Good News and the Future of the Media

In his book Mass Disruption: Thirty Years on the Front Lines of a Media Revolution, author John Stackhouse laments what the loss of newspapers might mean for society. (Read my review of his book here.)

Stackhouse is not alone in feeling this way; many other journalists worry about the fragile future of the media.

In so doing, they often lay blame for this predicament on two things: The precipitous loss of advertising, and the decline in circulation.

(The two are linked, of course; the fewer people who watch TV or read a newspaper, the less incentive there is for advertisers to advertise there—or pay top dollar for ads, if they do.)

  

What I seldom hear is any meaningful critique of the media by the media itself. What if it is part of the problem? 

That is, what if one of the reasons for the decline in circulation is because we, the media consumers, are tired and worn out by what the media offers us each day? 

Bleeds and Leads

If you watch any newscast, or listen to radio news, or read a newspaper, it’s a fair bet that much of the news will revolve around conflict, tragedy, disaster, malfeasance and crime.

  

All those things happen, of course. But is that really news? It's not like we don't know the world is a terrible place. 

What is news these days is when people do good things—when things turn out better than we hope or expect, when there is charity, forgiveness, collaboration and cooperation. Why can't we learn more about that?

(And we can do with less of the "gotcha" questions while we're at it, like what has happened recently with the Liberal Government not reaching its target of 10,000 Syrian refugees. 

Instead of celebrating that about 6,000 refugees have come in just a couple of months, the media keeps emphasizing how the government has "failed." Can't they say anything positive? Isn't it remarkable that so many have arrived?)

The point is this: At a time when the media desperately needs circulation (paying customers) to offset the loss of advertising dollars, they may not be offering us any new or compelling reasons to pay up.

Instead, they are just offering more of the same old things. And I think many are done with it. 

The Pope and Good News

I’m not the only one who feels this way. So does the Pope.

In his 2015 year-end address, Pope Francis called on the media to tell more positive and inspirational stories to counterbalance all the evil, violence and hate in the world.

He noted that 2015 had been a difficult year, what with all the “violence, death, unspeakable suffering by so many innocent people, refugees forced to leave their countries, men, women and children without homes, food or means of support,” the Pope said.

But, he added, there have also been “so many great gestures of goodness” to help those in need, “even if they are not on television news programs (because) good things don't make news.”

The World is More than Tragedy

The Pope’s comments echo as the words of British author Alain de Botton in his book The News: A User’s Manual.

Great Britain, he says of his country, is more than what you see on the TV news or read in the newspaper each day.

The British nation “isn’t just a severed head, a mutilated grandmother, three dead girls in a basement, trillions of debt, a double suicide at the railway station and a fatal five-car crash by the coast,” he writes.

It is also “the cloud floating right now over the church spire, the gentle thought in the doctor’s mind, the small child tapping the surface of a newly hardboiled egg while her mother looks on lovingly, the nuclear submarine patrolling the maritime borders with efficiency and courage."

All true, but don't expect to learn about it from the media.

Looking for the Helpers

Of course, we shouldn’t be shielded from bad things. And the media doesn't only report bad news. But I think reporters need to work harder at letting us know the world isn’t only tragedy and terror. 

Maybe one reason why we don't get more good news is that it is harder to find.

Bad news, by contrast, needs no help being found. It will always announce itself, whether it’s an explosion, an attack or just the daily police press briefing.

Good news, on the other hand, needs someone to go look for it. It rarely issues press releases. It doesn’t draw attention to itself. 

Someone has to go out and find it.

When Fred Rogers, who grew up to be Mr. Rogers of Mr. Roger’s Neigbourhood on PBS, was a little boy, he would see scary things in the news and worry. When that happened, his mother would say to him: “Look for the helpers. You will always find people who are helping.”

The same thing could be said for the media. When there is violence, crime, disaster and tragedy, tell us about it—but also tell us about the helpers. 

Help us feel good about where we live. Helps us feel connected to others. Give us hope for the future, even if it seems in short supply.

And, where possible, tell us what we can do to make things better.

Showing Another Side of the Story

I'm not suggesting that the media only offer us happy stories all the time. That would be irresponsible.

But maybe, as de Botton suggests, it could make sure to also show another side of the world we live in, a world that “seems sufficiently good, forgiving and sane that one might want to contribute to it.”

And maybe if it reporters did that, more of us might want to pay for a newspaper or watch the news.