Positive change

In response to the seemingly endless stream of negative news, a slew of new publications aim to report only the good. The Happy Newspaper run by Emily Coxhead now has 74k followers on Instagram. Google Assistant is trialling a service called “Tell Me Something Good” in the US, which shares good news stories. Positive News, a website and quarterly print magazine, has seen massive growth since it relaunched in 2016. “We wanted to create a fuller picture and offer balance to what we believe is a real negativity bias in the media,” says its publisher, Seán Dagan Wood.

Of course, reading stories of inspiring people and pets rescuing their owners is great for our mood, but it’s critical we highlight suffering and injustice too. Constructive reporting, as practised by Positive News, aims to report on tough issues but to shift the angle of the story, including examples of change and progress.“Constructive journalism engages people and provides them with a sense of agency,” says Wood. “Rather than feeling hopeless about the problem it shows that things can be done, which encourages people to feel they can be part of positive change.”

Why it’s high time we stopped focusing on negative news stories