If it’s true that motivation is often driven by money, sex and/or power, then I would suggest that the latter would easily explain the bias of main-stream media to positive psych or anything new, challenging the status quo, and that present itself as a threat to the establishment. Perhaps the more opposition you receive, the more effective your potential is. For after all, if you were totally ignored, then you would most likely be perceived as a non-entity, unworthy of debate.

Keep up the good work.

Bill

Yes, I have read the Good News Network which I finding uplifting and even inspiring. My purpose in writing this article is not just that we need to counter the mass media with “nice news” but that we need to hold them accountable for using the postive pscyhology label on something that does not look like what we have studied.

I encourage dialogue on how we, as a positive psychology community, might be able to influence the “village of the damned” approach of the media. It is irresponsible–I’d even go so far as to say unethical–to ascribe danger to a topic for the purpose of increasing the sales of articles, advertising and the like.

We live in a time of unprecedented access to information that could be used to help people. Organizations that use their very existence to create platforms for emotional pain have a very skewed version of informing the public.

Among my contacts is a Pulitzer Prize winning columnist who has not responded to my attempts to chat over lunch about positive psych. Hmmm.

Any major media outlets game to put on rose-colored glasses?

Cheers,
Sherri

Tks,
Jeff