Last night I was having a conversation about the media, and more specifically what appears to me to be the UK media’s somewhat downbeat attitude to events. It wasn’t something I really thought about when I was abroad, but now I’m back it seems that all the news is a lot more depressing over here than it really needs to be. So in a completely unscientific study, I’m going to take the main headlines from this mornings BBC News website, and give each one either a Grim or Upbeat label.
As a measure of editorial policy, I’m only going to consider the main three articles, the tickertape, the world and UK sections and the Other Top Stories sections. By boxing out other stories, I feel the BBC is trying to reduce the importance or weight of the articles, so I’m going to stick to what the editors classify as their ‘Main’ stories. And I’m not going to read each story - you can tell the mood of the article from the choice of words in the headline. Here we go.

The Top Three:

• Manhunt for Saudi Hostage Takers - Grim
• Istanbul Bombing Trial Delayed - Grim
• Killer Bamber Attacked in Prison - Grim

Other Top Stories:

• ‘Two dead’ in Baghdad car blast - Grim
• Boating tragedy at Austria lake - Grim
• Concern over airline medical care - Grim
• ‘No sign’ of child case action - Grim
• Lockerbie bomber fights sentence - Grim
• Saudi jailed for battering wife - Grim

Around the World Now:

• Rebels advance on DR Congo town - Grim
• Thai beheading prompts patrols - Grim
• Villages at risk from more floods - Grim
• Fiat shares slide after shake-up - Grim
• Rift delays Iraqi president talks - Grim
• Karachi tense over cleric killing - Grim

Around the UK Now:

• WWII hero’s lost Hurricane found - Upbeat(ish)
• Murder attempt on mother - Grim
• Chinook inquiry findings ‘biased’ - Grim
• Village mourns ‘reclusive’ sisters - Grim

Latest (tickertape):

• At least five dead in tourist boat accident at Austrian underground lake - Grim
• Lockerbie bomber appeals against punishment period of jail term - Grim
• Iraqi Governing Council’s talks to finalise new government delayed by a day - Grim
• Parachutist plummets 2,500ft to his death in Perthshire - Grim

So only one out of the most important twenty three articles can be classified as Upbeat, and that still involves war and a plane crash. I’ll try this excercise again sometime, but I’ll preempt the results and jump straight to the Discussions and Conclusions section.

Why? Why is the media so downbeat all the time? Is it because we really live in such a depressing world, with misery and such all around us? Maybe. After all, what the media reports on actually happens (well, mostly…), so they can’t be blamed for what goes on. But I really enjoy my life, and I hope you enjoy yours too. I barrel along, having fun, and Good Things happen all the time. And most people do the same. And therein may lie the answer.

In London, millions of people get up each day, do their stuff, and almost every single one of them makes it back to bed again. The one or two that don’t end up the focus of the news though, since their stories are the ones that are different; the ones in the minority; the ones that are interesting; the ones that get reported. So the focus on depressing stories may actually be a reflection of how happy our lifes really are - if life really was grim, then I expect the reporters would be jumping over one another to report the feel-good stories.

A corollary in the entertainment industry was pointed out to me as part of last night’s conversation - in the 1800s, when life actually was quite grim and tough, there was a lot more focus on musicals and upbeat plays, whereas now we seem to be surrounded by war films and the ubiquitous disaster movies. So perhaps our culture, along with our media, don’t actually reflect societies’ current mood (as is usually assumed), but rather the inverse.

So when you watch the news or read the papers, remind yourself that the stories of woe and misery, whilst in themselves grim, reflect that the times we live in are actually rather pleasant!