In my mind, the word "breaking" sounds off cracking glass, splintering bones, and snapping twigs. No one wants to hear those sounds, so why do we want to hear breaking news? Our TV programs are halted to tell us about a burning building or sudden shooting, but we are rarely bombarded with nice stories or good news. This morning, the front page story of the paper focused on Ms. Esperanza Medina's story, how she finds hope and comfort through her religion. Okay I was misled by the headline. As I read further, I got more doom and gloom: from horrifying description of the day a few teens poured battery acid over her body to a list of the medical consequences that haunt her long-term. This article was quite the double-edged sword. Medina's strong faith is admirable, but I had to sift through so much misery writing to find that out.
I tend to remember happy news stories more vividly, probably because I'm optimistic and i like these stories, but also because they are rarer. The miners trapped in Chile have been soaking up plenty of news attention lately. We're finding out the painstaking process of delivering them food and the duration of time they will probably be trapped, but one little story has stuck with me. Recently I heard about one miner who was allowed to talk to his young son over video chat. It's such a simple event, really, but I was so glad that someone else thinks that gestures of love are newsworthy. I like those stories!
So, readers, why do you think the news world is dominated by BAD news? Is it "more urgent?" Finally, let me know if you've heard any good news stories lately :)
I like the spin you've taken here Mel. It's actually pretty interesting for me to read about because I too believe I'm rather optimistic, however I also do a lot of journalistic writing so when it comes to analyzing news and its newsworthiness I rarely think of whether the article is happy or sad. After this post I think I will see how this new thought manifests itself for me in Torch throughout the entire writing process. I'll keep you posted! And look forward to seeing where else this goes!
ReplyDeleteMy apologies for commenting again but I was just scanning through my Google Reader account and ran across this article from Psychology Today that maybe you'd like to check out:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.psychologytoday.com/articles/201004/happiness-pie-in-the-sky
Let me know what you think! :) Enjoy