Why Most News is Bad News

We read to get information about the world around us. But the search always serves a deeper purpose.

We Read to Reduce Uncertainty: We live in a chaotic, ever-changing world. We read the news to discover a clue or an insight or a tip that can help us face a problem we don’t know how to solve. Information that can give us a foothold, a possible defense, a tool to reduce uncertainty or reveal a new possible path to take.

We Read to Discover New Possibilities: We read to find answers that can help us navigate the world in which we live. Information provides us with clues about what can be done, examples of how others have solved problems, and how we might do solve our problems too.

We are advised not to pay attention to mainstream news for our mental health because mainstream news is unrelentingly discouraging.

Problems are described in vivid, ugly detail, without offering any solutions or alternatives.

Stories about what is going well, problems that have been solved, situations that are improving are not considered “hard” news and go largely unreported.

Community newspapers have a potential advantage.

News about what is happening in our communities, gathered from people who live in that community, often includes what people are doing in response to the problem. That ‘s what makes it news worthy.

Rather than a top down overview of a seemingly intractable and growing problem, locally-sourced news almost always includes local solutions.

It tells us what people are doing to solve the problem.

Read this post and more on my Typeshare Social Blog