July 24, 2000 New Thinking:
Good news and bad news
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July 24, 2000
Good news and bad news
By Gerry McGovern
Business finds it hard to deal with bad news. Journalism finds it hard to deal with good news. On the Internet, everything is becoming news.
What is news? Webster dictionary defines news in two ways: “as a report of recent events or previously unknown information.” Our common understanding of news is reading about something today that happened yesterday. I saw an ad recently that promised “instant news” with WAP mobile phones. I began to wonder, when does news become news?
When a car crash occurs is it news at the instant of the crash, or is it news when someone finds out how many were injured and how the crash was caused. Instant news, you see, is in danger of being so trivial and lacking in information, that we end up getting fed little irrelevancies that really don’t add up to anything useful.
Historically, news media has never had to deal with archive news. Everything was framed within a particular, day, week or month. However, on the Internet the reader defines the frame of reference. Information may be months or even years old but it can become news to someone who is coming across it for the first time.
Ireland is undergoing an incredible boom at the moment. It’s little thanks to the Irish media. In fact, for years the Irish media did its very best to derail the boom by predicting doom and gloom. The Irish media seems to be incapable of dealing with good news.
I’ve yet to come across a positive story about the Irish economy that doesn’t have a big “BUT” attached to the end of it. Yet, journalists have no problem doing full-flowing negative stories with no “buts” attached. It’s not that I want to see unrealistic, over-optimistic journalism. It’s just that when things are good, why not say they’re good?
If you read a specialist business magazine, on the other hand, you will find a mix of both positive and negative news. You will read about successful businesses and business people. This sort of journalism is very helpful, particularly when its delves into what makes the success. It’s inspiring and educational.
A business hates delivering bad news. Today, every business that has a website has become, whether it likes it or not, a publisher of news and information about that business. Like a child with chalk in their hand, a business often can’t resist colouring the facts a little. In this most accountable and open of worlds, the customer is going to see us and slap us on the wrists.
The Internet needs good and bad news. Journalists and business need to learn how to deal with both in an objective manner. The problem is that while paper never refused ink, websites positively embrace information.
The online reader is drowning in news; some of it good, some of it bad, much of it false and misleading. The danger is that the lack of professionalism by which so many websites are published today will devalue the nature of news and that’s bad news for all of us.
Gerry McGovern
(Due to summer holidays, the next issue of New Thinking will be August 14, 2000.)
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The danger is that the lack of professionalism by which so many websites are published today will devalue the nature of news and that’s bad news for all of us.
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