Journalists love doom. “If it bleeds, it leads” was a mantra reportedly chanted in newsrooms in the old days of TV news. When I worked in that field, I never heard it, but the uncomfortable truth is that the shocking and the bad do indeed lead the news agenda.
Take Thursday’s Daily Record headline that led their website in the afternoon: “Schoolboy lost four fingers and part of hand in horror fireworks accident”.
Or Glasgow Times’ Thursday lead: “Hunt launched for four men after daylight robbery on Glasgow street”.
I’m not picking on these papers. We often report grim news too. But if that’s all the news is, the idea you’d get of your city is one of feral youths playing dangerously with explosives and streets under constant threat of violent robbery. And that’s not the reality — whatever the many voices on social media might like to claim. When Reform UK MSP Thomas Kerr made a video showing the supposedly lawless city centre, locals made hilarious alternative, much more optimistic responses — they were fed up with the caricature of a city that’s gone to the dogs.
That’s why our fourth pledge is committing to a regular good news edition of The Bell. That means if we get 1,000 new paying subscribers to back our quality local journalism by 15 November, we’ll produce a monthly rundown of the local heroes and community projects making a difference in the city. And we’ll maybe chuck in some hilarious wee tales just to lift everyone’s spirits.
Here’s what one reader had to say in our form we sent out a few months back, asking people to vote for their favourite pledges: “I really like the idea of a 'good news' section for Glasgow areas, especially when social media and the news is so daunting every single day. It would be a really good reminder to all Glasgow folk that kind communities are what can make a massive change in all of our lives.”
If you read Beth’s story on Wednesday, you’ll have got a sneak peak. Paisley has often found itself as the butt of many a Glaswegian’s jokes (some you can find in the Instagram comments of Beth’s post, unsurprisingly). But to anyone who’s been going into its town centre, the reality is rosier than the reputation. Arts and culture events regularly draw large crowds, with an ambitious council goal to make Paisley Scotland’s events capital. Even when their growing Halloween festival was pretty badly hit by Storm Boelo, they came through grinning.
Then there are the people doing great stuff. The fondest memory I have of reporting for The Bell was getting to know Habab Idriss in Knightswood and hearing how community groups in the area support Scots old and new. This local resilience helped them cope with the aftermath of a shocking murder and racist graffiti. The story was nominated for an award by the Scottish Refugee Council, and shows that good news doesn’t just mean fluff.
If this sounds like something you want to happen, then extraordinarily you have the power to make it so. Become one of the 1,000 subscribers we need to sign up before 15 November, and we’ll get straight down to rooting out the most uplifting stories in the city. We're nearly halfway there!
For the next few weeks only, you can choose your price and access all of our best journalism and get more out of Glasgow. Annual subscriptions start from just £65 (though if you want to give us more, we won’t stop you). And, if you’re really not sure whether you want to fully commit, why not try £2.99 a month for two months?
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