UNITED STATES—I watch the local news daily, I want to know what is going on in my orbit. However, I’ve known this, but I’m truly starting to realize it’s a trend that will likely never stop is hearing about bad news at the top of each news cast all the time and I mean all the time. Look, I get every news station in the current century is focused on the 24 hour news cycle, but at the same time, I don’t want to feel super depressed the first 5-10 minutes of the news cast.
This happens all the time, and it was such a breath of refreshing air to hear someone else comment for once,
“Why can’t you start off the news cast with some good news for once?” I mean it is NOT that hard, there are good news stories out there; the problem is we rarely if EVER hear about it. We just don’t and if we do it seems like it’s a dime a dozen and I don’t understand why? People are always going to watch the news; we want to know what is indeed going on in our respective regions. However, we don’t want to feel depressed about the city or state we live in because of all the crime that has transpired or the never-ending saga about how bad things are with the coronavirus.
By the time the first 15 minutes have transpired, I’ve heard about 4 to 5 murders, 3 or 4 robberies, other crimes like fires, deaths and everything, except anything positive to lift up my spirits. When we do hear a touching story, it’s like the local news station is moving so FAST to stay on schedule that you barely have a moment to take in what you watched before the pendulum swings right back to the bad news.
We already have a ton of negativity in our lives and I understand the news cycle doesn’t dictate when bad things happen, but can’t we sprinkle a bit of good in there throughout the news cast? I mean having it 1 day a week out of the 7 days is not a good ratio people. Hell, this might be the primary reason when I want to have a news conversation with family and friends; no one knows what is taking place because they don’t want to hear bad news all the time.
I feel like sometimes I’m the only person in the know about certain news. However, I’ve also learned from my own personal incident of being robbed that local news outlets pick and choose what they decide to cover. They don’t cover all the news that they should cover and that is worrisome to me because it links back to the notion that perhaps the focus is on ratings. The producers and those behind the scenes are focused on what will draw in viewership and keep the people watching. Hell, my brother-in-law lost his cousin who was found deceased in the middle of a major street this past weekend. Guess what? Nothing about his death was covered on the news, I wonder why that is?
I get you can’t cover EVERY news story, but it seems when a crime transpires, the news tends to be all over it, why not this story? What makes this not newsworthy? That is the question that is intriguing to poke at as a journalist: what determines news to be worthy of coverage? Shouldn’t all news be covered in some fashion even if it may not draw the ratings, click bait and viewership that you want? I wonder what would transpire if you actually had a local news station actually focus on an entire day just dishing out all the good, uplifting and happy news stories they can find.
That could cause a major spike in viewership, it might help people feel a bit better when they are having a bad day, and it could do wonders for our mental state as well. Could it happen? Yes. Is it likely to happen? Probably not. The days of news being reported factually and accurately are long behind us. Now the focus is how quick I can get a story published, how many clicks or hits I can get and I don’t care if it’s fully accurate. Journalism has changed a lot America, however, with the bad you should report the good, and right now we see way more bad than we see good, so what does that say about us.
