Good News
Turn on the television and all you see and hear is bad news.
Kidnappings, bombs, shootings, scandal, global warming...it's all so depressing.
While being selective of our news sources, it is important to stay on top of what is going on around us. Too many people have their heads up their asses.
Having said that, not all news is bad. Yet judging from most mainstream sources it certainly seems that way sometimes. I have often bitched about all the negative news in the media and even joked about starting a television network that only showed good news, "one day." It turns out I'm not the only one who feels this way.
The Good News Network (International) is a website that strictly shares GOOD news. Recent headlines include articles about breakthroughs in stem cell research and "Indians using Google Earth to save the Amazon."
The imbalance between positive news and negative news in the media is pretty blatant, in my opinion. What does that say about us? That bad news is more marketable or interesting? I think hope and inspiration are interesting too. If you agree, check out this site or just search "good news." There are many Good News sites out there to make sure your media diet is balanced.
After a few minutes on a site like this, you just might want to give this World that you've been trashing an apologetic pat on the back.
Kidnappings, bombs, shootings, scandal, global warming...it's all so depressing.
While being selective of our news sources, it is important to stay on top of what is going on around us. Too many people have their heads up their asses.
Having said that, not all news is bad. Yet judging from most mainstream sources it certainly seems that way sometimes. I have often bitched about all the negative news in the media and even joked about starting a television network that only showed good news, "one day." It turns out I'm not the only one who feels this way.
The Good News Network (International) is a website that strictly shares GOOD news. Recent headlines include articles about breakthroughs in stem cell research and "Indians using Google Earth to save the Amazon."
The imbalance between positive news and negative news in the media is pretty blatant, in my opinion. What does that say about us? That bad news is more marketable or interesting? I think hope and inspiration are interesting too. If you agree, check out this site or just search "good news." There are many Good News sites out there to make sure your media diet is balanced.
After a few minutes on a site like this, you just might want to give this World that you've been trashing an apologetic pat on the back.
posted by Mish @ 12:46 PM
2 Comments:
At 22.11.06,
April said…
My lil brother Charlie had a gr. 11 homework assignment talking about crime reporting in the media. There were stats showing how distorted the violent crime reporting is in Canada/US compared to how much goes on. The interesting thing was that the majority of murders/assaults are perpetrated by people we know, but the media has a preference to report on stories where crime is perpetrated by random people on other randoms (like the Dec 26th shooting last year). So even though it's important to know about all the bad news in the world, we do get a distorted picture.
At 25.11.06,
Mike said…
That's really cool, Pinch. I definitely would like to see more good news in the media, but at the same time, I do understand the media's tendency to present bad news in a somewhat skewed proportion - though certainly not to the levels they do. That said, bad news is generally stuff that needs to be addressed. With a good news story, it can sometimes be like, "Okay. Cool." With bad news, the ideal response is, "Shit, that's fucked. (People use expletives in 67% of their speech, I find) We should fix that, yo." So, at least for me as a journalist, I definitely like reporting on things that aren't perfect because I feel like it can effect change for the better. Maybe that's just me, though.
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