TFN -The F#$%ing News. Photo: Stuff
Patrick Gower launched his new Stuff show The F#$%ing News with a promise to be a ray of sunshine in this dark world.
"Every week I'll be bringing a bit of positivity into the news," he said. "We're going to meet good Kiwis, great Kiwis, brainy Kiwis, and more Kiwis."
It's a show built around a gimmick: no bad news, just the positive stuff, please.
However, Gower was at pains to point out that 'Great Kiwis' and 'Good Kiwis' is not a stepped ranking scale.
"Good Kiwis are just as good as great Kiwis. Good Kiwis are unsung or community heroes. They are great. We just had to give the segments different names," he said.
That is not to say the show is all unmitigated joy. It treats positivity more as more a direction of travel, often in the face of tough circumstances, than a destination in itself.
In the first episode, the great Kiwi was comedian Dai Henwood, who talked to Gower about facing terminal cancer and death. The good one was Stefan Ozich, who is running the length of the country to raise money for suicide prevention.
Despite the heavy subject matter, the show is designed to be more celebratory and emotionally enriching than your usual ram raid report.
It's easy to see why they might want to be targeting that particular niche. Every day our news sites send out a torrent of negativity: weather disasters, crime, economic woes, intractable hospital rebuilds and sometimes even a new episode of Mediawatch.
It's enough to make some people switch off. Not just some, actually. Heaps.
The latest AUT Trust in Journalism survey found that New Zealanders are world leaders at tuning out the media.
According to its results, 69 percent of us actively avoid the news some or all of the time. That is a dominant showing, and not just on a per capita basis. The next country down on the list is Brazil, where 54 percent tune out.
Gower and his producer Jon Bridges had those results in mind when they pitched Stuff on the show concept.
"I lost my job. I've had to spend six months thinking about what I'm going to do next. I needed positivity, and everyone I talked to would need it too. I've given everything else a go - crime, politics, investigations. So now - positive news," Gower told Mediawatch.
"If you go on Instagram or LinkedIn, you see what people are searching out. Inspiration. Motivation. Lessons on how to live their life.
"Positive news doesn't need to be the biggest pumpkin at the Mount Eden school fair or whatever. It can include someone like Dai Henwood being positive about cancer and giving us all lessons. So I'm broadening the definition of positivity.
"I want to pick up on the good things that are happening around us and highlight it."
Gower isn't the first to give positive news a spin. RNZ runs a weekly Good News column, which highlights stuff like an interactive map to save the bittern and New Zealand blitzing the aforementioned per capita category at the Olympics.
Perhaps our longest-running media pick-me-up is Hadyn Jones' segment Good Sorts, which runs at the end of 1News on Sundays. It celebrates [https://www.1news.co.nz/2024/08/12/good-sorts-volunteer-runs-bluff-fishermans-radio-for-nearly-50-years/ unsung heroes like Meri Leask, who has been running Bluff's fishermen's radio for more than 50 years.
But these sorts of entries remain comparatively few and far between, and just like in my own personal life, some attempts at positivity have failed.
NZME launched NZME Upbeat back in 2018 but does not appear to have continued looking on the bright side.
Stuff once had a Good Stuff section. It doesn't anymore.
The positive news that remains isn't always funded like other journalism. RNZ's efforts are non-commercial, but Good Sorts is sponsored by Cadbury.
For every Upworthy in the year 2013, there's an Upworthy in the year 2024.
What's the problem? It's likely the answer lies less in the world of media commentary and more in the realm of psychology. Humans have an inherent negativity bias. We pay more attention to the bad stuff, and remember it better than the good stuff. That helped us when we had to recall the time and place that a sabre-tooth tiger ate Fred outside the cave, but isn't a boon when it comes to our modern media consumption habits.
In the words of science educator Hank Green, "even if we say we like good news, we are wired to pay more attention to bad news".
"So you're saying that I'm taking on human nature? I didn't realise this," Gower told Mediawatch.
"I've worked in news for 25 years, and I've been around some of the most cynical people on there that are journalists.
"When I started there at Stuff, there was an old timer from the Sunday News. He told me they tried that at the Sunday News once - a total edition of good news. It was the worst-selling Sunday News ever.
"I myself have seen these things come and go. When I started at the Herald 25 years ago, there was something called 'The Bright Side' with a nice little sun shining."
It didn't last either. So what makes Gower think he can overcome that?
"I'm broadening positivity to include inspiration, life lessons, people solving problems, people with good ideas, entrepreneurs. My success will, of course, be the ultimate good news story."
Good luck with that. I'm going to make an effort to conquer my nature, and stay optimistic about his prospects.