The document discusses how negativity dominates local newspaper reporting. An analysis of three local newspapers in the UK found that the majority of popular stories covered were negative in tone. Out of 20 total popular stories looked at across the three newspapers, only 7 were positive while 13 were negative. The document suggests this focus on negative news may be due to people finding stories about others suffering, like war or serious injuries, more interesting to read about.

1. Negativity in Local Newspapers. In today's newspaper, Local as well as national, stories that include bad and horrid stories seem to be always in the news, Negativity is one of most important news criteria's in local newspapers today.

2. Source : http://www.suttonguardian.co.uk/ As you can see, most of the Sutton Guardian has negative news stories in their most popular posts. Only two stories are actually positive. Negative Negative Positive Negative Positive Negative Negative

3. Source: http://www.basingstokeobserver.co.uk/ Negative Negative Negative Negative Positive Positive This screenshot is a section for the latest news, again, most of the stories are negative

4. Source: http://www.bicesteradvertiser.net/news/ Negative Negative Negative Negative Positive Positive Positive This example has a bit more positive news, however, negativity still dominates the news post for this local newspaper

5. Results 13 7 After looking at the three random local newspapers, We can see that the majority of the ‘Most popular’ stories are Negative. Having a look at 20 stories, only 7 of them are positive and the rest (13) are negative.

6. So, why is this? Personally, I believe that it is something to do with Schadenfreude . People seem to be amused by others suffering. Reading about negative news about others, for example war or a serious injury, people seem to be interesting in this type of news, rather than being amused.