Do You Want the Bad News?

The news.

Is it just me, or does the news presented by television channels and newspapers seem to focus solely on awful, depressing incidents and activities with rarely any positive news? 

How does telling me about natural disasters, wars, violent attacks and accidents improve my life? Is there anything positive that can be gleaned from being made aware of these? Does my knowing about them enable me personally to help prevent them from occurring again or in some other way alleviate these incidents?

I'm not suggesting that I should bury my head in the sand and pretend that nothing bad happens, however all this negativity really wears me down.

I found myself frustrated at my inability to do much to improve the lot of those who are suffering the trials and tribulations of war or natural disasters and became fatigued, even mildly depressed, by the unending onslaught of distressing information.

So, how to move forward?

In the first instance, I have stopped reading mainstream newspapers and watching news programmes as well as avoiding listening to news broadcasts on the radio.

I was concerned that I might end up very out of touch with current affairs, however this has not occurred due to the fact that I choose to research information on topics that I am interested in. I think that I am much better informed now that I am in charge of my own news gathering, though I am all too aware that the only way of being sure of the veracity of information is to actually be present at everything which occurs, which is impossible!

I have also taken out a subscription to Positive News, a quarterly publication, which covers a diverse range of topics from a positive solution approach rather than a negative, sensationalist angle.

positivenews.org.uk