One of the biggest problems in uncertain times is to avoid unnecessarily raising false hopes. Much like the “cry wolf” effect of warning of perils that fail to materialize, it can lead audiences to tune out the source, believing it to be too unreliable to give credence.
However, the loss of trust in the reliability of a source of information is not the only risk involved in raising false hopes. Unlike bad news, which is a warning of things to be endured, good news can be perceived as a promise of a good thing to come. As a result, when it fails to materialize, the audience feels not only disappointed but actively betrayed.
Yet at the same time, official sources need to be able to maintain the morale of the populace. Particularly in difficult times, positive news can often make the difference between people’s willingness to make an effort on something that does not immediately benefit them, and putting out only the minimum effort. By knowing that some things are becoming better, they can believe that their efforts are accomplishing something positive, something that will benefit them in the long run, even if it appears at the moment that things are becoming worse.
However, if the hope they are offered should prove overly optimistic, or even outright wishful thinking, it becomes dangerously likely that people will feel they’ve been had, that they’ve been tricked into wasting their time to someone else’s gain, rather than working for everyone’s benefit.
We see this during the Energy Wars, particularly during major reverses. Small victories, even the rescue of an escaped POW, were given considerable air time on the home front as morale boosters. However, there were several noted cases in which the situation was portrayed as being far more heroic than was in fact the case. As the true situation came out, a disillusioned audience even turned against the very heroes they’d cheered only weeks before. In some cases, there were demands for harsh punishment, often of the participants in the rescue rather than the media personalities who exaggerated the heroism of the people involved.
—– Autumn Belfontaine, paper for journalism course, University of Minnesota, 2012.