One of the questions I and my research team ask frequently is how to make a difference with all the noise of the Internet. Our objective is to study how best to communicate and disseminate research results in a timely fashion. Another question is how to make sense of all the information out there. I am fortunate in my network of former students, family and friends that they act as my librarians and forward interesting Internet links, websites and other information.
One of the sites recently sent to me is Fix the News <fixthenews.com> a site dedicated to reporting stories of progress. The site explains what they do and why:
“'If it bleeds it leads' isn't just a mantra for tabloid editors anymore. It's a fundamental commercial reality for the media industry. A recent study of 23 million headlines from 47 popular news outlets showed that in the last two decades the share of headlines denoting anger increased by 104% and the share evoking fear surged by 150%.
What this shows is that it's not just your imagination. The news really has become more negative. It's making us all feel grim about the present, and hopeless about the future. Pessimism is so deeply ingrained in our media culture that it’s become the default frame imposed on all our realities. It’s not breaking news anymore. It’s broken news.”
It reflects more real news and in addition offers these other sites for balanced reporting.
Other sites you may enjoy, focusing on environmental success stories, issues of sustainability, and environmental journalism: Reasons to be Cheerful; Sustainability by Numbers; the Progress Playbook
Image Credit: Noah Buscher from Unsplash