Yikes! The red words are coming, the red words are coming!

Have you ever seen a cat go after a laser dot? That’s news media across the world right now. Coronavirus is the dot and news media is the cat, and everywhere the dot pops up, they pounce. Don’t laugh too hard because this is us, too. Only when applied to us, the news is the dot and we’re the cats, and in our crazed efforts to “catch the dot,” we’re knocking over tables and chairs and pulling down curtains and breaking our mother’s good China and relieving grocery stores of their inventories.

It’s mayhem.

While I’m proud of the way some media outlets are responsibly covering the Coronavirus pandemic, I’m absolutely disgusted with the way others are (yeah, I’m looking at you most New York Times), and I thought I might offer up a little insight (for whatever it’s worth) on the headlines you’re seeing so you may find some relief from the “bad news” anxieties we’re all feeling.

First, a suggestion: Don’t borrow headlines. The world’s headlines are very overwhelming at the moment. Try switching to local/hyper-local news to get a better perspective on how the pandemic applies to you and your immediate area. You’ll find the situation more manageable—except in regards to toilet paper shortages. That situation is dire no matter where you look, I’m afraid. There, you already feel better.

The biggest problem I’m seeing in headlines right now is the use of what I call “red” words. Surge, soar, crash, spike, race, climb, drop.

Did your heart quicken just a bit reading those? Well, that’s what their use is designed to do.

These words, and numerous others, are proactive, usually one syllable, are very aggressive, and are meant to alarm you into reading the story below. They populate headlines under ordinary times, but are dominating them now. When you see these words, try to replace them with a slower synonym like “reaches” or “declines.” You’re still getting the necessary information but without the drama. Yes, the Coronavirus is aggressive and spreading quickly, but these words add to the virus’ already aggressive nature and make it seem even more threatening than it is. And it already IS threatening. There’s no reason to further dramatize it. In fact, further dramatizing it might ultimately have the opposite effect of what the users are going for. More on that below.

To go further, let’s use the popular topic of Coronavirus testing as an example of the misuse of red words.

At the time of writing this (Sunday, March 22) there are just under 27,000 confirmed cases of Coronavirus in the US. But only a very small percentage of our population has been tested for it. Now let’s say tomorrow, Monday, every American was tested, and because of the testing, the number of confirmed cases increased to 102k. Tuesday’s headlines would read: Confirmed cases surge past 100,000 in 24 hours. Yikes! Yes, yikes, but that didn’t happen in one day. Maybe ten more or ten thousand more were infected between Monday and Tuesday, but the majority of those 102,000 were already infected on Monday just not known. While most stories are good about stating it’s the number of tests administered that accounts for the jump in cases, the headlines aren’t reflective of that. The headlines are reflective of a virus that’s even more aggressive than the Coronavirus and designed to get you to read the details in the story. Although still startling, an easier headline to digest would be: Increased testing pinpoints 102K confirmed US cases. It almost makes it drier, doesn’t it? More clinical? More, dare I say, unbiased? All while still giving you the information you need. And it also gives you the bonus of letting you know that we’re progressing on our testing abilities (if that’s the case). It puts the control in our hands. Not the virus’. And we need that empowerment most right now.

The biggest problem I see with the use of these red words and the abundant spread of panic and alarm they’re creating right now is actually based off my cat/laser-pointer analogy.

Some experts believe that, while it’s fun to watch a cat go spastic trying to catch the red dot, too much laser-pointer play can ultimately make them apathetic because they can’t properly fulfill their hunting instincts. Basically, they give up. I worry these headlines can have the same effect on people. Overwhelm people with too much bad news without giving them a dose of good news, it becomes tiring and dampens our efforts to help one another and be sympathetic towards another’s plight because you might sit back and say, “Well, I’m doing all this but you keep throwing these horrible things at me, so what’s the point? I’m exhausted.”

All things considered, what I’m trying to say is that the Coronavirus IS very dangerous in all regards, especially to certain members of our population, and in no way (this is very important you understand this) am I suggesting to not take it seriously. Please do. People’s lives depend on it, but some media at times are masters at sensationalizing and this pandemic is sensational already. It’s crippling an entire world. That’s enough to grab our attention.

Be well, be smart about your news intake, and stay safe, Everyone! Or, as my slide texting prefers to say whenever I type that line, “Stay sage,” which kind of works, too.

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