Mark Johnson former editor of Bloomberg News, was our guest at the Great Kitchen Table Debate for a discussion of the state of the world’s media. Is there a need for more positive stories in the news?
As a seasoned news journalist for 17 years, Mark’s views were a little different to ours as you can imagine! In his view, saying that “The World is Wonderful and nothing really happened today” is not very interesting as a news story. However Dana pressured him and Mark eventually had to concede that traditional news is losing viewers. They are struggling to find ways to hang onto audiences as the advent of new news sources, like the internet and Twitter, allow people to make their own news and find solutions rather than problems.

Watch this compelling report in which a hard nosed news editor agrees that there may be a place on traditional news outlets for reports from Positive TV !

1. hello@claireraikes.com Says:
   June 8th, 2010 at 2:21 pm

   Hi guys, just to throw in my 2 pennuth…

   It’s an entire mindset difference isn’t it? I can think of PLENTY to be happy about and can’t conceive planning my life around what bad things might happen in the future – either personally or globally. As for whether events or people lead the news agenda… well, we’re back to mindset and focus. People sometimes say I don’t live in ‘the real world’, but it is very real to me. My world (and I am far from the only inhabitant!) is one where, although I am aware of global events, and share space and interact daily with the ‘other reality’, I choose to put most of my energy into positive things, and things I can personally influence. Be the change you want to see in the world and all that.

   Positive TV IS a news event in my world. Its agenda has been set by positive people and people like me welcome and applaud it. So – yes, it is all about balance, but I stopped paying attention to mainstream news long ago, so if anything, I’ll be looking to PTV to ground me with a bit of ‘that sucks’ type news every now and again – just so I don’t spend too much of my time in a state of bliss you understand

2. tan123 Says:
   June 8th, 2010 at 3:25 pm

   I completely agree with the comment above – its all about mindset and focus. Its like steering a bike or car. Any racing driver will tell you that where you focus is where the car/bike is going to go. So, if we focus on things being bad, recessions, death, destruction and disaster, guess what – that’s exactly what we’ll get. I’m not saying we should all be blind to the fact that bad things do happen – its a fact of life – they do. But traditional news focuses on the problem – not the solution. Salacious pictures of mutiliated bodies, are going to sell far more papers, and get more viewers then pictures of scientist discovering a cure for aids. Positive TV is looking at what’s going right in the world. It acknowledges what’s going wrong eg. the Tar sands report, but it FOCUSES on what’s being done to solve it, and in doing so celebrates the ingenuity of the human race to get itself out of most bad situations. Well done PTV, your an example to the rest!

Leave a Reply