As you well know, businesses that are up against a vastly more competitive and turbulent environment do almost anything to survive. In the case of the media, that includes playing on our worst fears to sell their products. Organizations like Solutions Journalism Network are working hard to change that. So far, they have trained over 60,000 journalists to shift from an outrage model of news to an engaged, solutions oriented model (for more, go to solutionsjournalism.org) and solution oriented stories are appearing more and more frequently in major outlets (WaPo, NYT). But changing a whole industry is, as you know, a slow, uphill slog.
The good news is that the industry's failings are making it vulnerable to disruption. That's why platforms like Substack are taking off. They got rid of the middleman (business apparatus) that stands between readers and writers, a middleman that adds little value yet needs to a lot of money to survive. These new platforms are not a panacea and they are comparatively very small, but it is a start and suggestive of what might be coming.
In the meantime, I turn to news outlets that seek to engage rather outrage readers. The best one I've seen so far is The Monitor published by the Christian Science Monitor (though not at all religious). Also, outlets like Reuters and Bloomberg are often less vitriolic and more even-keeled in their reporting. I'm sure you and other readers here likely know of others, so please chime in with suggestions.
At a minimum, we consumers can stop feeding the beast. There's an old Cherokee story about two wolves. One is full of anger, envy, greed, arrogance, resentment, etc. The other is full of empathy, generosity, truth, compassion, love, kindness etc. The one that grows is the one we feed.
Superb. Is there more we can do to change the media's relentless reporting of "facts" that are not facts but rather unhelpful predictions?
As you well know, businesses that are up against a vastly more competitive and turbulent environment do almost anything to survive. In the case of the media, that includes playing on our worst fears to sell their products. Organizations like Solutions Journalism Network are working hard to change that. So far, they have trained over 60,000 journalists to shift from an outrage model of news to an engaged, solutions oriented model (for more, go to solutionsjournalism.org) and solution oriented stories are appearing more and more frequently in major outlets (WaPo, NYT). But changing a whole industry is, as you know, a slow, uphill slog.
The good news is that the industry's failings are making it vulnerable to disruption. That's why platforms like Substack are taking off. They got rid of the middleman (business apparatus) that stands between readers and writers, a middleman that adds little value yet needs to a lot of money to survive. These new platforms are not a panacea and they are comparatively very small, but it is a start and suggestive of what might be coming.
In the meantime, I turn to news outlets that seek to engage rather outrage readers. The best one I've seen so far is The Monitor published by the Christian Science Monitor (though not at all religious). Also, outlets like Reuters and Bloomberg are often less vitriolic and more even-keeled in their reporting. I'm sure you and other readers here likely know of others, so please chime in with suggestions.
At a minimum, we consumers can stop feeding the beast. There's an old Cherokee story about two wolves. One is full of anger, envy, greed, arrogance, resentment, etc. The other is full of empathy, generosity, truth, compassion, love, kindness etc. The one that grows is the one we feed.