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"I can’t stand all the bad news!"
That’s something I've heard a lot from people — even before the credit crunch and global economic meltdown. War, car accidents, foreclosures, you know the stuff. Why does so much of the news we hear or read seem to be "bad news?"
We’re going to try to get at that question by discussing the "news values" that often determine whether or not something makes the news. And we’ll also look at professional standards and the cultural assumptions beneath the news. News is produced by people after all.
A number of organizations have devoted themselves to producing positive news: Yes! Magazine in Bainbridge Island, WA; Ode in California; and the just-launched Goodness Magazine in Portland, OR.
But what does positive news mean? Will what you think of as good news be good news to me? Other than stress relief, what value is there in good news? Could too much good news crowd out the unpleasant news that we need to know to be informed?
Do you get depressed hearing or reading the news? What do you do about it if anything? Do you seek out good news in your media diet? If so where do you get it? Is there a place for more good news in the mainstream media?
GUESTS:
- Jim Upshaw: Professor of Journalism and Communication and University of Oregon who spent 22 years in broadcasting as a reporter and foreign correspondent in Japan for NBC
- Sarah Van Gelder: Executive editor of YES! Magazine
- Rod Gramer: Executive news director for KGW News Channel 8
Tagged as: business · media · politics
Photo credit: margolove, Flickr, Creative Commons
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Thank you to Emily Harris, Allison and Julie at OPB for facilitating this much needed and very worthwhile discussion. At the very least, the subject of "Good" news needs to be brought forward so people can begin to realize they have choices about where and how to spend eye and earball time. It's about balance, equity, choice and discovery of a much broader, more inspirational level. The world is NOT all gloom and doom. We can have hope and we can learn by becing expsoed to the positive actions of others. Thank you OPB and Think Out Loud. - Janna Mock-Lopez, Publisher, Goodness Magazine, Portland, Oregon
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One danger of being an OPB junkie occurs when I absorb too much "bad" news and become toxic. I've turned off OBP lately because I started feeling all melodramatic: "there's no reason to go on, woe is me". Problem after problem being brought to light with few practical solutions gets really depressing.
Metaphorically speaking, I felt like laying across the railroad tracks and giving up. But I do know the cure for a "bad news overdose". I clicked off OPB and cranked up the Foo Fighters. If I listen to too much "bad news" I can convince myself that humans are incurably stupid and unable to find positive ways to negotiate their way through time.
Too many people are doing good things and we don't focus on them for very long. News doesn't focus on what is working in the world. We end up taking good news and deeds for granted.
Jannamocklopez said it: balance is required and not all is gloom and doom; "news" just makes it feel that way.
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Chipper people in this economy really need help.
FDA Approves Depressant Drug For The Excessively Cheery, the gratingly upbeat and the annoyling cheerful.
http://www.theonion.com/content/video/fda_approves_depressant_drug_for
More seriously, I am not convinced we don't this period of introspection. I think we moved too fast after 9-11. Like Sho Dozono telling Oregonians to go to New York and send a defiant message to Al Queda that we wouldn't be denied our American-give right to spend, spend, spend. This greedy everything-is-beautiful attitude incites the hate others feel toward Americans.
But this POV, also shows up in our societal attitidues about divorce and death (get over it, snap to it, move on...there's a whole lexicon built around denial). Not to say that the pursuit of happiness is a bad thing, but for the most part we all do better when we live in the NOW, not in the past, not in the future and not in "how I want it to be."
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Emily and David:
Love the show! This isn't a comment on this topic, but I didn't see a way to suggest future topics, so here goes:
Channel 8 just did a short news bit on the real, astronomical, and hidden cost of text-messaging. Check it out! I'm sure many parents out there, who are paying their kids' phone bills, would like to talk about this! I'm an empty-nester, but it would interest me to explore how/why texting became/is so popular, as compared to simply talking on the phone--which evidently is so much cheaper. I just can't help thinking that one way out of this lousy recession is to learn--and to teach kids--to live more moderately. This new way of spending money is another example of excess living. Thanks for considering this idea.
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Have you ever asked yourself whether you're a glass-full or glass-empty person? I've recently determined that I'm a glass-fuller, but my glass is filled with algae. Some of us are prone to being perky while others are full-blown doom gloomsters, but there is a whole rainbow of personality types.
"News" affects everybody differently. But in general I've been fascinated that "bad news" gets higher ratings. Collectively we watch reality shows where people's lives derail in front of us. We rip people off their pedestals before their 15 minutes of fame have expired. We voyueristically absorb cat fights, bikini jello wrestling, and show like MTV's *Jackass*. We want WWE (wrestling) to be real. What's wrong with us?
But It did feel really good to celebrate Chesley Sullenberger and crew's effective water landing of American Flight 1549 in the Hudson River. I'll keep my eyes peeled for more "good news".
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A couple of years ago I starting kicking around the idea of starting a blog all about good deeds.
I started it, and it's found at http://blogadeed.blogspot.com/
My thought was to print up some chips, (they're wooden) and when you do a good deed, leave the chip (or give it in person) for the person you did the good deed for. Then that person does a good deed in turn, and the chip gets passed on.
I printed the chips over a year ago, and have given them out, but have had very few people respond on the blog.
My hope was that these chips would travel around town, maybe even around the world!
Any ideas how to get this going better would be wonderful!
I'm looking forward to THINK OUT LOUD tomorrow!
Susannah Mars Johnson
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I guess I deal with it by keeping things in perspective based on my "world view" where good news is available, but rarely in the impersonal world of sold media. News gets ratings (and the corollary revenue or support) when it polarizes enough to attract interest.
An ancillary problem is that the broader the audience, the more risk that any "good" news you try to find will actually be seen as either pandering or bad news by a large segment of your audience. For example, NPR having pro-abortion "good news" will disappoint (or worse) those who have a different view of when life starts while it annoys those who are REALLY tired of the subject altogether. If a broad audience news channel instead runs repeated stories of things their audience as a whole agrees are problems, the audience sticks around. IMO, misery likes company, if someone thinks life isn’t perfect for them, they gravitate to stories of folks where life seems at least as bad. Bad news further gives at least an illusion that one might eventually have enough information to protect oneself better.
I would suggest that we really only care about good news when we feel we have even a tiny positive stake in it. This is all the more true when we are convinced that the folks sharing the information with us are less than interested themselves. For me, good news comes more often from church, missionaries, or family; these are the places I have positive ties to and places that I have vested with my trust and caring.
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I have begun to feel like the news media is now driving the bad economy. It seems like EVERY broadcast/paper/show/etc in EVERY media starts with negative economic news. What bank closed, how far down the stock market is, how many houses are foreclosed, how far house prices have fallen, what company has closed, how many are homeless, who is laid off, how to tighten your belt, and on, and on, and on. It seems relentless and unavoidable and it becomes a self-fulfilling prophesy.
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Several months after 9/11, I turned off the radio (yes, OPB) and the television. My anxiety had taken over and caused great anguish. While I still struggle with this, I've learned moderation is essential. I listen to OPB off and on throughout the day, but when I get home, no more news! And none on the weekends either...except for Meet the Press!
Thanks OPB!
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Kudos to these new media companies with their intelligent mission statements. We now rarely listen/watch/read mainstream media.
In my opinion the true definition of news that is worth "printing/brodcasting" is only that news which a person or group could ACTUALLY use to make informed decisions to improve the quality of their lives and the lives of others.
99% of the "so-caled-news" in the mainstream media DOES NOT qualify IMHO.
John Collins
(p.s. to these new media editors)
I am happy to contribute positive news articles re. health and healthcare. please contact me here:
http://www.springbrookclinic.com/index.php?catID=1&page=shared/stockpages/cp/aboutus/contactus.php&pageID=37
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Good? Bad? I feel it would improve everyone's mental / physical / emotional states of health if we simply drop the judgements.
It's not good or bad. It just IS what's happening. Heinous or joyous. It just IS.
~Miss Ruby Gallagher
Trying to stay balanced in wacky times
PS- You have a wonderful thought provoking program, thank you for your work. I learn so much.
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We're living in tough, challenging times. Therefore - and for this I am thankful - there is a lot of what could be called negative news. If people want to feel good and know what they can "do" either open your front door and look around or tune into Oprah, who will put a warm and fuzzy coating on everything so we can all feel better.
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I am really enjoying listening to this- I remember a couple of months ago before I was lucky enough to land a temp job, and I had all this guilt around buying a coffee. Though it was the one happy, social moment of my day that was otherwise filled with sitting at home looking for a job, the media was constantly filling me with guilt about it: NO ONE is spending money, they said. You should be saving your money- if you're buying frivolous lattes, you're setting yourself up for disaster. Coffees should be a once a week treat they told me- then I looked around and found that my coffee shop was full of people at 2pm- who else could they be but my fellow unemployed job seekers, looking to be "out" and in a comforting environment besides their home. I decided that the media could stuff their guilt they were inflicting on me over my $2.85 coffee- they were wrong, in the end, and their fear that they were trying to instill in people over spending, or enjoying life in any way, would only damage the economy more. So now I tune them out, spend my $2.85 and think that I'm doing more to help us get out of this in a positive way than any "economy in crisis" blaring news headline of impending disaster could ever do.
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Unfortunately a lot of reportable news gets blasted by right wing pundits as slanted reporting just by the fact that it is being reported. Often times, just reporting on relevant news brings ideological criticism.
Thanks for discussuing this,it is important.
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It's NOT obvious that the story about the 13 year old girl leads. And I'd like to highly disagree that news competes with other types of content. News is important for what's going on in our community and helps us make decisions about what's going on in our democracy. I don't watch TV shows for that information, and it's too bad that now local TV news has fallen into that irrelevant entertainment category as well.
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Mr Grammer claims they do not make editorial decisions based on ratings? I do not belive that for a second. He said himself that news is so hard because they are fighting for ratings.
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If you've read Richard Dawkins, you know that the three most attention-getting things for humans are danger, food, and sex. That's what you see on the evening news. One of the reasons audiences are moving to the Web is that they know this at some level and have a desire to seek out information on other topics besides those three.
Interesting example: One night, Fox 12 news had a "Dirty Dining" segment about dangerous food in a strip club. They combined all three into one segment.
All news media needs to appreciate that going toward more sensationalism won't solve the problem. Providing more variety and individualized access to more and better content might help.
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dave, emily ---
it's not about good or bad news --- it's about whether the news being reported is done with depth and credibility. for example, if there's a story about a fire or murder (always is), why do all the local new stations interview the drunk neighbor who knows nothing about the situation or the crime? Why aren't these tv journalists interviewing experts on crime, e.g., experts on domestic abuse or psychosis? they rarely if ever do.
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When people make an effort to encourage positive behaviors in people, bad behaviors are slowly replaced. Is it possible to replace bad news by focusing on good/positive things happening in our world? I think people need to hear more positive news.
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With so much REAL news to report (good or bad) I am irritated to the point of not watching or listening to ANY of it because so much time is spent locally and nationally with the socalled newscasters bantering among themselves, discussing their children, their travel, their weather. WHO CARES? This is not a coffee klatch or a bar-- this is a newscast. I don't want to know how the children of the newscaster are doing in school, or how much snow was at his house or how long she waited in line the last time SHE flew. I want to know what is going on in the world and in Oregon and in Portland. These so called newscasts are much more "entertainment" than news. And this does not even cover the fact that very little content is in this news. Furthermore, the news is riddled with grammatical errors that only serve to reinforce the notion that people can express themselves poorly, NOT get their points across and still be considered to be providing content when, in fact, much of what is broadcast is "content-free". By contrast, for instance, the News Hour with Jim Lehrer, covers the high points of news stories, takes a few salient points to discuss, yes DISCUSS in depth and manage to cover quite a bit because they don't ask each other about their colds, their travels, their matching ties or their children.
Laura Krioukov, Portland
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Just tuned in a short time ago this morning. It is a good discussion although I would like to point out your speaker's overusage of "you know". Seems I've heard it in almost every sentence and to my ears it detracts from the content of what he is saying.
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Thanks for doing this program! The news has become such a staple in everyone's lives that they don't really see the affect it is having on them. I eliminated the news from my life after realizing I was afraid to fall asleep at night. My house was surely going to start on fire or someone would break in and I'd be the next murder featured on the nightly news. Reading these horror stories before starting your day and listening to them right before bed at night affects how you view the world. And the world presented in by the news is only happening to a very small percentage of people. You can say that about good news also, but its affect does not make me want to hide in my house and barr the doors. Thanks again.
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The great Stanford economist Paul Romer once claimed that "A crisis is a terrible thing to waste." A crisis of any kind surely produces effects on people which are extremely interesting to read about, whether these effects are negative or positive. The more interesting to many of us would be the positive response by ordinary people to such jolts. We like to read about how people cope with crises, what clever or creative ways they respond, how they make a crisis work for them (instead of crushing them). Do news reports about how smart people manage a downturn, and people will happilly read about them, and maybe even be strengthened. Jimsailing
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One reason for the endless bad news is that the media is serving up the same kinds of sources that got us into trouble in the first place: business journalists, Wall Street analysts, CEOs. All of these people should have seen the economic crisis coming. So why listen to them now?
Here's an idea for Think Out Loud: who knows more about the economy than Wall Street and Washington? Here's an expert northwesterners are turning to: http://www.portlandmonthlymag.com/blogs/power-brokers/feng-shui-predictions/
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The reason I listen to OPB (and have been an NPR listener for years) is because all news is presented. Unfortunately this is a time of less than great news. The world is not all rainbows and butterflies and it's the less-than-wonderful news that spurs me onto action to improve that situation. Please, please, please, do not change your format to include all the puppies and unicorns stories and avoid reality.
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Jonah Lehrer published an opinion piece in the LA Times on The Deliberate Calm of Pilots. "Deliberate calm" is a term airline pilots use to describe the mental state they enter into during a crisis in order maintain calm and focused awareness. It is learned through conscious effort and regular practice, including hours on a flight simulator. This is very similar to mindfulness, a process of engaging in a deliberate and focused awareness of your surroundings. As a psychotherapist here in Portland, OR, I use experiential exercises and visualization much like a pilot uses a flight simulator, to walk clients through stressful or anxiety provoking situations. Just as simulators help pilots learn to respond effectively to highly stressful situations, visualization and experiential exercises help clients to develop skills to get them through stressful episodes much more effectively. My blog post on this at at http://davelcsw.com.
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Well let me clear you first that I not being depressed with the bad news.. Comedy is our part of life and I had learned this from Two and a half men episodes online probably I like to laught more and more all the times.. I am always trying to seek out some good things in my life!!
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