Reading and Writing Petra, Negative News

 Very often, if you check about news in a particular city or country, it will often be about bad things, such as crimes, corruption, or violence somewhere in the world.  It also can include gossip about famous people and their private lives.  Maybe, there is a big fight between some couple.  It's quite rare that the news will say something like, "Today it was a beautiful day in our city, and most people had a good time doing the jobs they love!"  More often, the top news stories are related to some problems that exist somewhere.  The question then is why do we focus on negative things more than positive things.  There are a couple of reasons for this.

First of all, it seems that people are attracted to sensational news.  Although media's role is to inform the public, it also is a business that needs to make money.  People are more likely to pay attention to a media site if there is something extreme going on.  A famous journalist a long time ago came up with the phrase, "If it bleeds, it leads."  What that means is if there is some violent story, that should be the most important one of that newspaper.  The idea is people are more fascinated in hearing about these stories than other things, including good things.  

Another reason news sources like to focus on extreme things is because they are considered out of the ordinary.  If someone does something really special and good, then they will tell about it.  But, very often, stories about crashes and violence are things that most people in their every day lives don't see, so the news site thinks people will be more interested in this.

There may be other reasons that people are attracted to bad news more than good news, but these are a couple.  Ideally, people will also try to focus on good stories as well because the world isn't all bad, and actually, in many cases, it is helpful to know about the good things, too.  

Four sentence types. 

Simple: I am a teacher.   My name is Nate.  I work at ELS.  Jose and Shiki are in my class.  I teach Mashaal and Taiki.  I am happy and excited to see you.

Compound: My name is Nate, and I am a teacher at ELS. 

I work hard, and I also communicate well.

 I did well on the test, but I want to do better.

I did well on the test, so I am very happy today. 

You can come to class, or you can stay at home. 

Complex:

*If you come tomorrow, I will be here. 

*Before we write the essay, we will practice in class. 

*If you pass the test, you will pass the level

*After you come tomorrow, we will practice writing.

Compound-Complex

*When people cut down trees, it can damage the local ecosystem, so we shouldn't do it.

*If you come to my house, I'll be there, but I might be busy a little.