FRESNO (KMJ) – After weeks of bloodshed reported in the news – How much can we handle…?
“No question it’s affecting us, and in ways it’s not affected us in the past,” says Jay Pope, a clinical psychologist and Associate Professor at Fresno Pacific University.
Horrible tragedy is plastered all over the news, Pope says it’s unlike anything we have seen since 9-11.
- Police officers kill black men in Louisiana and Minnesota.
- Five Dallas police officers are killed by a lone gunman.
- A gunman kills three officers and injures three more in Baton Rouge
- An attempted coup in Turkey
- Terrorist attacks in Nice, France.
“Now, the question is not whether human beings can take it, I think the evidence suggests we can take it. The question is at what price? Do we become jaded? Do we tend to consider these kinds of events to be run the mill, and does it lose its shock value? – Jay Pope, Clinical Psychologist, Fresno Pacific University Associate Professor.
Pope says its important to find good news sources that know how to prioritize stories to present them in ways that reflect the actual magnitude of tragedy they are covering.
“Maybe just limit yourself to one source of information that presents the information in order of importance and doesn’t tend to sensationalize,” says Pope.
