why do we watch bad or disturbing news ? , when we worry about stuff so much but yet we're drawn to watch the awful stuff , its hard not too

It is hard not to and wheny husband decided that there would be no TV, YouTube or news via browser searches I was not convinced it was a good plan,
at the time his mother and grandmother lived with us but in a different house, obviously they were allowed to watch TV and the news, after a year or so I did notice the difference between the moods in the two houses, we were happy and life was good, they were almost depressed and convinced you couldn't go outside because of riots and Muslim terrorists, it was 2011 in the UK and the news was grim but life wasn't.
that moment was an epiphany for me and now I'm totally on board with the no current news and only reading the facts a month later.

I think it's a Human nature thing. Although, just the other day I was contemplating the fact that I seem to have lost the urge to do that.
I'd rather read about it.
eg. I haven't yet watched George Floyd's death and I'm not going to. I've seen some still pics of it and that's enough.
I don't want to see such things anymore.

I don't watch much tv, and specifically I don't watch the news regularly. I might read news articles when I need to, but my days of keeping up with all the terrible events are over.

I feel the need to be informed about what's happening with the world either good or bad. We can't just turn a blind eye to the evils of the world as tempting as it may be.

It's called negative bias. Negative things and events have a stronger effect on us than positive things. We're more interested in negativity than positivity.

Personally I avoid any disturbing content. I think not everyone likes those contents, people watch it for different reasons. When they express concerns, they don’t care about the victim. They just want to feel better. I don’t know how to clarify those audience but I’d say I have known a few that derive joy out of it when someone they don’t like get hurt. Some watch it to start small talks in their group or among friends.