bad news is good…

… if it didn’t happened to you or your loved ones.

come, admit it, we all love to read bad news. bad news sell (well ok, and sex). just ask the editors of newspaper. they know that people like to read about something bad or negative that happened… to a person/s or to an event/incident.

every morning when you picked up the paper (or go online for news), there starring in front of you the headlines reads “teenage girl raped” or “copter crashed. 9 missing”, “suicide bomb goes off. 14 dead”.

once a quite well-known toastmaster told us in a seminar that he never read the paper because it is full of too many negative news. and to think many people read it in the morning… what a bad way to start the day. with all the bad/negative news in your head early morning, you’ll start the day in depression!

he further said that if today a young student helped an old man holding a cane, to cross the busy road by carrying him on his back, you’ll hear nothing of it in the news. (well, maybe a tiny little corner at page 8).  however, if the student grabbed the cane and bashed the old man to death… pop!… tomorrow’s font-page headline in the paper you’ll definetely see “student bashed old man to death on the road”.

why do people like bad or negative news? i suppose it’s kind like bad  news has the ‘omph’ factor that attract people, you know like it’s full of excitement, spice, intrigue and what-have-you… all those attracting factors. whereas good news tend to be dull so it is not attractive enough!

yes, i remember i once read a book on how to write short stories. the author stressed that it is very important that in every story, there has to be CONFLICT. without conflict, the story wouldn’t be interesting. true, true. just look at children’s fairy tales alone… they are full of conflicts.

i would like to draw a parralel between bad news/good news and my interest in fiction. i enjoy horror stories… because to me they are like bad news… filled with excitement, suspense and of course blood and gore. haha. i do not like romance stories (looking to it as good news) because they are too mushy and kind of ordinary… something that will happen to you or me or just about anyone. whereas horror stories are unique and have the attraction as this kind of thing won’t happen to me… or this kind of thing is good to work up my imagination!

 

(oh, i’m expecting a long say-say from wits0 on this subject. hehe.)