2025
by Richard Eldred

The Tweets Cited by the Judge to ‘Prove’ Lucy Connolly is “Racist” Do Nothing of the Sort

23 May 2025
by Laurie Wastell

Jordan Peterson: Net Zero Alarmism is a Mental Illness

22 May 2025
by Will Jones

UK Welcomes South African Activist Who Chants About Killing White Farmers But Excludes French Philosopher Concerned About Demographic Change

22 May 2025
by C.J. Strachan

The Tweets Cited by the Judge to ‘Prove’ Lucy Connolly is “Racist” Do Nothing of the Sort

38

News Round-Up

25

Doctor Who Star Ncuti Gatwa “Axed” and BBC Show to be “Put on Pause” Amid Falling Ratings and Woke Storylines

23

Trump Slaps 50% Tariffs on EU – as He Tells Starmer to Get Drilling for Oil

21

Spanish Scientists “Were Experimenting with How Far They Could Push Renewable Energy” Before Countrywide Blackout

15

We Were Too Polite to Stop the Woke Takeover

23 May 2025
by Mary Gilleece

The Tweets Cited by the Judge to ‘Prove’ Lucy Connolly is “Racist” Do Nothing of the Sort

23 May 2025
by Laurie Wastell

Starmer Has No Intention of Cutting Immigration

22 May 2025
by Joe Baron

UK Welcomes South African Activist Who Chants About Killing White Farmers But Excludes French Philosopher Concerned About Demographic Change

22 May 2025
by C.J. Strachan

The BBC’s Mark Poynting Shows How to Spread Climate Alarm

22 May 2025
by Chris Morrison

POSTS BY DATE

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

SOCIAL LINKS

Free Speech Union

NEWSLETTER

View today’s newsletter

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

POSTS BY DATE

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

DONATE

LISTED ARTICLES

  • Most Read
  • Most Commented
  • Editor’s Picks

Doctor Who Star Ncuti Gatwa “Axed” and BBC Show to be “Put on Pause” Amid Falling Ratings and Woke Storylines

23 May 2025
by Will Jones

News Round-Up

23 May 2025
by Richard Eldred

The Tweets Cited by the Judge to ‘Prove’ Lucy Connolly is “Racist” Do Nothing of the Sort

23 May 2025
by Laurie Wastell

Jordan Peterson: Net Zero Alarmism is a Mental Illness

22 May 2025
by Will Jones

UK Welcomes South African Activist Who Chants About Killing White Farmers But Excludes French Philosopher Concerned About Demographic Change

22 May 2025
by C.J. Strachan

The Tweets Cited by the Judge to ‘Prove’ Lucy Connolly is “Racist” Do Nothing of the Sort

38

News Round-Up

25

Doctor Who Star Ncuti Gatwa “Axed” and BBC Show to be “Put on Pause” Amid Falling Ratings and Woke Storylines

23

Trump Slaps 50% Tariffs on EU – as He Tells Starmer to Get Drilling for Oil

21

Spanish Scientists “Were Experimenting with How Far They Could Push Renewable Energy” Before Countrywide Blackout

15

We Were Too Polite to Stop the Woke Takeover

23 May 2025
by Mary Gilleece

The Tweets Cited by the Judge to ‘Prove’ Lucy Connolly is “Racist” Do Nothing of the Sort

23 May 2025
by Laurie Wastell

Starmer Has No Intention of Cutting Immigration

22 May 2025
by Joe Baron

UK Welcomes South African Activist Who Chants About Killing White Farmers But Excludes French Philosopher Concerned About Demographic Change

22 May 2025
by C.J. Strachan

The BBC’s Mark Poynting Shows How to Spread Climate Alarm

22 May 2025
by Chris Morrison

SOCIAL LINKS

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

Facebook

  • X

Instagram

RSS

Subscribe to our newsletter

© Skeptics Ltd.

Welcome Back!

Login to your account below

Forgotten Password? Sign Up

Create New Account!

Fill the forms below to register

All fields are required. Log In

Retrieve your password

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

Log In
No Result
View All Result
  • Articles
  • About
  • Archive
    • ARCHIVE
    • NEWS ROUND-UPS
  • Podcasts
  • Newsletter
  • Premium
  • Donate
  • Log In

© Skeptics Ltd.

wpDiscuz
You are going to send email to

Move Comment
Perfecty
Do you wish to receive notifications of new articles?
Notifications preferences