The Good News Network is an American

online newspaper An online newspaper (or electronic news or electronic news publication) is the online version of a newspaper, either as a stand-alone publication or as the online version of a printed periodical. Going online created more opportunities for newspa ...

which publishes positive news stories.

Overview

The website was launched in 1997 by Geri Weis-Corbley in order to publish uplifting news gathered from sources around the world. Its purpose is to share positive and encouraging stories, as well as breakthroughs in technology and health. Weis-Corbley says that it is a "clearinghouse for the gathering and dissemination of positive, compelling new stories," to promote a well-balanced perspective. In an article about Weis-Corbley,

Tal Ben-Shahar Tal Ben-Shahar Tal Ben-Shahar (Hebrew: טל בן-שחר; born 1970), also known as Tal David Ben-Shachar, is an American and Israeli teacher, and writer in the areas of positive psychology and leadership. As a lecturer at Harvard University, Be ...

, an expert on positive psychology and

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...

lecturer, said that our perception of the world is warped by continual viewing of bad news. "While the media focuses on a small number of frauds—which it should certainly report on—it entirely ignores the millions or billions of honest transactions that take place every day... Too many people, assisted by the media bias, extrapolate from a few cases of people hurting others that human nature is bad."

Content

It publishes stories and shares videos and news from mainstream media, like

NBC The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an Television in the United States, American English-language Commercial broadcasting, commercial television network, broadcast television and radio network. The flagship property of the NBC Enterta ...

and

CNN CNN (Cable News Network) is a multinational cable news channel headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, U.S. Founded in 1980 by American media proprietor Ted Turner and Reese Schonfeld as a 24-hour cable news channel, and presently owned by the M ...

. Topics include health, environment, USA, world, business, culture, kids, pets, and celebrities. The site also publishes original content from authors and columnists, such as

Desmond Tutu Desmond Mpilo Tutu (7 October 193126 December 2021) was a South African Anglican bishop and theologian, known for his work as an anti-apartheid and human rights activist. He was Bishop of Johannesburg from 1985 to 1986 and then Archbishop ...

David Ignatius David Reynolds Ignatius (born May 26, 1950) is an American journalist and novelist. He is an associate editor and columnist for ''The Washington Post''. He has written eleven novels, including '' Body of Lies'', which director Ridley Scott adapt ...

Jeanne Marie Laskas Jeanne Marie Laskas (born September 22, 1958) is an American writer, journalist, and professor. Career Laskas is the author of eight books, including ''To Obama: With Love, Joy, Anger, and Hope'' (2018), based on a ''New York Times Magazine'' a ...

David Suzuki David Takayoshi Suzuki (born March 24, 1936) is a Canadian academic, science broadcaster, and environmental activist. Suzuki earned a PhD in zoology from the University of Chicago in 1961, and was a professor in the genetics department at th ...

and

Karen Armstrong Karen Armstrong (born 14 November 1944) is a British author and commentator of Irish Catholic descent known for her books on comparative religion. A former Roman Catholic religious sister, she went from a conservative to a more liberal and m ...

. An example of a positive story was one from 2009 about the kinds of jobs being created in solar and wind energy industries due to a stimulus package. It tackles how positive reinforcement is meaningful, such as when a Canadian police department gives out positive tickets to citizens. The staff published its 18,000th news story in January 2017.

Readership

The site experiences increased traffic following difficult events, like the

September 11 attacks The September 11 attacks, commonly known as 9/11, were four coordinated suicide terrorist attacks carried out by al-Qaeda against the United States on Tuesday, September 11, 2001. That morning, nineteen terrorists hijacked four commercia ...

. There was also a 45% increase in readership when the bank bailouts began in 2008. GoodNewsNetwork's articles are cited in books, including an article about how United States mayors are embracing the

Kyoto Protocol The Kyoto Protocol was an international treaty which extended the 1992 United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) that commits state parties to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, based on the scientific consensus that (part ...

in a book about carbon reduction. GoodNewsNetwork is listed as a resource in the book ''Positive Psychology: The Science of Happiness and Flourishing'', by William C. Compton and Edward Hoffman, which was published in 2012.

Funding

The company earns its revenue from online advertising on the site. Readers may also become members by contributing donations of between $2.00 - $500, and receive bonus downloadable gifts as a thank-you.

In popular culture

* Mentioned in ''Deadly Charm: An Amanda Bell Brown Mystery'' published in 2009 by Claudia Mair Burney.

References

{{Reflist

External links

GoodNewsNetwork's official website
Internet properties established in 1997 American news websites