As the Good News Post launches, why it’s time for good news, by The Editor
News and journalism has been my life.I learned to read as a child on tabloid newspapers hanging around our home and have been a news addict ever since. In the mid 1990s I became a newspaper reporter and have interviewed thousands of people, incidents and events. I covered the horrors of 911 and a whole host of crimes and plain bad news. However, since the explosion of 24.7 rolling news and the new ‘Big Bang’ of social media and the internet, something has changed.We are bombarded with bad news from every angle. In our homes, bedrooms, in the car. There is no escape. 24.7. All the time. Angst is rising, there are reports of depression figures rocketing, and the mental health crisis in the young and adults is shocking and unprecedented. Now, understandably, there is saturation global paramedic coverage since Coronovirus took hold. Our brains, with 60000 thoughts a day, were not designed to take such fear and bad news smashing. Our minds work best when we think positivity, good thoughts, and read about good stuff. That is why I decided to set up the Good News Post. Since covering the fallout of the 2011 Royal Wedding and the London riots of the same year, I decided to focus on good news.. I was asked to become a governor of a brilliant school and helped the headteacher to get out their positive stories to the Press. It has grown from there. I have since helped multiple thousands of good news stories come out from schools across England, Wales and now Malawi.
Stories such as the one pictured with little Katy, 8, (centre front), a self-starting litter picker in her community to help save the planet. She is watched on by Jill Dando News reporters trained by the Good News Post.
Students aged 4 to 21 have energetically embraced the challenge and we now have over 100 reporters of good news.
As this pandemic crisis deepens, there is never a better time to launch the Good News Post.
