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- Is there a place for good news?
Zee Feed loyalists might have noticed something missing in the past couple of months: our Good News monthly recaps. The last update we did was at the end of March… let’s talk about why.
There have been two main reasons for putting the series on pause. Firstly, there have been noticeably fewer news developments lately that we would categorise as ‘good news’. Unlike a lot of other publications, Zee Feed does not consider random acts of kindness or stories of animals becoming friends to be the kind of positive story worth sharing. When we created the series we were very intentional about it’s purpose: this was a way to share news stories that prove change is possible, that progressive politics can succeed, and to stoke the optimism and belief required to fight for an equitable world.
So yeah, while there are still nice, cute stories about… evidence of that kind of progress has been lighter on the ground this year. Trying desperately to find something to add to the monthly list got more time consuming, and lowkey depressing.
The second reason is that we’ve been feeling really conflicted about whether and when to share good news, given that you (our beloved audience) have been watching a genocide on your phone in real time and had it turned into a local culture war. In the past, there have been times when dominant news story was particularly devastating – in those moments, we'd decide to either delay sharing the roundup on social media or publish the article but keep it off social platforms. There is no hard rule, it’s just a decision made on gut feel.
The end of March roundup felt borderline, but we published and shared anyway. Audience engagement and traffic to the content was less than usual, understandably. The end of April saw a new wave of rage and protests against violence by men and violence by Israel, so I made the call to hold off on the updates. The end of May saw Israel’s escalate attacks to a level of cruelty I have run out of words to describe. We could not in good faith share any positive developments just days after seeing the images from Rafah.
That makes three months in a row with a big question mark hovering Good News. Three months is significant from a business and editorial point of view, it’s a sign something has changed.
So now we’re in June. Almost half the year is done. I’m re-evaluating literally everything about this business for the second half. Perhaps this series has run its course? Or should Good News make a needed and triumphant return in June? Genuinely, I want to know how you feel about the good news concept – reply to this email and tell me! Or DM us on Instagram! Even if your thoughts about the need for good news are conflicted and unclear, I still want to know.
Zee Feed’s content is for all of us, so don’t leave me to make the call on this alone!
Smart stuff on the Internet 💭
All the stuff I found on the web that made me think, smile, or have an ‘aha!’ moment. Spend your Sunday reading them – you'll be better off for it:
Speaking To Politicians Didn’t Ease My Fears, It Made Me Angrier on Junkee
Incredible series of work by Ky Stewart. The videos of Cabinet Ministers Tanya Plibersek (Environment) and Chris Bowen (Climate Change) being interviewed by Ky show how gobsmackingly transparent their disdain for young people is. Essential reading / watching for everyone, I reckon.
"Stephen Bates, “Baby of the House”, told us that, in the chamber, someone yelled for him to “quit and come back” when he was older. It’s the same disrespect I felt from the Labor government.”
Vermont’s New Climate Law Will Work on The New Republic
Ok this does qualify as good news tho! “Vermont’s landmark policy actually follows a well-established blueprint that already exists… Many policymakers know the value of the venerable ‘polluter pays’ principle and are undaunted by the red tape of the looming right-wing judicial hellscape.”
What Fiona Harvey, the So-Called ‘Real Martha’ of Baby Reindeer, Claims in Case Against Netflix on TIME
I have conflicting thoughts about this turn of events… I do wonder whether Fiona Harvey has a case, given how faithfully Netflix depicted her and the details she says are not true. This is also brutal if true: “Harvey alleges that Netflix did ‘literally nothing’ to confirm the details of its ‘true story,’ which ended up becoming a runaway success watched by more than 65 million people worldwide.”
The Failed Promise of Binge TV on The New Republic
“Serial television is and always has been a social practice, even when we do it alone. As the media scholar Shane Denson puts it, ‘in serial formats our own temporal becoming is intricately interwoven with the temporal unfolding of the series’… [But for shows that dump all episodes at once] we watch alone, in relation only to ourselves and our impulses and our desires, without even the pretense of TV’s social promise.”