The Real World

I did not realize my 8 year old son was listening to the television, while I watched the news last weekend while he played his Nintendo in the background.  So, I was surprised when - after I switched over to a football game - he came over to me with a pensive look on his face and said, "Daddy, whenever you watch the news, it is only about people dying and bad things happening.  Aren't there any good things happening in the world?  How come they only show all the bad things that happen?"

My answer was inadequate - I said "A great question.  I don't know why they focus so much on the negative news, when many wonderful things do happen in the world every day."  He followed up with "well, don't people want to watch happy stuff?  Why does anybody want to watch all the deaths and killing and angry people?".   I explained that the broadcasters do talk about good news as well, though definitely not as much as the bad news.  "I don't understand why.", he said, and I could only say "Neither do I."

My wife and I watched the movie "Midnight in Paris" last week, which focused on people's romanticization of the past - the notion that the time you now live in is never as appealing as some time long ago.  I would not expect people to idealize the present, but I wonder how much of our nostalgia for days gone by is tied to our immersion in negative news.

It is safe to say that few would watch positive-only news shows.  Such reporting would be propaganda, and would fly in the face of the difficulties we know to be prevalent in the world.  But are those challenges really as common as we believe, or are we conditioned to perceive it this way?  Certainly suffering is pervasive - war, genocide, disease, famine, and a host of other horseman can easily be found with only the most cursory search.  But if these were the cornerstones of life, they would not be as heartbreaking as they are.  Misery must be the exception, not the rule, or it would hardly be noteworthy at all.

I wonder how a more well-rounded perspective would play in the public forum.  Do people want to hear about the intermittent accomplishments and joys that make life worth living?  They might tune-in to hear reports of new companies founded each week, in balance with stories of corporate lay-offs.  Perhaps juxtaposition of unemployment numbers with people beaming over a new job or promotion they received.  And I suspect that instead of understating real tragedies, the inverse would hold - loss would ring more tragic when shown in contrast, as black upon white.  Full perspective might inspire, reassure, and yet invoke greater empathy - rather than the current "Good evening, this is Debbie Waydowner reporting" and the Pavlovian malaise such broadcasts trigger. 

With careful editing, to navigate painful transitions, I believe I would prefer such a show.  I like the idea of each story of an anonymous homicide or fatal car wreck being offset by a miraculous tale of survival.  I would enjoy seeing births shared as prominently as deaths.  Love might be less marginalized if a spotlight was shined on a couple celebrating their 50th anniversary, with their many grandchildren, for each salacious feature of celebrity infidelity or divorce.  Our planet might seem less hostile if images of kids playing in a sprinkler on a perfect day were as easy to find as the horrifying aftermath of a tornado.

As it is, I do not plan to spend time in front of the evening news with my son.  Instead, my wife and I are trying to gradually introduce him to the "real world" - to expose its mixed bag of joys and pain in a way that induces neither fear nor a sense of entitlement.  Wouldn't it be nice if the news networks tried to do the same for we adults.  I think we can handle it.