"These images aren't just painful to watch. They can take a significant toll on our mental health. Research consistently demonstrates that media coverage of traumatic events can cause psychological distress in viewers. After the Boston marathon bombing, for example, repeated engagement with bombing-related media coverage was associated with higher acute stress than direct exposure. More recently, studies have found associations between news exposure to school shootings and generalized depressive and PTSD symptoms among adolescents."
"Brendesha Tynes, a researcher at the University of Southern California, has studied the relationship between repeated exposure to race-related traumatic events online, such as police shootings and immigrant detentions, and mental health outcomes. Her team found that exposure to these online events, especially those involving people who share their racial/ethnic identity, was associated with higher levels of depressive and PTSD symptoms."
Graphic footage of political assassinations, war crimes, racialized violence, and sexual assault spreads rapidly online and can appear in young people's social feeds without warning or context. Media coverage and repeated engagement with traumatic event footage can cause significant psychological distress, producing acute stress, depressive symptoms, and PTSD-like symptoms in adolescents. Repeated exposure to race-related online traumatic events is associated with higher depressive and PTSD symptoms, especially when viewers share the victims' racial or ethnic identity. Children and teens rely on adults to help them process these exposures. Connection and media literacy can buffer children from harmful impacts.
Read at Psychology Today
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