Negative Reporting

There's an awards show for TV shows called the Emmy Awards. I don't watch such things because I don't watch TV series ( I only watch TV news, sports and infrequently I watch movies). But newspapers are headlining their coverage of that award show with such headlines as '8 worst dressed on the Emmy red carpet' and 'What the Emmys Awards got wrong'.  I did not read the substance of those kinds of reports but find such journalism to be the norm today. Today our news is a "gottcha enterprise".

The negative is in and the positive hard to find in newspaper and news video mediums. Even social media sites like Face book accentuate the negative. Perhaps it is merely a reflection of the mean spirited/cold view humans have of their world today. We all seem to want to rant (I do it here often enough), complain and protest even trivial matters. I wonder why our era is the restless one.

Could it be the disconnect we feel to society today, the society so large, so private and special interest, technologically centered,  is the result of our estrangement from a core culture and values?  Those who do not belong or do not want to belong often strike back with negative energy.  Those instead of a headline that might have read "8 best dressed on the Emmy red carpet' we got the "worst story" for that TV award report.   Maybe it is an attempt to destroy or muddy the waters in which we are not wading.

The brain handles positive and negative information in different hemispheres. Negative emotions generally involve more thinking, and the information is processed more thoroughly than positive ones. So maybe being a little negative isn't totally bad.  Science says that humans tend to ponder more about unpleasant events and use stronger words to describe them than we do with happy ones. It is often said that leaping toward the critical is human nature.  Is it not true that bad emotions, bad parents and bad feedback have more impact than good ones. Maybe those newspaper editors understand that bad impressions and bad stereotypes are quicker to form and more resistant to disconfirmation than good ones.

But it surely would be a nicer world if we all were more positive about our experiences.