How Angry Do News Stories Really Make Us?

The news in Britain at the moment is full of a big scandal about white girls in northern towns being abused by gangs of Pakistani men.  The details are extremely unpleasant.  This comes hot on the heels of similar scandals about a politician and a rather large group of light entertainers.  I don't think any one has any statistics,  but at first glance given the relative sizes of those groups the numbers of culprits might well be in roughly the same proportion.  So it looks like there are a small but significant number of abusive men in any large enough grouping.  Politicians, performers and Pakistanis are sufficiently different to each other in culture that it looks like this is a feature of men in general rather than any particular type of man.


It sounds like a naive thing to say, but that thought hadn't really crossed my mind before the recent news stories.   The implications is that there is every chance that somebody I know reasonably well might be an abuser.  So just as I have mental plan ready for the event of my house burning down I have now equipped myself with a plan about what to do if I actually encounter such a thing.  Like the burning house, I hope it never happens.

But what about the stuff we hear on the media - what should my response to that be?  I have thought this through and come up with a 5 point scale of possible responses.

5 - Give up my business and devote the rest of my life to helping the victims and pursuing the perpetrators.

4 - Actively campaign in my spare time on the isssue.

3 - Make a one off charitable donation coupled with letters to my MP etc.

2 - Add it to the list of issues I judge candidates for my vote at elections.

1 - Do nothing at all.

When I look at it like that I select my response as a 2.  It seems totally inadequate compared to the problem, but I have defined my list in terms of actions not emotional reactions.  I am pretty sure my assessment is accurate.

No matter what I might say or how wound up or angry I feel I have to confess that the real world impact of this terrible news story in my case is very close to nothing.  I don't want to sound arrogant, but I have a feeling that even being at 2 on my scale puts me a little above average.

So how angry do news stories really make us?

The fact is that the most horrendous news story has almost no effect on anybody in the short run.  It is easy to be cynical about politicians. policeman and officials.  But if I am willing to do so little myself can I really criticise them?

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