People get their news through newspapers, radio, television and the Internet. The news is more available than it has even been before. News editors are the people who are responsible for what kind of news arrive to us each day. There are many factors that influence the news that reach us daily, though it seems that more bad news are presented to us everyday.
There are various reasons why a piece of news is decided to land on television, radio, newspaper and the Internet. News editors consider interesting stories, financial value and return and their own personal culture or background are only a few of these factors.
Remember that news has to sell. With less interesting news, people are less likely to buy. When it comes to printed news, headlines that show negative issues always sell more. In my opinion, people read about the bad stuff in order to avoid problems that may come their way. Knowing a problem causes one to think of a solution or ways of prevention.
People are less excited nowadays and it takes more to shock us. This may be one of the reasons for the bad news that has been filling our media. It is not called news for nothing, news has to be refreshing, something that we have not heard or seen before. In this age and time, it seems that we have seen it all and this is a problem for news editors. With this problem in mind, they are constantly asking themselves: “What’s new?” and “What’s something that they have not heard before?”
Relativity factor is also important. The news has to strike a relationship with the reader. The world is experiencing poverty, corruption and hunger among other problems. People experience this on a daily basis and this makes it easier for people to relate to the bad news.
Personal choice and cultural background also affect in the news editors’ decision makings, though most of the time this has to be set aside. Each one of us has personal interests that affect our work, are tasted in books and taste in music.
It does seem that more bad news appear everyday and some people may say that being this real is the best way to go. Others might argue and say that putting more effort into bringing more good news to people is better and is more helpful. Yes, we have all become used to the bad that is happening everywhere but that does not mean we enjoy receiving bad news. Most people take this as a warning, a head’s up of what’s to come and even a way to avoid more problems in the future.
Of course, we all want good news and positive things but the point here is that we have to be realistic. Only spreading the good might be misleading. This may also cause people to be lax in actions and in judgments.
The news is important to us because it connects us to the rest of the world and to reality. News editors have been trained to know and decide on what kind of news should be given us each day whether they be good or bad.
