Is there no good in the world?

[tinyboy21]

The news has become more negative and gruesome in the past few years, to the point where it seems the press has given up on everything positive. Look at the Lisa Montgomery situation, a story that no news station would have touched with a 50 foot pole a decade ago, but today the whole ordeal is explained in grotestue detial. Why does everyone(including me) all of a sudden show a sadistic side and listen to these terrible stories. Why the change?

[MolecularMan14]

The beginning of the end David, it's the beginning of the end...

Really it's hard to place the issue of growing negativity on just one cause. I wouldnt know where to start, so I'll let someone else post their thoughts and then I'll try to form something more articulate for my own

I suppose the media in the US (and maybe in the UK?) is just pointing out dozens of negative things about the administrations and that is causing a great deal of unease, but I'm not sure yet. I'll look into it after finals though.

[ecoli]

It's becasue of capatilism. Negativity sells, and newstation just want to make a buck, like everyone else. Principles are out the window, stations merely want to invoke fear and negativity because that people want to watch. And if people are watching, there is money to be made.

[MolecularMan14]

Can we do anything to stop it? Or are we just coming apart at our moral seems? Watching the downfall of others shouldnt be entertainment. Shouldnt we be the ones controlling what is good and what isnt, what is acceptable and what isnt, or are our ideals just changing to fit the media standards? Shouldnt we be able to put our collective foot down and end the media madness? It must be within our control isnt it?

[ecoli]

Hmm, maybe everybody doesn't want to put a stop to it. There must be something appealling about negativity on the news or people wouldn't be watching the news.

[tinyboy21]

Can we do anything to stop it? Or are we just coming apart at our moral seems? Watching the downfall of others shouldnt be entertainment. Shouldnt we be the ones controlling what is good and what isnt, what is acceptable and what isnt, or are our ideals just changing to fit the media standards? Shouldnt we be able to put our collective foot down and end the media madness? It must be within our control isnt it?

 

People have been watching the news for years, they aren't going to stop just because the material is changing. Also, the news has seemed to become almost a source of enterntainment in some sick way. The steriotypical vision of a typical news channel is immensely boring, and maybe with the trends of the new generation, the news is merely trying to adapt? It isn't just because of the money involved, but because of the change in the general viewer of the main news channels such as CNN and *shiver*FOX*unshiver*. Still, it does not provide a reasonable explanation towards the broadcast of such material as the Montgomery case.

 

For those who do not know what the Montgomery case is, some lady killed a pregnant woman and cut out the fetus. The baby is somehow alive. If I were the kid, it would be pretty messed up to know how I was born.

[ku]

Can we do anything to stop it? Or are we just coming apart at our moral seems? Watching the downfall of others shouldnt be entertainment.

We could simply stay away from sources of information we know will be negative and focus on more positive sources of information. For example, art house movies tend to be much more negative than mainstream Hollywood movies.

 

But what EColi said may be true. There seems to be a Jerry Springerization of journalism to cater to those among humans with baser instincts. More populism, more patriotism, more xenophobia, and so on.

[mossoi]

There's too much news and too many journalists.

[Ophiolite]

The news has become more negative and gruesome in the past few years, to the point where it seems the press has given up on everything positive.

I see no evidence for your contention.Can you cite statistical evidence in support of this notion? On the face of it you appear to be falling prey to the 'the past was so much better' syndrome.

[tinyboy21]

I see no evidence for your contention.Can you cite statistical evidence in support of this notion? On the face of it you appear to be falling prey to the 'the past was so much better' syndrome.

 

Statistics do not exist for this, this is just my view that the news is needlessly gruesome and negative. Random cases such as the Montgomery, Elizabeth Smart, and Petersen cases are being picked up on for no real reason. I live in Detroit, and many good things happen there, but the news states otherwise.

[Ophiolite]

I understand, but I am suggesting that this is no different to the situation ten years, twenty years, fifty years ago. Some people are attracted to the unpleasant or shocking. Newspapers, and the other news media, pander to, and doubtless exacerbate, this morbid interest: but I believe it has always been this way.

Now, the details of what is portrayed may have changed - perhaps people are less easily shocked today - but I believe the underlying tenor remains the same.

[Royston]

We are progressively becoming more informed (I believe with a lot of help from the internet), and stories lacking 'shock value' are just not news-worthy.

 

However sick it may seem to use tragedies as a means to make money for the media, it spurs on charities and groups to help combat such problems. I believe a level of detail is necessary to get the whole story.

 

With the story you're referring to it's almost impossible to explain the events without it being upsetting.

 

No one is forcing you to watch the news, surely if a story is becoming upsetting then turn the channel over.

[Ophiolite]

No one is forcing you to watch the news, surely if a story is becoming upsetting then turn the channel over.

Tinyboy is not so much complaining about the 'bad news' communicated in 'graphic detail', but rather is asking why is "everyone all of a sudden show(ing) a sadistic side" by taking an interest in it.

My contention is that there is no change. Tinyboy may have 'all of a sudden' taken a 'sadisitic' interest in bad news, but he is incorrect to extrapolate this sudden interest to the rest of the population.

[And before anyone asks, NO - when I pass an accident on the motorway (freeway, autoban) I do not look for signs of carnage and bloodied bodies. I deliberately look away.]

[atinymonkey]

The media has forever been bored with the mundane. Who want's to buy a newspaper with the local cricket scores on the front page, when you could buy the broadsheet with the exploits of Spring Heeled Jack?

 

http://www.spartechsoftware.com/dimensions/crime/SpringHeeledJack.htm

 

And is it any surprise that newspapers where always looking for the next Jack to star in the headlines?

 

http://www.met.police.uk/history/ripper.htm

[JWerner]

The news has become more negative and gruesome in the past few years, to the point where it seems the press has given up on everything positive. Look at the Lisa Montgomery situation, a story that no news station would have touched with a 50 foot pole a decade ago, but today the whole ordeal is explained in grotestue detial. Why does everyone(including me) all of a sudden show a sadistic side and listen to these terrible stories. Why the change?

 

Do you have proof that the news has become more negative and gruesome? One anecdote is not very compelling.

[Ophiolite]

Please see his reply to my similar question in post 10. Also, this was his last post. He seems to have vanished.

[Rich]

There's too much news and too many journalists.

I avoid newspapers because they'res always depressing stuff in them too.

Is it not that there is too much news and too many journalists, but that we do not choose to ignore certain news providors, and only take note of the providors we wish to peruse?

We know there are insane people in the world but we don't want to be reminded every day, when we feel that enough is being done to deal with it

[Mart]

There are many more ways for things to go wrong than right and most of us probably experience things going wrong on a daily basis but in a fairly ordinary way. Maybe bad news is good news in so far as it is likely to be fairly sensational and therefore can put the mundane stuff into a more realistic context.

[YT2095]

IMO, nothing much has changed, the world is just as nasty now as it ever was, the only difference is that we didn`t hear about all of it, ouside of history books or local events.

 

I`m sure Ghengis Khan wasn`t a particularly pleasant chappy to meet, nor some of the Vikings to name just a couple of Many.

[Glider]

The world ain't nasty. There's nothing wrong in the wrold that people didn't cause. People are nasty.

[iglak]

people aren't nasty.

the news isn't nasty.

 

people are afraid.

the US today is afraid of everything that might cause something to be "bad".

and beyond that, they're all afraid to tell eachother about it, because they're afraid that people will react negatively.

 

 

this is a blog of people who sent in postcards. each postcard was created, and has a "secret" on it.

most of the secrets are... depressed people, basically, and why they are depressed.

 

read through them. the vast majority are saying "i'm afraid of what will happen if people knew this"

the vast majority of people in the US think like this. most are afraid to communicate, because they are afraid of how people will react. and people only react that way because they are afraid of what people would think if they didn't react that way.

 

looking into the media, fear is what people want to see for a reason. everyone who is afraid looks to the media as a distraction from their fears. the media provides news items that can be used to replace their fears for a while, until the next news update. also, knowing about these fearful news items is an excellent way to scapegoat if someone were to mention their own fears. since the media is so fearful, they can talk about it for a long time, and distract people from the less visible fears hidden inside everyone.

 

that's all it is... fear, and lack of communication.

 

 

the only thing you can do about it is to never be afraid to communicate anything, communicate everything, and hope that others will follow suit.