I think the situation is a bit more complex than this; or at least that it can be. The thing driving consumption is engagement. So what can news provide that d

I think the situation is a bit more complex than this; or at least that it can be. The thing driving consumption is engagement. So what can news provide that drives engagement? Incomplete narrative. Conflict is probably the most familiar place to find an incomplete narrative. The easiest way to present conflict is from a negative perspective. A problem that is missing a solution is very easy to engage with. Mystery is another. What really happened? What will happen next? Speculate! These are broadly considered "lazy journalism", and for good reason. Controversial narratives are trivial to construct, even when the controversy itself is fake. Mystery is either an incomplete story or speculative fiction. --- The best works of journalism present a complete story, but that doesn't leave much to engage with. It might be interesting. It might be complicated. It might be important. Is that enough? Sometimes. Stories that good don't get written every day. If they did, they would become relatively mundane. The news does get published every day. What can we do except to fill the days in between with conflict and mystery? What kinds of engagement are actually positive? Can they compete? --- I visit hacker news because it is thriving with examples of positive engagement. New tools, educational exposition, open questions, historical exploration, etc. Many of the posts here aren't news per se, but they are better than vain controversy. I think that news organizations should diversify their content and presentation formats. Find more alternatives to "new" than opinion and speculation. Present opportunities for objectivity instead of neatly wrapped conclusions.