News 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?

Flashy proverbs with grabbing headlines are being targeted nowadays by our media professionals for higher Television Rating Points (TRP's). More and more editors are focusing on dramatizing the news

instead

of actual content so as to attract the attention of viewers. In

this

essay, I shall throw light on the negative as well as the positive approaches while presenting news and outline the reasons why we should put more emphasis on presenting the good news. Consider the detrimental effects of negative journalism. Open any newspaper and the

first

thing we see is negativity. Right from the impact of COVID on downgrading the economy to brutal murders,

this

pessimistic news rule to roost in the starting pages of the newspaper. Even though it is eyecatching, it plays a dismissive impact on the reader.

Similarly

, consider the example of prime time debates in any of the news channels in India. The main speaker keeps on talking about all the things that are going wrong in the country and does not even provide a solution.

This

plays with the mind of the viewer as they do not get closure of the topic. We now look upon the pragmatic effects of positive journalism. Certain magazines and shows do portray life in a positive way,

although

, they are not seen by the majority. Their priority is to show things on the bright side on the

first

few pages which opens up the mind of the reader. After a few pages, these magazines open up the negative stories and

also

offers to provide solutions to the same. According to the survey carried out by the Indian Press Institute,

such

magazines and news shows change the perception of the viewer and offers a positive outlook by more than half of the other lot,

although

, unfortunately, are being sidelined because of poor TRP's. According to me, the media companies should prioritize the philosophy of positive and constructive journalism. The end-users of the show are eventually our future generations showing things in the positive light shall shape their minds to a positive outlook. TRP's can be used to mint money,

however

, the tone of the argument must be kept in mind during broadcasting.