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CML Course Ch. 7

Chapter 7

Positive News and Negative News

“You must not under any pretense allow your mind to dwell on any thought that is not positive, constructive, optimistic, kind” – Emmet Fox

Chapter 7 : Positive News and Negative News

Hartung and Stone (1980) describe a positive news story as a report that elicits satisfaction or pleasure among the majority of the local paper’s readers. The tone of the story is typically optimistic and upbeat. Harcup and O’Neill (2001) define good news as stories that have a positive connotation, such as rescues and cures, while bad news is defined as stories that carry a negative tone, such as conflict or tragedy.

Gieber (1955) characterises negative news as reports of social conflicts and disorganisation (pp. 311-312). He listed political and economic tensions, crime, accidents, and disasters as examples of negative news. argues that his definitions were rooted in traditional practices used by many telegraph and news editors. (Gieber, 1955)

It is unrealistic to believe mindsets will converge nor will it ever because human nature is to prevail over others using a variety of rhetorics, attuned to logos, ethos, pathos and bathos to attract the attention of desired type of audience.

Our minds’ obsession with negative news tends to ignore good news. Consumers have criticised the American news media for publishing too much bad news for more than half a century (Gieber, 1955; Shoemaker & Reese, 1996) but a City Reporter in Russia lost two-thirds of the website’s readership as a result of reporting exclusively good news for a day in 2014 (Zaria Gorvett, 12.05. 2021). The science fiction writer Arthur C Clarke had pre-warned that the newspapers of Utopia would be terribly dull. So no news is good news would probably be the right mantra.

Negative news has an impact on journalism despite criticism that it is overly emphasised. Shoemaker (1996) argues that humans have a biological inclination to seek out potential threats in their environment, and this instinct contributes to the appeal of negative news.  Conflict and drama are also common elements of storytelling (Epstein, 1973), with journalists conventionally covering conflict rather than consensus (Eliasoph, 1988; Gitlin, 1980). Market forces might also contribute to the prevalence of negative news, as publishers might see it as a profitable venture. Nevertheless, some individuals feel that the media focuses too heavily on negativity, indicating a potential market for positive news. (Karen McIntyre, 2016)

Negative news is the horse that wins journalists’ races. Journalists recognise that “bad” news is inherently newsworthy (Shoemaker & Reese, 1996). Social media are not only a battleground of wits but also a minefield of propaganda, a digital Armageddon which creates an existential crisis for all.

The analogue world was no different from the current cyberworld, which is a constantly contested habitat for about 5.07 billion net users, who at best, reason, argue, compete, cooperate, discuss,  learn, teach and express their thoughts and at worst, harm, kill, rape, damage, rob, ruin, loot and cause all sorts of atrocities. [NEXT-The Health Hazards of Negative News]

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