WFAA Channel 8, Dallas, TX
July 22 2005
C’mon get happy
03:29 PM CDT on Friday, July 22, 2005
There’s a new Web site that provides all the good news that’s fit to
post. At other news outlets on Thursday, the top story was the second
round of bombings in London. On HappyNews.com , the top international
news story was “Volunteers help to build Armenia homes.”
With a smiley face as a mascot and “Always Positive” as its credo,
HappyNews.com is dedicated to delivering news “geared to lift spirits
and inspire lives.” The site invites people to volunteer as “citizen
journalists” and write stories that fulfill this mission. The results
bridge blogging and journalism. Like blogs, content is driven by what
“citizen journalists” think is important; like journalism, stories
are edited by the HappyNews team and contributors must follow a code
of conduct posted on the site.
Now happy news is just a click away. Just pick the category in which
you wish to be cheered up. In national news, you can pick from
headlines such as “Girl reunited with pet tortoise” and “Woman wins
lottery twice in five months.” Of course, what makes news happy (or
not) is in the eye (or ear) of the consumer, as a headline such as
“U.S. barbershop quartets thriving” reminds us.
Tom Maurstad