No News is Bad News

As a news editor, I find it annoying when people talk down to news. We're not doomsayers. We're not carrion crows or vultures.

Firstly, it's our job. The journalist's job. Even if it's sports, we're all basically doing the same thing: providing a service. Think about it for a moment, if all our stories revolved around all the great things the University of Cincinnati or the city of Cincinnati itself was doing, it'd get old. It'd be a giant PR piece for the university or Cincy. And that's not news.

Secondly, people often forget the good things we do report. People won't remember my "UCPD ups security despite budget cuts" story but they'll remember something like "Financial aid program gets axed." Even before I became a student-journalist, I never told anyone about good things that happened. We remember the bad things because they stir up the most emotions. That's the thing. We don't really remember the good things because the benchmarks -- the pins in the timeline -- are disasters.

So, give us a break. I hate the term "no news is good news." Good news is news. Bad news is news. No news is... well there is no such thing. I swear I'll report on sidewalk cracks before I let reporting become an outdated practice.


-Gin