Good news, for humans sake.

It recently dawned on me that the news we read paints a negative view of the world. I wonder what the psychological effect is of the constant bombardment of negative news: murder, war, shootings, corruption, atrocities, et cetera.

It seems instinctively obvious that we ought to focus our attention on the worst problems. The problem with merely focusing our attention on problems is we don't get the whole picture, so to speak. We don't get the good that people are doing around world. We don't hear about the good African politicians who are not corrupt. We don't hear the good things that the US government does around the world. We don't hear about the peace movement in Israel. We don't hear about the moderate Muslims. We don't hear about the Japanese citizens who sympathize with the Chinese and Koreans over war time atrocities.

With such a negative portrayal of reality perhaps one psychological effect is the general acceptance of a realist view of human nature. A view that focuses on self-interest, competition, and survival: kill or be killed.