Some time back, I read an article in The Guardian about their pilot project to “see how readers would respond” to good news. They wrote more than 150 pieces highlighting the “good things happening in the world”.
They discovered that the number of readers “for this kind of journalism” was “remarkably robust”. They found that “almost one in 10 readers” shared these stories on social media. (They don’t mention how this compares to the sharing of bad news.)
In a world where bad news seems to get the most sensationalised — I’m thinking about my Facebook feed and WhatsApp group chats — it’s refreshing to read uplifting news.
Rather than switch off completely, which is what I’ve seen some self-help articles suggest to shield one’s self from the negativity, perhaps it could be a good thing to read about what’s going right in the world. Or to read a more constructive take on a negative issue.
“If people just shrug at news because they feel there is little they can do, nothing will change,” Mark Rice-Oxley writes.
While most people expect journalism to be just reportage, perhaps it may need to evolve to become something more.
It doesn’t need to give solutions, but perhaps can provide a well-rounded list of suggestions that readers can use to make the world a better place.
