Bad news...does it sell?
"You don't publish enough positive news. Good things happen every day and you don't reflect that."
I suspect every journalist hears that. It could even be true. I have been talking with a reader -- a retired public school teacher -- who thinks that we overplayed this story about two students who hung KKK hoods at the school yard. She said her son in Charlotte knew about the incident, thanks to the Internet. Then she suggested to me that we played it dramatically "to sell newspapers."
There are numerous acts of kindness and charitable actions and interactions with handicapped and ESL students performed by individiuals or groups within our schools that could paint a more positive picture of our young people.
In this age of divisiveness and racial/religious/homophobic prejudice, emphasis needs to be placed on the positive side of things. I know that bad news sells more papers but attitudes might be changed and a better impression of our community given as an example to other parts of the state.
The fact is, we published it on page B5, hardly a prominent place. I doubt it sold a single newspaper. We put it "back in with the truss ads," as one editor used to say, precisely because we thought it was an isolated incident that didn't have much significance to the community, and probably not much at Central High School, for that matter.
I actually believe that we publish much more good news than bad about teenagers in the community. Here's today's example.
But I could be wrong. These are hard times. The news is bad...from the markets to the unemployment line to the crime blotter. Do we emphasize the bad too much?
Comments (2)
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I don't think you emphasize the bad news near enuf - I suspect a good investigative reporter could make serious hay at your paper - why not publish information such as the salaries and job descriptions of all those employed by the Guilford county school system - I'd love the public to be informed of the yearly salary of all county school employees, how many administraters and how much are they paid, how much does this boil down to per hour worked, sick days, absenteeism rates, salaries of principals, and on and on and on - I personally think your paper does a very poor job of delivering hard, down to earth information -
Public schools are a poor joke and your paper aids and abets their failure -
Posted on December 20, 2008 9:49 PM
I'll bet the story got more play on the local TV news.
And that's the irony. Local TV news operates on the time-honored adage of "if it bleeds it ledes." Murder and vehicular mayhem are hardly "positive news," but it isn't driving people away from TV news. I wonder if your correspondent complains to WFMY and the others when they air such depressing stories.
Of course you as the editor have to listen to people pushing "positivity," but it's a bogus viewpoint and it always has been.
Posted on December 20, 2008 9:55 PM