Why Are Americans Captivated by the "If it Bleeds, it Leads" Philosophy of News Outlets?

Drama and bad news is the name of the game for most media outlets. For some reason actually, I guess because of human nature, the average viewer is intrigued, fascinated, horrified, and yes, perhaps even a bit titillated by coverage of a tragedy or some other dramatic event.

Very little coverage is given to issues about people and organizations doing positive things to make the world a better place to live in. We don't often hear about the contributions average people like you and I make to good causes. Not too much is said about the people who sacrifice everything to be missionaries and aid workers and educators in remote, dangerous countries. No, hope is in short supply on Fox, CNN, NBC, CBS, and ABC. That is, at least, if you believe what you hear, and only what they tell you!

Why are Americans today so mesmerized by coverage of bridges collapsing, floods, fires, mass murders, sexual predators, and a host of other deviant, disastrous, catastrophic people and events? What is the fascination in all the drama? Do we even know there's a whole world out there that we never hear about on television news, except late at night, or on special occasions? Do we know there are average people living heroic lives? Do we know there are citizens of the world who suffer in silence and off the radar of the evening news because they're nameless, faceless and powerless?

The day-in-day-out routine of our daily lives can feel like drudgery, if we allow ourselves to view it that way. The drama, blood and guts, murders, disasters, et al, are certainly more exciting than changing diapers, carpooling children to activities, commuting to a job that is unrewarding, or living in a marriage that is not fulfilling. The "big issues" of the world are just too much to wrap our minds around. We don't have time or the energy to do "heroic" things, let alone the desire.

In other words, the drama serves as a distraction or a means of escape. If someone dies, it makes me realize I'm alive. If someone is murdered by a spouse, I know my own marriage isn't that bad. If a hurricane wipes out entire neighborhoods, or randomly strikes one house on a block, my own house isn't quite so small and unappealing.

Part of the problem with the media, is that viewers buy in to what they broadcast and print. If viewers continue to watch and read about all the dramatic events of the latest news cycle, they don't have to deal with the bigger issues of the world like poverty, drought, genocide, AIDS, and human rights violations.

It's really a "chicken or the egg" vicious cycle. We watch, so it is broadcast. It is broadcast because we watch.