Just as overeating can harm you, consuming too much news can cause psychological distress. The news, after all, is constructed around events that capture our attention—the graphic, the tragic, the threatening. As I used to tell my students in my media ethics classes, much of the news is guided by the aphorism: If it bleeds, it leads. Stories of kindness and generosity may be edged into the news cycle, but the headline stories are ones that are the opposite. The main stories are about crime, natural disasters, corruption, and conflicts.

Research regarding media consumption after a public trauma found that the greater the time spent with the news, the greater the negative effects on mental health. In today’s fraught political climate and increasing threats from the climate, it is fair to assume the same relationship between........

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