The 2006 Gallup poll shows that only 16% of US citizens had a “great deal” or “quite a lot of confidence” in newspapers and only 11% trust TV news. So, how comes that there is so little trust in nowadays media?
Journalists should collect and present relevant facts, good evidence and simply report “who, what, when, where and how”. But this does not happen in today’s media world. Today, all is editorial. Journalists deliver their personal interpretation of the news, with moral judgments and political opinions. So, we do we not get the real picture of what happens in the world, simply because journalists presents the news to us with their biased views.
Studies show that 90% of news stories have a negative tendency. with other words, there is a negativity bias that pervades virtually every subject. Good news is falling short or not even reported at all. So, why do we not hear or read positive news like “the number of people in extreme poverty fell by 137,000 since yesterday” and we could have read this news every single day for the past 25 years. But the media never announced such headline because it was never deemed newsworthy. As a result, 1.25 billion people escaped extreme poverty and hardly anybody noticed. Bad news sells! But there are plenty of positive trends in today’s world that go unnoticed.
Here are just a few among many other important good news:
1. Human life spans have never been longer
2. Infant mortality has never been lower
3. Standards of living have never been higher
4. Educational attainment has never been greater
5. Violent crime is gradually declining in the long run
6. Air and water pollution have been declining for several decades
7. household income and net worth are higher all over the world
8. Innovative drugs and medical devices are extending and improving our lives
9. New technologies are making our communications faster, transportation safer, working and recreational lives easier
10. The number of democracies around the world is increasing
11. Global prosperity is on the rise
This is not just good knowledge to have but also gives us a much better picture about the state of the world. Many of these positive long-term trends are not just continuing but accelerating. Knowing this might make us realize that the glass is half full and not half empty and that the world is not as bad as we are told by the mainstream and social media.
Of course, we are confronted with plenty of serious challenges and problems today. Just as we have in the past and always will in the future. the world is far from perfect. But that doesn’t mean that things aren’t getting better for most people in most places in most ways.
A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity. An optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty.
Sven Franssen