Bad news are not so bad after all?

Why journalists are so keen at digging dirt? I have been asked this question in every media training I have done during my time at Brunnen Communications. I have given this issue a lot of thought and it has since occurred to me: we as humans still believe that good will prevail.

Why does media always dig at the nastiest and most painful issues? Why do journalists want to find out what was done wrong? These are good questions and I have tried my best to answer them, based on my 30 years of experience as a journalist and a communications professional.

How do you write a good news story as a journalist? You find a piece of information that is new and surprising, interesting and uncommon. One that affects masses of people and – this is more important than ever – it stimulates people’s mind. If you want to have your story published, think how you can help a journalist to achieve this objective.

So, why bad news is a ”good story” for media? Because it is uncommon and – yes, it stimulates your mind. Even though journalist don’t see themselves as soldiers for empathy, this is a gesture based on care. It is not irrelevant for media how things are being taken care of. Journalists don’t just shake their shoulders when they see that wrong things have been done and someone is suffering because of it.

Let’s be grateful that we have media who wants to be on the good side of things and bring wrongdoings into the light. This tells us that we as humans, and even the cynical media still take ”good” as a normal situation and when something goes wrong, it is piece of news. Let’s keep it that way.