Report a 'Crisis' or maybe a 'Disaster'

Mal Fletcher

Monday 3 October 2011

Manchester, England: 03 October 2011 – Do you ever feel like the news these days is always bad news or even ‘disastrous’ news? 2020Plus, the London-based international Think Tank, is asking the people of Manchester to contribute to a study on the impact of constant talk of ‘crises’ in the media

2020Plus has set up a website page (http://2020plus.net/studynews.aspx) where people can tweet or email how many times they hear words like crisis, emergency and disaster within a news broadcast.

Mal Fletcher, Social Futurist and Commentator, heads up 2020Plus. 

He says: “The currency hardest hit at the moment is public confidence, and human emotions are often reflected in seemingly abstract measures of prosperity like GDP. People who lack confidence in either themselves or the system will feel a depressive effect and their productivity naturally follows suit.”

“The constant repetition of negative words like ‘crisis’ and ‘disaster’ not only depresses us all, it also undervalues the words themselves.”

2020Plus is running the study for two weeks, closing Sunday, October 16th.

Those taking part are asked to watch or listen to a news programme, count the number of negative words and send them in to the study.