What's Missing from Today's News?

Author and journalist Amanda Ripley has a secret – she actively avoids the news and has been doing so for years. She's not alone. Data from the Reuters Institute tells us the United States has one of the highest news-avoidance rates in the world. Four in ten Americans sometimes or often avoid contact with the news. Why? It's dispiriting, repetitive and of questionable credibility, according to Reuters' survey data.

So what we can do about it? Ripley argues there are three ingredients missing from the news: hope, agency and dignity.

• Hope means giving people a sense of possibility – that solutions to problems exist.

• Agency means giving people a sense they can do something themselves.

• Dignity means letting people know they matter, often by listening to them or inviting them to participate.

A better approach, Ripley says, is based on the principle that the world will get better when people understand not just the problems we face but also the paths to progress.