Is violence the only thing that gets our attention?

Question

Seems like all we see on the news are violent things. That is what sells, but what about the good things that happens? Why don't we have an interest in those things? If you had a cause and wanted some media attention, the only thing you could do is something violent. Maybe we are bringing on all the violence around the world ourselves. That is the only way we will listen to them? Would we be a better society if we stopped watching the voilent things, and started watching the good people do instead? Give that our attention? If Iran gave millions of dollars for cancer research, who would really care? It wouldn't be on the news but maybe once, but if they build a nuclear bomb, we are glued to the tv set. Maybe it is possible that we are bringing on all the pain and suffering in the world on ourselves......

Answer 1

Intelligence captures my attention instantly.

Answer 2

I think that we've been so desensitized that even violence has to have an interesting twist in order to get some people's attention. I personally am one that would like the media to report the good that is happening, but then the ratings would apparently slide down.

Having said that, I still don't know why the local TV news almost always leads w/ a story about murder or some other disturbing crime. It gives people the false notion that 1.) the ones shown on TV are the only ones that happened that day, 2.) that violent crime is rampant (when studies show that violent, person-to-person crimes are down), 3.) the TV media has the full story in a 1 or 2 minute segment!!!

I really couldn't answer your question b/c violence doesn't attract my attention. I don't watch TV news anymore b/c of it, and I never liked big shoot 'em up movies, nor gruesome horror movies. I do agree that we as a collective put out a certain kind of intention into the world, so we have no one but ourselves to blame. We could either bringing good intentions or bad...but it seems bad is winning according to the news as well as what we see our leadership (U.S.) doing.

BTW, I meet a lot more "good" people than "bad" (unreasoning, mean, nasty, rude, uneducated, etc.) on a daily basis, so I know that good is actually the more powerful human nature. Most violence starts off from small "badness", so I think on an individual level we can all thwart it off by not interacting w/ such people on their level, but always being level headed and showing how we are not detered by their "bad" intentions.

Answer 3

I agree with celtsre,
Totally accurate, Steve Irwin was an amazing guy, There was a period of shock & sadness and then comes the criticism, arrogance and plain stupidity..

I doubt Iran would ever give money to cancer research,
The Australian news always has a few happy stories on it,
Especially on our morning shows.

People want action and drama! thats what they get,

Answer 4

I know this sounds cynical,but the news execs think that violence sells.I find it so boring that I feel nothing when they focus on bad things and I learn nothing.We know there are good things happening but the news corps and movie producers say that is what we want. It isn't true for many people,who like real stories.

Answer 5

well look at steve irwin what a genius that bloke was what happens 2 seconds after his death we have jokes flying about so i say that this days society sucks and all we are interested is death and violence and we are just killing ourselves off

Answer 6

It pretty much is...it's pretty lame that the only stuff that sells is sex and violence now-a-days...Well, I would like to talk about this further, but I really have to go

Answer 7

well you got some good thought wish it were a different world to but were just going to have to learn to live with it cause it aint going to get any better