Fear as a weapon of control

Dominating TV news and newspaper headlines are stories of gloom and doom, political turmoil and human misery.  Psychologists suggest that we are fed bad news because that's what we want to read. Our primitive psyche sees bad news as a possible signal that we need to change what we're doing to avoid danger.  This, according to George Marshall in his book 'Don't Even Think About It: Why our brains are wired to ignore climate change', is much like the tiger at the cave door which primitive man had to deal with before he could think of possible dangers further afield.
That makes sense to me. Although intellectually we've advanced in leaps and bounds,  emotionally and psychologically we have changed little over the millenia. I guess that's why so many psychologists work in advertising.  Our need to be sexual to find a partner and our need to belong to the 'tribe' make us an easy target for the fashion industry. Our fear of 'outsiders' when they enter our territory is possibly why multiculturalism is so hard to achieve.
But, I'm wondering whether there's another reason for our news to be dominated by doom and gloom.  Perhaps frightening us is an effective  method of control. Feeling scared, overwhelmed and powerless,  we are likely to pull up the drawbridge, look after number one and pay less attention to what's going on in the wider world.  
Perhaps those who have a vested interested in keeping things as they are because they are doing very nicely from it, don't want to spread the word that all over the world people are challenging the way our world is going and how their lives are being disrupted, are building up a vision of a better future and are questionning whether a life devoted to buying ever more 'stuff' is all its made out to be.  In my corner of S E England localisation is taking off big time.    Community allotments and choirs, men's sheds, reading and craft groups, support for the vulnerable and lonely are all alive and thriving.
Isn't it about time we shouted the good news from the rooftops?