V današnjem času so mediji v življenju vseprisotni. Njihova pomembna vloga je informiranje javnosti o svetovnem in lokalnem dogajanju, kar je pomembno za delovanje demokratične družbe. Zaradi trgu prilagajočega modela delovanja se je v zadnjih letih začel porast rumenih medijev in senzacionalizma, ki poleg želje po informiranju izkazuje primarno željo po dobičku. Sodobna novičarska pokrajina, tako v resnih kot rumenih medijih, vključuje mnogo negativnih informacij, ki bi lahko bile škodljive za posameznikovo duševno zdravje. V skladu s tem je bil namen naše raziskave pridobiti jasnejši vpogled v morebitne čustvene vidike spremljanja medijev. Pri tem so nas zanimale tudi razlike, ki se pojavijo ob spremljanju rumenih in resnih medijev. Raziskava, ki je bila izvedena s spletnim anketiranjem, v katerem je sodelovalo 176 udeležencev (66 moških in 107 žensk), starih od 15 do 65 let, je zajemala eksperimentalni del, v katerem smo preverjali učinke neposredne izpostavljenosti rumenim in resnim medijem glede na psihološko blagostanje udeležencev. V korelacijskem delu raziskave smo preverjali povezave med dolgoročnim spremljanjem resnih in rumenih medijev ter spremljanjem medijev na splošno in doživljanjem neprijetnih emocij. V tem delu so nas zanimale tudi razlike v navadah spremljanja medijev med spoloma in morebitne razlike v čustvenem odzivanju na novice. Eksperimentalni del ni pokazal statistično pomembnih razlik med eksperimentalnimi pogoji, nakazoval pa se je trend – udeleženci, izpostavljeni rumenemu mediju, so bili najbolje razpoloženi. Korelacijske raziskave niso pokazale statistično pomembne povezave med spremljanjem novic in doživljanjem neprijetnih čustev. Primerjava v dolgoročnem spremljanju resnega in rumenega medija ni pokazala statistično pomembnih razlik, trend pa je nakazoval, da bi morebitno dolgoročno spremljanje rumenih medijev lahko bilo povezano s slabšim blagostanjem. Primerjava med spoloma je pokazala pomembne razlike v spremljanju novic in čustvenem odzivanju nanje. Ugotovitve v magistrskem delu so razložene v skladu s trenutnimi psihološkimi spoznanji.Media news is ever-present in our daily lives. Media outlets play an important role in informing the general public on global and local events, which is crucial for the functioning of democratic societies. In the past several decades a model that works in line with the free market has led to an increase in soft news reporting and sensationalism, both of which often focus more on increasing sales than informing the public. Our modern media landscape contains an unbalanced amount of negative information which could potentially be harmful to our individual mental health. In line with these observations the purpose of our study was to gain better insight into the potential negative emotional states associated with news consumption. Along these lines we focused on the differences associated with following soft and hard news media. Our study was conducted in the form of an online survey involving 176 participants (66 male and 107 female) aged 15–65. The study included an experimental section wherein we tested for the potential effects of exposure to soft or hard news on the psychological well-being of our participants. In the correlational part of our study we tested for associations between long-term exposure to soft news, hard news and news in general and levels of negative emotion. In this part of the study we were also interested in the differences in news exposure habits between men and women as well as the potential differences in their emotional reactions to news. The experimental section did not show statistically significant differences between the experimental conditionshowever, it did show a trend – individuals exposed to soft news had the highest levels of mood. The correlational studies did not show significant differences between new exposure habits and levels of negative emotions. In comparing long-term news exposure to the chosen hard and soft newspapers no statistically significant differences were found, but a forming trend seemed to suggest long-term exposure to soft news might be associated with decreased psychological well-being. The gender comparison showed statistically significant differences in news following habits as well as emotional reactions to news. Our findings are discussed in line with the contemporary psychological literature
