New editors decide what to broadcast on television and what to print in newspapers. What factors do you think influence these decisions? Do we become used to bad news? Would it be better if more good news was reported? Discuss.
Nowadays, news editors have started
resorting to objectively selecting material to be presented, evoking a debate
whether this phenomenon has contributed to a gloomy scenario, and should news
about joyous events be given more emphasis.
Editors, while choosing news, generally consider certain aspects: professional aspirations and the monetary benefits, factors that come into play for the new agencies aspiring to create a niche for themselves by bolstering viewership and readership in the contemporary markets. Additionally, many are driven by favoritism and political affiliations, persuading them to become highly selective, and often biased.
The rapidly incrementing inclination of media houses towards reporting distressing news having capability of creating sensations, has led to engendering a bizarre phenomenon among the viewers and the readers, who have developed an insatiable appetite for knowing more and more about fateful events and happenings. Gaining knowledge about fateful happenings has become a staple requirement of keen news hunters. To surmount this, some advocate production and printing of news about pleasant happenings. An overdose of reports about disturbing incidents has resulted in creating unhappy sentiments. Thus, it is felt that reporting pleasant news would surely help reign back the dipping moods.
Having said that, those cynical of the former proposal suggest this is unlikely to help in alleviating hopelessness, and feel that the primary obligation of editors is to ensure reporting remains free of any lop-sided considerations, whether good or bad. Moreover, just prioritizing the amount of pleasant reporting would not wipe out disturbing incidents, but make people oblivious of hazards hovering around.
In hindsight, I feel commercial compulsions drive the decisions of including, or excluding items of reporting, and this has contributed to paranoid environment, yet news should be presented impartially and without taking their nature into account.
