Let the Good News Roll

 

 

 

When I was a working journalist it was drummed into our heads that “If it bleeds, it leads.” This means tonight’s top stories will always be about death, mayhem and tragedy. ‘Feel good’ stories were saved for the end of the broadcast or ghettoized in the lifestyle section of a newspaper. So-called ‘puff’ pieces lacked tension, human drama and (so we were told) compelling narrative.

 

Yet a steady media diet of criticism and negativity about global problems is inherently one-sided. It’s time to broaden our horizons— at least occasionally—to include what is working and how.

 

This is called solutions journalism, and maybe you’ve already heard of outlets like Dowser,* which use words like ‘social change renaissance’. It’s a huge challenge not to focus on the pessimism and to acknowledge instead what’s working, what’s good. We can easily rattle off a list of diabolical environmental and social dilemmas, but maybe not as swiftly describe some of the cool stuff that’s being done to solve those very same problems.

 

Some call this advocacy journalism (treehuggers, ack!) or citizen journalism (crap writing, ack!), but media that brings the problem and its possible solution to the table isn’t a movement. It is solid investigative reporting of the kind that should be done in all sectors, like banking and education, not just aid. Yet the global charity industry itself can be the biggest culprit in undermining any good news with its insistence on fundraising campaigns using endless images of human misery and suffering.

 

Not Everything is Bad

 

You may have heard that the proportion of the world’s people living in extreme poverty has been halved. This was in 2010. Yet, I can’t recall the CNN three-day revelry on that momentous occasion. Vietnam is poised to meet or beat certain Millennium Development Goals, such as not only the target for absolute poverty, but also primary education and maternal health. Not exactly over-reported even in a nation looking to tout achievements.

 

You’ve heard of Kickstarter as a crowdsourced funding platform for creatives, but did you know there are sites like Crowdrise specifically for nonprofits? And maybe you know this, too, but I just learnt that the United Nations celebrates an International Day of Happiness. Is that awesome or what?

 

Since 2011 Pakistan has enrolled an additional 1.5 million children in school. Elsewhere more than 2.6 billion people around the planet have gained access to improved water sources. Social enterprises, for example, are springing up around the world, bringing novel ways to solving those ‘intractable’ problems through cooperatives, fair trade, business incubators and yes, communities’ existing structures and resilience. This is all positive stuff.

 

The idea that only tragedy and doom is news is incorrect. Presenting and investigating solutions shows how others can scale, copy and replicate for the simple reason that humanitarian and development aid is not proprietary. Greek philosophers referred to this as eudaimonia—human flourishing.

 

Happiness is having a larger purpose or meaning in life. Inspiration—also found in great reporting—rests on people knowing that action does make a difference, rather than being repeatedly told  everything is hopeless and entrenched.

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Photo: Vibrant (10) /deathtothestockphoto.com

 

* Note: While Dowser no longer exists, other media outlets operating in the same vein include Words in the Bucket and The Guardian's "Half Full" series.

 

This article originally appeared in Word Vietnam magazine and has been adapted. To view the magazine’s online version click here.