ARE MORE GOOD NEWS NEEDED?

The media should include more stories which report good news. To what extent do you agree or disagree?

There is little room for doubt that media coverage is one of the most controversial issue causing public concern. To make it clearer, there are still a good few people who choose to be all for the view that media should focus more on good news, while others oppose it. From my perspective, however, each side of argument has its own positive and negative impacts on the society in general and on each individual in particular.

There can be many benefits when more positive news is reported, but the following two prove to be fairly common. The first advantage lies in the fact that it helps people to have a more optimistic outlook on their daily lives. It goes without saying that an encouraging news from the media is likely to give people a good thought about their surrounding and the society, and especially, if their lives are full of unpleasant situations such as deadlines or work stress, such news maybe able to alleviate them. One further fact is that too much exposure to negative news can have a deep impression on the ways children think and behave. Crime scenes, which are overly reported, for example, are likely to encourage children to be more aggressive when settling with an argument.

Despite the benefits mentioned above, there are several drawbacks that reporters should take them into consideration before deciding to include more good stories. First objection is that negative news has more major impacts on people’s lives than the other, which can do next to nothing. People’s brains, obviously, are programmed to pay more attention to bad news as they can help people to protect themselves from the situations on the news. One further mere fact is that individuals can have different perspectives about a situation happening around them.

In conclusion, as discussed earlier, there are not only pluses but also minuses when more good news is reported. Therefore, my advice is that reporters should be aware of both pros and cons before making the decision as to what news worth mentioning.