News editors decide what to broadcast on television and what to print in a newspaper. What factors do you think influence their decisions? Do we become used to bad news? Would it be better if more good news was reported?

Television and Newspapers are two important components of the media. These are the sources people rely on to get acquainted to the situations around them, let these be political, economic or entertainment related. The news editors have the right to choose what to show or write respectively.

There are several factors affecting their decisions. Firstly, the circumstances prevailing at a given time in a specific area let them decide what is important. For example, countries stricken with an unpleasant event like drought would not be interested in a celebrity’s life event. The next reason can be security that decides what needs to be exposed. For instance, a news channel must be daring enough to exploit a rich, famous, eccentric business tycoon. The third reason is more common in developing countries where corruption, nepotism and injustice rule the country. Here, bribing is not considered a serious crime and news editors pick the news that fills their pockets more. Fourth reason can be the authenticity of the information they get.

Getting accustomed to bad news is not something that happens every day but this is human nature to accommodates itself according to a continuous external stimulus. To illustrate, a nation who is under threats of losing their lives due to terrorism would stop fearing it after a while. There will come a time when a bomb blast in their neighboring city will not affect them as much.

This certainly does not mean that only good news should be reported. It is the truth that everyone wants to know.

Thus, news editors should reveal truth only, no matter how harsh it is. As newspapers and television news channels are the means people rely on.