Bad News Sells Better than Good News – What do you stand for?

BY: ALYSSA MAHADEO 

It’s 8:00 pm and you’ve just finished up with dinner, so you sit down to kick back after a long day. You turn on the television, a journalist flashes on screen preparing to read the evening news, and you think to yourself, ‘What unfortunate tragedy am I going to hear about today?’

Every day the news is filled with stories about war, terrorism, crime, pollution, inequality, drug abuse and oppression. With these glaring headlines always in your face, it’s hard to distinguish the real news from the questionable, and it’s easy to get sucked into the negative emotionally provoking opinions.

“When we originally started the newspaper, we set out to be non-biased, not taking a side, reporting on events how they happened as is,” says Grant Browning, President, and CEO of Carib101 Media Group and owner of the Toronto Caribbean Newspaper.

“In 2016 when we introduced Community Focused, our mission was to work on ways to start highlighting stories of people working to build, strengthen and empower the community.” 

As a prominent media outlet in the Caribbean community, the Toronto Caribbean Newspaper is aware of who their readers are, and how they receive the news they share. The community is filled with people who feel they are at a disadvantage in modern day society. Stories from other media organizations demonstrate how they are singled out because of the colour of their skin, and many are everyday users of social media, which does nothing to filter out the good from the bad, and so the stories pushed to the forefront are the ones that trigger negative opinions.

“Now more than ever with this constant spread of negativity we’ve realized and identified the need for positivity and the need to, build a stronger foundation, reinforcing it through the powerful groups advocating for change,” Browning says, “By sharing their stories and empowering the community to continue their work it is leaving a lasting impact on the next generation, making a huge difference in how we continue to implement positive change.”

Recent world events, in our country and across the border have sparked major controversy and issues over various affairs, and it’s easy to get pulled into the negative opinions of others.

By not reporting on these matters, it doesn’t mean that they aren’t important or don’t exist. As an ethnic newspaper, Toronto Caribbean exists in a niche market which allows us the privilege to choose what we report and highlighting positive news and success stories in the community which allows our readers to reinforce their positivity intake whenever they read the newspaper.

“Just as much as you might want to focus on things that are bad, there are also people out there involved in charity, raising funds for the less fortunate, or working to help aid relief efforts for unfortunate circumstances happening locally or in the Caribbean Islands,” Browning explains. “There are so many other things that we can choose to focus on instead of continuously dwelling on the negativity.”

As your local community newspaper, we are encouraging our readers to ask themselves the question, ‘WHAT DO YOU STAND FOR?’

Through this movement, we want to encourage you to think for yourself, formalize your own thoughts and opinions, control your negative news intake and choose to ask questions to discover why stories being shared by your friends on social media or on the evening news has to garner a reaction.

“We are dedicated to serving the community positive, unbiased news. By picking up our paper, you can be sure that you are choosing to stem the spread of negative news and offer a brighter perspective helping in our mission to build, strengthen and empower the community for success,” Browning says.

Racism is still very prevalent in the world and in our community today, but without conversations working to solve the problem it continues to fester, grow and infect the masses. We are here to unite each other, make positive and impactful connections, eradicate negative stigmas and showcase the beautiful people of our community.

“These people aren’t looking to be recognized,” Browning states, “They are here to offer their kindness, and allow their actions to speak louder than their words.”

It’s easy to get caught up in the negative stories that permeate the news. Segregation, conflict, anger, and hate offer more problems and not enough solutions to see through the lies and manipulation that trigger widespread negativity.

How can we be better as a race? How can we positively influence the culture, the history for the next generation? How can we come together as a strong united front, offer solutions and change the conversation?

We are committed to using our platform to build, strengthen and empower our community, but what do you stand for?

Spread the word, spark powerful and impactful conversation by sharing with us:

WHAT DO YOU STAND FOR?

Tweet us @tocaribnews using the #whatdoyoustandfor, or send us a video with your powerful message and lead our community in the fight against negative news toward a better, brighter tomorrow.