There’s a problem with your everyday media: It is fed and nurtured by bad news, by misery, wars, crises, catastrophes. To make matters worse, journalists seem to think that their only task is to be “critical” about pretty much everything, leading to a depiction of politics and everyday life as disgraceful and appalling. Therefore most people believe that everything goes down the drain.
But hidden in the latter parts of magazines and newspapers, tucked away in nameless afternoon TV shows, you sometimes find news noone prepares you for: There’s more democracies now than there have ever been, you learn. Extreme poverty fell by 500 million people in the last 30 years. These are the rare occasions when good news gets so big that not even your everyday media can keep quiet about it. In our new column “Your Monthly Good News”, we provide you with good news from the corner of the media machine, news that might give you a reason to be as optimistic as we are about the state and future of the world.
This is only the news we have noticed. If you come across something, a report, a short note, whatever, please just send us the link via mail@unserezeit.eu and we’ll include it in our next collection.
Your Monthly Good News, End of October/Beginning of November 2014
Hal Hodson: E-citizens unite: Estonia opens its digital borders, NewScientist, 17 October 2014
Mathias Ohanian: Estland bürgert Menschen aus aller Welt digital ein, Handelszeitung, 22. Oktober 2014
– E-citizenship in Estonia: This perforates national borders even more and helps to overcome the fact that the coincidence of where you are born matters most for what your life will be like
Is the Affordable Care Act Working?, The New York Times, 26th October 2014
– Obamacare is working. Which means that after all less people in the US will unnecessarily die.
Wenig überlange Gerichtsverfahren, Deutscher Bundestag, 29. Oktober 2014
– „Unangemessen lange Gerichtsverfahren kommen in der deutschen Justiz kaum vor.“
„Viktator“ Orbán sät Wind, Spiegel Online, 29. Oktober 2014
– Endlich Proteste gegen Victor Orbán.
Streik der Lokführer: Steht die Bahn, rollt der Bus, Spiegel Online, 4. November 2014
– Warum es nicht mal andersrum betrachten?
About Author: WWWWWSören Brandes
Geboren 1989 in Paderborn, hat Geschichte und Literatur in Berlin und Lund studiert. Master in Moderner Europäischer Geschichte. Promoviert derzeit am Graduiertenkolleg „Moral Economies of Modern Societies“ am Berliner Max-Planck-Institut für Bildungsforschung über die Geschichte des Marktpopulismus. Lebt in Berlin-Neukölln und interessiert sich für eigentlich alles, insbesondere für Globalisierungsphänomene, den Einfluss der Massenmedien darauf, wie wir denken und leben, und europäische Politik. Mail: soeren@unserezeit.eu, Twitter: @Soeren_Brandes, Facebook: Sören Brandes View all posts by Sören Brandes
