Discussion about this post

User's avatar
Emma Varvaloucas's avatar

Nice piece, Travis! To add to your thoughts about positive news orgs: I think part of the reason they are such small players is that positive news is often *boring.* (And I say that as someone who writes in this field.) The orgs often lack the kind of funding needed for deep reporting, and without deep reporting, there's very little story to the story—drama, tension, relatability, all the factors needed for a good "plot." I definitely appreciate the work the Solutions Journalism Network is doing in this arena, to train journalists at major outlets how to write deeply reported stories with a solutions focus.

I also think some of the overt negativity in the Western world in particular has to do with a kind of identity crisis that Greg Lukianoff calls "problems of progress." We don't really know what we're trying to accomplish anymore, versus developing nations that have more serious problems but also have a sense of an upward trajectory.

Expand full comment
Jon Saxton's avatar

I suspect you are right about this overall, but then how explain Obama’s huge draw as the candidate of “Hope” and Kamala as the candidate of Joy? These are examples of leaders of positivity. Is there also such a thing as positivity bias? What accounts for this if we are all so preternaturally prone to negativity bias?

Expand full comment
17 more comments...

No posts