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IRMA

Expert in dilly-dallying
Articles Posted: 27  Links Seeded: 1414
Member Since: 3/2006  Last Seen: 4/09/2012

Fed up with the news

Wed Jun 7, 2006 5:31 PM EDT
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By Irma
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War, famine, murder, (sexual) abuse, scandals, corruption, indifference ...

I am a news addict. I devour my news watching television, listening to the radio, reading newspapers and magazines, and spending too much time over here at Newsvine. Most of what I see, hear, read doesn't put me in a cheerful mood, and that's a euphemism. Since I'm the worrying type, and my brain doesn't know an 'off' switch, I often find myself thinking about some news item or another late at night, in bed. And while Insomnia is my best friend, even I need a break from myself once in a while.

I'm sure you all know the saying 'no news is good news' and this is never more appropriate as when consuming news, via whatever medium. When I look at the front page of Newsvine at this particular moment, what do I see?

  • France fined for deporting Jews
  • Annan: The world is losing battle against HIV/AIDS
  • Death Toll in Angola Cholera Exceeds 1,500
  • Rising Gas Prices Drag on Deliveries
  • Brin Says Google Compromised Principles

What have I been seeding lately?

  • UK 'colluded in terror flights'
  • CIA Hid Nazis' Locations, Eichmann, Other War Criminals Were Shielded Due To Cold War Security Concerns
  • Suicide attack at Chinese wedding
  • Teen 'hatched blueprint for murder in prison'
  • Gender Base Violence Alarming, Government Partners Hunt $10 Million For Campaign

Do you ever get an overdose of head lines like these? Does the news make your head hurt once in a while? Do you feel overwhelmed, helpless, depressed?

I've got a remedy.

It's a tiny little tag called positive news. You can add it to your watchlist. This is your friend in dark and desperate hours. News that warms your heart.

It's a tine little sprig in the Newsvine vineyard. It will probably never grow that fast. But I will take good care of it. And you're most welcome to help. Happy seeding !

Ps. personally I don't consider " conservative x wins over liberal y (or vice versa) ", or more generally speaking " pro [insert something here] or anti [insert opposite] wins over [vice versa] " to be good news, even when I'm happy with the outcome of the dispute / discussion / law proposal / ... But your mileage may vary :-)

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Published to:

Aine MacDermot

I'll keep an eye out and seed and tag what I can come across. :) Good idea, btw...

- A sister insomniac.

  • 5 votes
Reply#1 - Wed Jun 7, 2006 5:39 PM EDT
Walt D

I've found that making regular visits to the Science and Odd-News pages is a nice reprieve from the carnage, doom and strife of the World and U.S. pages. Also, watchlisting a "humor" tag helps.

  • 10 votes
Reply#2 - Wed Jun 7, 2006 5:45 PM EDT
iwilliam

I agree with Walt D , visiting sites that show some good in the world helps to balance out the overwhelming bad. I also try to get involved in some small way to help make this planet just a little bit better.
One good thing about this age of communication is that problems are being brought out into the open, to be discussed and hopefully solutions found.

  • 3 votes
Reply#3 - Wed Jun 7, 2006 6:10 PM EDT
Irma

Yes, humour (humor) and odd-news are tags I like as well. Which makes me wonder (note to self: do test) whether articles tagged with humor show up in the humour watchlist and vice versa. Probably not, but it would make a nice feature.

  • 5 votes
Reply#4 - Wed Jun 7, 2006 6:23 PM EDT
Irma

Clusters of tags that one could watch with one single click would make an interesting feature as well, me thinks.

  • 6 votes
#4.1 - Wed Jun 7, 2006 6:28 PM EDT
Aine MacDermot

Plurals seem to lead to a disconnect in watchlists too.
gay != gays

There needs to be some way to put these together without having to do it manually on each seed or article... although, I'm not technically proficient enough to know how that would be done.

  • 4 votes
#4.2 - Wed Jun 7, 2006 6:31 PM EDT
Chandra W.

There needs to be some way to put these together without having to do it manually on each seed or article

Agreed, and this issue is one reason why many of my posts have two, three, sometimes probably even four times as many tags as the average 'Viner would use: I automatically pluralize, synonym-ize, variation-ize, and on and on til I come up dry.

Irma, the positive-news tag is a great suggestion that I will start using immediately. I think it's a bit broader and better than tagging with humo(u)r/odd-news alone because not all good news is funny and/or unusual, and vice versa.

  • 2 votes
#4.3 - Wed Jun 7, 2006 7:25 PM EDT
Reply
TopJedi

Good idea Irma. Even entertainment, sports, and business sections are sounding more apocalyptic every day, thanks for branching out.

  • 2 votes
Reply#5 - Wed Jun 7, 2006 6:27 PM EDT
Cassandra

Irma, I have exactly the same problem. I follow the news until I am so depressed and angry (because
I feel helpless, usually) that I just can't stand it. Then I tend to cut it off for a few days and go out and
work in my garden and play with my cats. Sometimes, if it's raining, I even cook. After a couple of
days of this regime, I can usually handle the news again. However, having access to positive news will
definitely help, I'm sure. It goes on my watchlist right now!

Thanks for a very good idea.

  • 5 votes
Reply#6 - Wed Jun 7, 2006 6:29 PM EDT
Irma

There seems to be hiding a masochist in me because I tend not to be able to stay away. I seem to try and balance helplessness and feeling angry with indifference, which isn't a tendency I like. Luckily I'm not often succeeding.

  • 4 votes
#6.1 - Wed Jun 7, 2006 6:36 PM EDT
Reply
Ooble

I'm one of those lucky people that's just generally happy, no matter what happens. I measure the last time I was angry in months. That said, I've often wished for more positive news. I mentioned this some other time on Newsvine, and I got the response that "the world is a dark, scary place, and the news reflects that" (or something along those lines). I don't know about you, but I kinda like this planet. People can be scary, but I've always held to the ideology that human beings are generally good. Wouldn't mind seeing some more of that. I'm looking forward to clicking this tag on my watchlist a lot.

  • 3 votes
Reply#7 - Wed Jun 7, 2006 6:49 PM EDT
iwilliam

positive news will be a great tag to keep an eye on. thank you Irma for adding this little ray of sunshine...

  • 2 votes
Reply#8 - Wed Jun 7, 2006 7:01 PM EDT
Mike B

I'd like to see this put on the navbar at the top. It's a common problem with any news site, channel or show. The news is full of bad things, and it gets to everyone. Positive news would be excellent now and again.

  • 2 votes
Reply#9 - Wed Jun 7, 2006 7:23 PM EDT
winsomecowboy

Ok I'm on it. You can trust me. I'm a clown.

  • 2 votes
Reply#10 - Wed Jun 7, 2006 8:16 PM EDT
winsomecowboy

Ok, I hope you havn't come across this before, its about a month old so I'll put it here.
Its pretty powerfully positive, you'd better brace yourself. Trust me.
http://sports.crispynews.com/article/show/576

    Reply#11 - Wed Jun 7, 2006 8:29 PM EDT
    Daniel A. HalloDeleted
    tom

    hi Irma: you have my sympathies ... and i think the Positive News idea is great[1].

    not only that, you get bonus points for embracing one of the core philosophies of Newsvine, which is: you get to decide what's news to you, as opposed to waiting for someone else to tell you what news is[2].

    ... i sometimes wonder, while reading the New York Times (print edition[3]), who decided that bad news is the news?

    if you want a major dose of anti-bad-news reading material, check out Rob Brezney's book Pronoia[4], which was easy to read and very enjoyable.

    thanks for the great article.

    your pal at Newsvine Worldwide HQ,
    --tom

    [1] (for what it's worth)
    [2] it also happens to be my favorite Newsvine core philosophy
    [3] a bit of an anachronism i think, but enjoyable nonetheless
    [4] a book who's tagline is The antidote for paranoia

    • 6 votes
    Reply#13 - Wed Jun 7, 2006 11:00 PM EDT
    Levi

    Ha ha ha ha. There is only 5 seeds in the positive news tag list. I'm sure it will grow because of this article. Thanks Irma for the idea!

    Also I usually watch tech, video games, TV, movies, and other entertainment tags to keep me from the gloom news of the day.

    • 3 votes
    Reply#14 - Thu Jun 8, 2006 1:15 AM EDT
    a3dmofo

    Good idea Irma. I don't know how many times I've told people, if I only was rich, I'd make a news station that does nothing but report good news.

    • 3 votes
    Reply#15 - Thu Jun 8, 2006 3:01 AM EDT
    madbaddangerous2know

    Here is some Great News!

    Zarqawi Killed

    8D

    <(o.o<)

    :'-)

    o7

    • 4 votes
    Reply#16 - Thu Jun 8, 2006 4:25 AM EDT
    Levi

    Here is some Great News!

    Zarqawi Killed

    Probably not what we are looking for but good news in my book.

    • 5 votes
    #16.1 - Thu Jun 8, 2006 4:33 AM EDT
    Ooble

    Positive news, not just good news (though I wouldn't say that was good news either).

    • 4 votes
    #16.2 - Thu Jun 8, 2006 7:09 AM EDT
    madbaddangerous2know

    It isn't good news, it is great news.

    The head-hacking lunatic,is responsible for the terrorist murder of thousands, finally gets his just desserts, and you don't think it is good news?

    Whose side are you on???

    • 5 votes
    #16.3 - Thu Jun 8, 2006 9:15 AM EDT
    Ooble

    I don't believe in murder. Ever. Life-long imprisonment, fine, but not murder.

    • 2 votes
    #16.4 - Thu Jun 8, 2006 11:43 AM EDT
    Levi

    You guys can debate this in another article. :)

    We only want flowers and happiness here.

    • 5 votes
    #16.5 - Thu Jun 8, 2006 1:43 PM EDT
    madbaddangerous2know

    Yeah, like condolence flowers for the head-hacking fiend Zarqawi!

    :D

    • 4 votes
    #16.6 - Thu Jun 8, 2006 2:36 PM EDT
    Ooble

    Fair point, Levi. Flowers, kittens and teddy bears for all. :-D

    • 1 vote
    #16.7 - Thu Jun 8, 2006 6:10 PM EDT
    Reply
    FDBryant3

    You may want to watch HappyNews.com. They do not have any stories they think may offend 5% of the 100,000+ readership. Probably a good place to seed from.

    Another is GoodNewsBlog.

    I am sure these two sites will help you seed a lot of positive news articles :-).

    • 5 votes
    Reply#17 - Thu Jun 8, 2006 7:30 AM EDT
    KyleN

    HappyNews isn't all happy I noticed however the urinal story was pretty funny, when they said urinals with a view in Stockholm I was worried what they meant :)

    • 1 vote
    #17.1 - Thu Jun 8, 2006 2:43 PM EDT
    Reply
    Jess Jessep

    Thanks for this great idea, I certainly will be watching out for this space:)

    • 2 votes
    Reply#18 - Thu Jun 8, 2006 3:30 PM EDT
    Daniel A. HalloDeleted
    Jess Jessep

    "We need tobe the change we want to see" Ghandi

    Irma, you are living this to the betterment of us all

    JJ

    • 3 votes
    Reply#20 - Thu Jun 8, 2006 3:49 PM EDT
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