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Viewers, listeners and readers are the life-blood of the media. Dramatic stories of war, crime, terrorism, earthquakes and hurricanes are big draws when it comes to viewers or readers. Few positive news items can compete with the drawing power of negative events. The predominance of negative news in the media gives the impression that the world is a negative place. Our stress levels are heightened, and we fail to see the positive side of life. Positive news can help to provide a balance, an antidote to these negative events. A positive outcome from negotiations, a peace agreement, a music festival or a sporting event can all help to provide a more positive perspective on world events.

Reporting almost exclusively on negative news provides a distorted view of the world. In our minds countries such as Iraq, Iran and Afghanistan are only negative. Positive stories rarely emerge from these countries. Yet there is much that is positive in these countries. Many have colourful histories and are amongst the earliest civilisations on earth. We ignore the culture, arts and communities in favour of negative events.

The news media report only on events that are newsworthy. Occasionally a positive item becomes newsworthy, but the overwhelming majority of stories reported in the media are negative. World news in particular tends to focus on negative events such as war, disasters, military take-overs, major crimes and so on. The result is often one that produces a rather narrow view of the country in question.

Negative news stories have great impact and draw more readers, viewers and listeners. Major achievements and successes - especially those that are part of an ongoing program or policy framework - seldom make the headlines. The exceptions include major sporting events, elections, New Year celebrations around the world at the millennium and major award ceremonies. How do you report on a country where there are no negative events? What is there to report on?

Even when the media does report on positive events, the coverage is guaranteed to increase exponentially when things go wrong!

Sky News attempted some positive coverage of the Olympic Torch working its way through London. Unfortunately, the event was marred by protests. The protestors won in the media battle - although they represented a small minority of those involved in the event. Of course the protests should be reported, but the focus shifted from the torch to the protests.

The London Marathon was also reported in

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