Good News Media and Sources
Can the Media Show The Glass Half Full Instead of Half Empty?
Feb 11, 2009 Carroll Trosclair
The volume of bad news in today’s media is even blamed for aggravating poor crime and economic conditions and for contributing to depression. Television Celebrity Oprah Winfrey said "there needs to be a change of consciousness with the news…We don’t know what the bombardment of crime and violence does to our minds."
News people say they do not create the bad news, they’re just the messengers. They say the public needs to know what is going on in government, business, schools and other areas.
The volume of bad news was increased by the war in Iraq, by monster disasters such as Hurricane Katrina and by the troubled 2008-09 economy. The media’s tendency to do anniversary stories also revives a lot of bad news.
Bloogers Increasing Bad News
Independent bloggers add to the volume of negative news, giving credence to the theory that traditional media might not be out of step with the general public.
The 2008 Olympics brought a spurt of good news. Athletes and celebrities are normally sources of positive news, but then there are the disappointments: Brittany Spears, Barry Bonds, Michael Phelps, Chris Brown, Alex Rodrigue and Michael Jackson, to mention a few. The tabloids and paparazzi work hard to find bad news.
Publishers insist there is plenty of good news in their papers. Consider the attention given to Chesley "Sully" Sullenberger landing that airliner safely in the Hudson River. There just aren’t many good news stories of that magnitude.
Even so, only 72% of its viewers on the Good News Network (GNN) said they wanted to see the story on that website. It was, afterall, a plane crash.
Good News Site Weaknesses
The GNN and other websites devoted to positive news also have problems. Their approach is as unbalanced as they complain the mainstream media is.
They depend heavily on other media, rather than originating their own stories. Some reports are several days old. A Good News Magazine article on the Super Bowl focused on bad morality in the commercials.
News people say readers don’t pay much attention to all their good school, church and club news, anniversaries, etc. A story about the student essay contest is probably read by the winners and runnersup, their families and friends. But a story about a school scandal is likely to attract most of the community.
The 2008-09 historic decline in newspaper advertising is forcing publishers to either shut down or decrease the size of their papers, probably meaning even less space for good news.
Expand Editorializing
There are ways of producing more good news, aside from publishing the millions of press releases sent to the media. There are even ways of turning bad news into positive headlines--if the media is willing to expand its editorializing. Samples:
- The nation’s employment record stood at 93% last month. (Rather than reporting 7% unemployment.)
- Phelps only caught using marijuana once (Same fact, different angle.)
- A-Rod has not used steroids as a Yankee. (He was with Dallas in 2003.)
- U.S. factory orders totaled $362 billion in December. (Forget the 3.9% decline.)
- The Bush Administration left the country with enough presses to print trillions of dollars to cover the deficit, bailout and stimulus packages.
Would Americans be happier, or feel more secure, if they woke up to such headlines each morning? Would they pay as much attention to them as they do to the media’s current good news stories?
News, as Editor Brandi Hart wrote in the Royce City Herald, "includes the good, bad and even sometimes the ugly."
When it's manipulated, it gets uglier
References:
- The Good News Network.com
- Good News Magazine
Newspapers carry good and bad news.
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