When reading a newspaper heading, we are confronted with headlines such as “Plane crashes leaving 6 injured” or “Earthquake hits the coast of Haiti”. In fact, when facing headlines such as “New light on cancer research” people tend to skip the article. Although good news may not be counted as no news, bad news has a way of snaring people’s attention. We focus on bad news and tend to notice bad things more often than good things, and bad news keeps us in a state of suspense.
Throughout the day, we constantly grumble about our lazy classmate, our unfair boss and how the world is against you. We always notice the little things that ruin our day, such as a bird dropping on your car window. Good news, to us, is the ordinary, it is what should happen, what we deserve. Perhaps, we didn’t notice that a friend complemented our new shoes or someone said thank you when you held the door for them. Because we notice all these bad things, we can easily notice bad news on the newspaper.
In a good story, there needs to be a problem first, then a solution. Bad news, in a way is the problem while good news signifies the “ending” of the story. Bad news keeps us suspenseful, a feeling we crave. As with a good book, we long to know what will happen next and we continue on reading. Good news, when solving a problem, would ultimately be the ending and the "happily ever after". As bad news develops, we crave to know what will happen, if it will end well or not.
Ultimately, bad news has a way of captivating us. Good news might not necessarily be “no news” but, in a way, it is less interesting and less suspenseful. Perhaps it is in our deepest instincts to be more alert for bad news such as our “flight or fight” reaction, but bad news, for now will stay on the front page.
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