Do you feel powerless in light of news media reports about ISIS terrorism coming to our shores?

Are you afraid that you, your children, family or community could be next?

What do you need most to feel safe, united, unafraid?

Fear-mongering appears to be the bomb that news media outlets use to make sure they attract more viewers, page likes, user engagement, etc., so that they can point to stats that will bring in more advertising revenue, which is what allows them to stay in business, right?

Apparently, the theory is that if enough people can be aroused by a sense of fear (or outrage) they will keep coming back to the BIG BOLD NEWS HEADLINES that mostly call attention to the worst of what goes on in the world, but rarely the good.

Have you ever noticed that the good news is kept at a minimum? And at best, it might show up in a news feed every once in awhile? But rarely in BIG BOLD HEADLINES?

Maybe the media business knows that if they saturate you with too much of the bad, you will lose heart and never come back at all.

Actually, behavioral science drives that very strategy. As reported in Psychology Today, it has to do with our preferences for wanting to know about bad things that might threaten us (hearkening back to our hunter-gatherer instincts) rather than good news that gives us a sense of hope for the future.

Interestingly, however, according to Susan Krouse Whitbourne, PhD, who states that even though “The media thrives on stories of death, destruction of property, a plummeting economy, or other calamitous events,” most of us would rather be people who bring good news to others.

Heroic News Stories Draw Us In

And that is why we are attracted by stories about people like Malala Yousafzai, the young Pakistani girl who nearly lost her life speaking out about female education under the rule of the Taliban, but later became a Nobel Peace Prize winner; or stories about The Great Generation and the unity of purpose and resolve they demonstrated during WWII; or even timeless fictional stories by Dickens, Jane Austen, Ian McEwen, Lucy Maud Montgomery, or characters like Hermione Granger, Jane Eyre, George Bailey, Rocky, Supergirl, BatWoman, and the like.

History tells us that especially in times of civil unrest, economic uncertainty, global upheaval, barbaric killings, suppression of truth (in short, anything that threatens the core need for freedom of the human spirit), we all want and need true stories or fictional stories that inspire the kind of courage, hope and fearless moxie that ignites the power of heroic love.

And we want them in BIG BOLD HEADLINES.

That is why the Judah and Tamar Trilogy (based on Genesis 38) continues to urge us on in the telling of what we call the GREATEST LOVE STORY NEVER TOLD, keeps us ever vigilant in making sure that we contribute to good news that will help you reinforce your core values and stand united in the belief that by saying “NO!” to panic and retreat, and by never surrendering to fear or fear mongering you will find brilliant ways to keep yourself, your loved ones and your communities strong and unafraid.

#fearless, #judahandtamar, #nopanic, #noretreat, #nosurrender, #genesis38, #heroiclove, #news