The World According to Newspapers

The world can be a depressing place, no doubt about it. Newspapers are full of death, taxes, trauma, famine and so on.

I was particularly disturbed by the news story of the young woman who just missed the Toronto Eatons’ shooting by five minutes only to die in the Colorado Batman-theatre shooting a couple of months later. I guess fate really does play a part in our lives after all.

But I want to draw your attention to a more uplifting story by Pete McMartin in the Vancouver Sun. You can read the full article here: http://www.vancouversun.com/news/McMartin+Jean+Hamilton+star/6949248/story.html and I suggest you do. It’s well worth checking out.  It’s about a woman named Jean Hamliton who went from a senior struggling to get by to a celebrity who got flown to New York to shoot a Frank’s Hot Sauce commercial. The hot sauce commercial lead to other paid gigs. And although she wouldn’t be considered rich, she started to earn enough money to support herself and have a little left over for her twilight years.

It is a great article because it goes to show, although life can be depressing at times, life is also always full of surprises. And it’s never too late to do something in your life. Jean never wanted to be an actor, but she was always up for new experiences. I think she is a role model for all of us.

I often hear people don’t read the newspaper because they get too upset about the state of the word. It’s true newspapers publish a lot of negative news and sensationalize horrible events. The newspaper defense is blood and guts is what sells and if you look at the thousands of horror movies I suppose you can’t argue. But why can’t inspirational stories sell just as well? Has anybody in the newspaper business even tried? Thankfully we have Pete McMartin who has a way of balancing the newspaper coverage out, just as life usually balances out as well.

If you think we need better news coverage and a sustainable business model for reports use the hashtags #takeyourjournalismback and demand better journalism. You can also find me on twitter at @joelmarkharris. Join the conversation.