Chapter: Food for Thought
In 2003, Germany’s best-selling newspaper Bild managed to find a positive angle to every news development in Germany and around the world in the past 24 hours, treating its 12 million readers to a Christmas edition that was filled with nothing but good news. Bild columnist Peter Bacher said there was always plenty of good news around, even if it was “sometimes overshadowed by evil, horror and terror”.
They dropped the normal content of crime, violence and scandals for stories about tax cuts, falling petrol prices and accelerating economic growth. “There’s only good news today”, Bild wrote in two-inch high letters at the top of page one, where the giant headlines are usually devoted to sex scandals, murderers, adulterers or dishonest politicians. Skipping its usual “loser of the day” entry, Bild picked two “winners of the day”, of which one was rock star Ozzy Osbourne who was released from intensive care in hospital after an accident in Britain. Even a story about a Berlin celebrity who broke up with her boyfriend took a positive approach: “Great news, Djamila Rowe is single again”.
Possible Moral
Bild’s action made people react and it started a discussion about the way bad news stories are overshadowing the good ones. Is the media negative? Media studies show that articles about bad news outnumber those with good news by as much as seventeen to one. Why is this? The answer may lie in the findings of evolutionary psychologists and neuroscientists. These experts say that our brains evolved during our hunter-gatherer stage in evolution, where anything novel or dramatic had to be attended to immediately for survival. So while we no longer defend ourselves against saber-toothed tigers, our brain development hasn’t caught up. Our brains are wired to be far more sensitive to negative triggers than positive ones, and that’s why humans seek news of dramatic, negative events.
So, according to psychology – being positive about things in general and reading or publishing good news is somewhat against our human nature (read more about the topic on the story Bad-Mouthing). If that really is the case, I say we keep on fighting against those negative triggers!
Story from We All Need Heroes: Stories of the Brave and Foolish.
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We All Need Heroes
Historia CortaHey there! Here you'll find a collection of mixed stories from my debut book 'We All Need Heroes', which celebrates people with brave and innovative ideas. The finished book is filled with a huge mix of inspirational and fun short-stories of people...
