Reporting Our Way to a Happier World: The Pollyanna Effect
"Transforming the News Media into Honest and Balanced News" is the tagline of the online Swedish newspaper www.Tillit.info that exists for the purpose of disseminating positive news. (I posted a an update about this on my Facebook page and someone asked "How do you know" since the site in in Swedish. I wish I could claim to have fabulous multi-lingual skills, but there is a link about three lines down in the center that says "Translate the website into your language.") I had a lovely email from Tillit's producer Jack Johansson and their CEO and publisher Mikael Engström describing their mission. I learned from them that Tillit means "trust" or "faith" in Swedish. Tillit has been working as a non-profit for for several years and has distributed more than 370 000 copies of positive news through volunteers. They have received an enormous positive response from their readers in Scandinavia. They are now working on a business plan in order to get investors,making Tillit an interesting example of social entrepreneurship.
Beyond the emphasis on positive news, there are two other very cool things about their site. One is in the "isn't technology amazing" category. A Google translator will translate the site into different languages. I haven't found the exact gadget yet, but I'm eager to put in on this blog. The translator changed Swedish into English is about 2 seconds--who says the Internet isn't bringing people together? And the second is cool thing is the "Hall of Happy News." This wonderful montage of faces attached to positive news stories is an wonderfully simple example of how emotion can be expressed in digital media, especially for kid's sites and classroom applications. The energy of all the smiling faces is infectious. Check it out! If you have research studies that will help their cause, there is a contact form on their site.
When I was a child, I loved the Disney movie Pollyanna about an eternally optimistic orphan child who transforms a community of grouches. What Pollyanna did was the exact same thing that Aaron Beck, Christine Padesksy, David Burns, Martin Seligman, or a host of other cognitive behavioral therapists would have you do (with slightly more theoretical focus than Hayley Mills). Reframe your thinking from negative and hopeless to positive and optimistic. That's why I love the concept of making positive news. Sites like Tillit not only shift our emphasis from half-empty to half-full, they also challenge the rest of us to think about how to make positive news compelling in a way that attracts viewers in a system driven by eyeballs (ratings). A more positive take on news is definitely worth thinking about in a time when people are anxious and afraid. If we can inspire and energize people to engage and create on their own behalves, we will not only climb out of our current economic and psychological slump, but we will be laying the groundwork for a more productive, optimistic, and resilient society.