Awards:
The news is huge, it covers everything, North, East, West and South, all the stories, sports, 'entertainment', science, politics, etc etc. So much amazing stuff is going on in the world, so why do we have to constantly hear about all the bad things?
For example, over Christmas, we were told (in England), that the snow was going to kill us all, none of our presents would be delivered in time, knife and gun crime is at an all time high, we're all still fucked because of the recession, and Simon Cowell is living it up in Barbados where diet coke costs £18 a bottle.
Not one positive news story ever seems to make the main headlines, and that's across the board, from the Guardian to the Mail, the Observer to the Express, Al Jazeera to FOX, it's all terrible tales. Surely if the point of news is to report on the zeitgeist, surely a couple of articles pointing out that the vast majority of people are having a great time wouldn't go amiss?
Take my local newspaper. Just after Christmas, the main headline was about a guy who'd been beaten senseless when out celebrating. One guy. No mention of the hundreds of thousands of people who'd had a great day. No mention of the various good deeds, extra 'hellos' and extra 'politeness' Christmas seems to inspire in people, nothing. Just a picture of a snow-covered blood-stained doorstep.
Sure, the news should be balanced, and I'm certainly not asking for a rose-tinted view of the world that ignores 'real issues', but is a nice headline every once in a while too much to ask?
I ask you.
I think that most people are more interested in bad news than good news. They play news channels on the TVs at work and EVERYONE will be huddled around the TV when they have "Breaking News." But everyone ignores the "heartwarming" stories and they only watch if they happen to be on break or something.
Edit: But yes, I agree that we could use more good news.
Last edited by Aimee; 12-29-2009 at 02:02 PM.
10:21 PM [TheMadCatter] I got free shipping, 20 dollars off, and a free tote bag12:26 AM [smirk] i think blended margaritas taste good sometimes(11:44:55 PM) Onionman: I was watching oprah...Personman says (3:16 AM):So I'm not girl like enough for you?
Instilling fear makes a nation more easy to control.
"The deepest definition of youth is life as yet untouched by tragedy."
-Alfred North Whitehead
"Every man takes the limits of his own field of vision for the limits of the world."
-Arthur Schopenhauer
Awards: Interesting, isn't it? Like what is it that gravitates us more towards negative stories than positive ones? Relief that through living vicariously, others experience pain/loss/humiliation where we don't have to? A survival instinct, instilled in us genetically, that tells us we must remain aware of potential threats?Originally Posted by Aimee
I'm terrible for it. Not with news, but with humour, certainly. Light, positive jokes literally sicken and bore me, while the darkest, most twisted jokes amuse me greatly. Satisfaction that these things aren't happening to me? A coping mechanism, a way to deal with such dark realities, like using Riddikulus to fend off a Boggart?
Hmm. Regardless, my point is that I'm not given a choice as to what kind of news I want to see.
I dunno, our local news often includes good news. I'm talking NYC metropolitan area. Every night, there's some kind of heartwarming story on the local news. Either some guy saving someone else's life from a burning building, or someone being pulled off the subway tracks, or some church that was about to sell its Tiffany stained glass window to feed the poor this winter but then people from all over sent donations so they could keep the window, etc. And then every year on the dot we hear about the guy who hands out $100 bills on the street telling people they have to spend it on helping someone else. There's always something nice.
Yea same here, I see a ton of good news when I watch the local channels... Sure there is a negative here and there, but that's what makes it suspenseful..
Back to your original post, there is Fox News in England?? I wonder if their like the Fox news we have here in the states...
Bijelo-crvena polja Hrvatska na dresu sjete me da ja volim te. Igrajte za nju, NaĊĦu voljenu, nek´ jaÄe kuca to srce vatreno.
World Cup 2006 - Croatia!
It's in our human nature to be morbid. About the only good positive thing in the news is shown at the very end when they're rolling the credits pretty much.
A man possesses talent;
genius possesses the man.
bad news sells
Zerosum
Ayuh,
Heard on the news tonight that the fella that got a dream job as caretaker on some little tropical Australian island park got stung by an iricongee or whatever little jellyfish. Evidently fully recovered now, but would certainly have been an experience with a pretty severe suck factor.
Ayuh, not dead yet. Might change that with an S1000RR though
Haha that IS good news.
Like you said man, good news just doesney't interest people.
Aside from that, good, happy, pleasant news stories aren't generally reported by people are they? Nobody has a news story about their holiday going perfectly and everybody having a wonderful time yb the pool, they only report the story where their hotel had an outbreak of legionnaire's disease.
Perhaps good things hapenning to people is seen as the norm and therefore they aren't worth reporting.
Perhaps if we had loads of good news, a lot of people would become very jealous and angry as a result. When you're depressed or going through a bad time, there's nothing worse than hearing other people's great news.
I dunno, there's definitely a few reasons for it. It seems that celebrity news has now taken the place of the 'good news' story. We can be happy when someone from a girlband finds the love of her life or when some footballer has his dream wedding (but then everybody is equally happy when said happy moments come to horrifying ends - see: Jade Goody).
The broad masses of a nation are always more easily corrupted in the deeper strata of their emotional nature than consciously or voluntarily; and thus in the primitive simplicity of their minds they more readily fall victims to the big lie than the small lie, since they themselves often tell small lies in little matters but would be ashamed to resort to large-scale falsehoods. It would never come into their heads to fabricate colossal untruths, and they would not believe that others could have the impudence to distort the truth so infamously. Even though the facts which prove this to be so may be brought clearly to their minds, they will still doubt and waver and will continue to think that there may be some other explanation. For the grossly impudent lie always leaves traces behind it, even after it has been nailed down, a fact which is known to all expert liars in this world and to all who conspire together in the art of lying. These people know only too well how to use falsehood for the basest purposes... Adolf Hitler
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