Yesterday I was talking to a friend who was complaining about the amount of “depressing news” that is reported every day. In her words; “it’s enough to make you want to top yourself”. A little dramatic perhaps but it got me thinking. It’s true traditional media does report a lot on issues that generally fall into the negative, depressing and unsettling category; however, online journalism has found a way to balance the news scale much better than its more traditional counterparts. The half-hour TV or radio news bulletin doesn’t have time to run anything other than the major stories of the day. They give a quick break-down of national and global events, plus address any local issues, finance, weather and sport and it’s all over. Online journalism has room to breathe; it has an infinite amount of resources, space and time and can give the reader a wide range of stories because of this. The deadline for online journalism may be “now” but the opportunity for updates and expansion are there 24/7 meaning a more consistent form of coverage is available. Along with this, a much wider range of coverage is possible and this is where my friend has got it wrong. Many of the most popular news sites, such as news.com, ninemsn, and yahoo!7, offer an abundance of entertainment and “soft” news. All you have to do is follow on the link and you can enjoy hours of entertaining, funny, and often downright weird stories the news has to offer. While the “real” news may take up the majority of space in most publications, programmes, and websites it’s nice to know that with online news a happy story is only a click away.
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