by Natasha Ooh

Created on: January 03, 2009

Simply? It attracts the pessimistic side of Human Nature. Due to inner instincts the most attractive story tends to be the one offering the most gore and pain. In one respect i could say this comes from our ancestors, where the lifestyle was to kill or be killed; alternatively i could say it's the 'animal' inside all of us... The story that forces you to throw your paper down in anger... to shout at the tv... to be able to blame someone for a situation. Is it not the bad news that builds people's opinions on ethical dilemmas? Each person has an inbred desire to have an answer for everything, when there is no answer we are left feeling unfulfilled/dissatisfied.

In view of dissatisfaction we find another reason why bad news sells: boredom. When your life seems to be going well, 'normal' or is simply unexciting then the story you are less likely to read is the discovery of a new detergant. If you're looking for unreachable excitement then you tend to look for the most extreme cases possible in the media, usually it's the most dramatic and heartwrenching... the stories where you can't imagine how you would feel/cope in the same situation. More cynically, the human is not satisfied until it's bitten it's teeth into a meaty story, something it can stew over, a reality they can dip into before continuing with their 'regular' lifestyle - unharmed, legitimately clean with the law and a reputation intact.

Alternatively it could be analysed that the bad news only sells due to the world we are living in today. Going back to previous generations, then the most scandalous thing in the newspaper was the latests affairs, charity donation and balls. Without proper research it is presumptious of me to say that these stories were only documented because more people were protective of reputations, religion had more domination and so certain things weren't allowed to be published. But it can be said that crime has increased... or rather the definition of crime is wider ranged. Looking simply 100 years ago in English History: status and slavery were common practices; however modern times dictate that slavery is very wrong and that there is no clear division in status. In which case bad news sells from two prospectives... Modern times affairs are so rife there is little point referring to it and so the stories ability to scandalise it's audience has changed dramatically from affairs to murder; and secondly that to keep pace with todays face paced and more open society the newspaper must document the bad news for it's own living; otherwise the good news would be taken for granted.

Bad news in the media sells because without society cannot fix itself. Without the stories of the extreme reaching the ears of the ignorant and higher classes, then there would be a clear lack of change in laws, social norms, values and freedom of speech and all it truely entails. It's looking at the bad things that, rather unfortunately, seem to motivate a person into movement. Again we reflect on human nature where the oxymoron of negativity producing positive results is common. Either that or the greedy media is relying on the inquisitive nature of humans, deliberately wording articles to the extreme negative cases to produce more debates and problems in society, henceforth raking in more profi and ensuring future security in the company. In any case... the greed of this is a connection each reader can relate to.

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