Recognizing the Negative Spin In the Media
Last week, I talked about managing your anxiety and balancing your inputs and outputs in response to recent incidents at my son’s school. At that point, I would say that I was still trying to bring down my anxiety rather than keeping it at a manageable level. I was still going back on the web to see if there were any more news articles about the school. In hindsight, I was still allowing the media to invade my peace of mind.
Thankfully, I attended the school’s Holiday Concert and Art Show on Thursday that snapped me out of it. I understand now why my son seemed so unperturbed by the series of incidents. This was an incredibly warm and loving environment. The students were vocally encouraging and supportive of each other. The teachers seemed to genuinely care about the students and visibly proud of their accomplishments. When the choir sang “Bridge Over Troubled Water,” the response was thunderous. It was a particularly poignant moment after the 10 days these teenagers had gone through.
I walked out of there with renewed confidence in my son’s safety. I know that his teachers will protect him as if he was their own child. My gratitude that they are taking on this enormous responsibility everyday cannot be expressed in words. And most importantly, I walked out of there with high hopes for the young men and women making extraordinary achievements in this highly unordinary times.
Now, it was my turn to ask, “What can I do to make the situation better?” After writing about increasing your outputs in order to balance your energy, I really wanted to put my words into action. So, I decided to write a letter to the editor of my local newspaper.
Addressing the Issue with the Media
Honestly, it wasn’t easy to do. I like to write, a lot. There’s a reason why I have a blog and not a Twitter account! Keeping it down to two hundred words seemed impossible. I couldn’t even fit in half of what I wanted to say, but I wanted more people to know that the school is not full of troubled kids. That from what I saw, there’s a gap between what the media was reporting, and what was actually happening inside the school. Their focus on fear was breeding more fear in the outside community, even though those in the inside were handling it pretty well. And I realized that if I didn’t give voice to what I saw in the school, I was facilitating the spread of fear in a way.
We all have a natural tendency to focus on that one bad thing even when there are 10 great things happening. I can’t say that it’s detrimental since this trait has kept human beings alive for so long. But it does prevent us from seeing the bigger picture if we are not vigilant. We have a tendency to dismiss people pointing out the good saying, “Oh, they’re just trying to put a positive spin.” But we fail to recognize that we are constantly putting a “negative spin” on things for the majority of our lives.
The media plays into this because people pay more attention to the stories with “negative spin”. I don’t think we should be burying our heads in the sand, but we must learn to recognize that there are many things being left out out their stories. I’m sure, sometimes, it’s because of the lack of space. But regardless, we have to be aware that we are never getting the complete story. Ever.
***UPDATE***
My letter to the editor was published on Staten Island Advance on December 21st. Please visit here if you are interested in reading it.