This article originally appeared in our newsletter, A Comms Lens.
Sign up to receive monthly(ish) insights via email.
Narratives are powerful things. It’s important to consciously identify when you’re seeing a narrative being shaped, particularly when they are designed to elicit an emotional response.
Here are a few examples of headlines covering the recent stories about TSA wait times during Q1 2026 when the US government was in the middle of a highly publicized and contentious shutdown. At the time, the airport wait times was being covered across all major and minor news outlets:
Can you spot which headlines are trying to stress you out?
Words like “Chaos” and “threat” are used to trigger fear in readers. NYT’s framing the visual of long lines around airports is designed to stir frustration whereas AP News is trying to balance practicality with sympathy.
Every effective story will try to illicit an emotional response, because our brains are wired for emotions. All humans make decisions emotionally and then layer rationality on top. That’s what makes stories and narratives so powerful, but also problematic when used to manipulate people. That’s were media literacy comes in.
Regardless of how you stand on any issues, being aware of which emotions a story is trying to push you into will make you more media literate and less likely to be manipulated.
