As we approach the holidays this year, we should all be thankful and grateful for many positive things in our lives. One thing we should be particularly grateful for is our precious right to free speech, as guaranteed by the First Amendment.  Much blood has been spilled over hundreds of years to win and protect our precious right to free speech.

However, with the right of free speech also comes certain limits and obligations to use free speech responsibly - as we all know, it is illegal to maliciously yell “fire” in a crowded theatre (unless of course there really is a fire).  Such an irresponsible act of “free speech” could cause real harm to other people in the theatre that might hear the word “fire” and run in a panic for the doors, potentially injuring or killing themselves or others.

Global media companies, including “traditional media” companies (TV, radio, newspapers, books, magazines), and “new media” companies (search engines, streaming text, audio and video, interactive web sites, e-books, blogs, webinars, teleseminars, podcasts) influence billions of people around the world.  Global media companies play an incredibly important role in our modern society, but they also have certain limits, obligations and responsibilities as well.

Even with our constitutional right of free speech, there are certain limits on these rights, including laws where a person cannot say something in public that is not true about another person (called slander – the action or crime of making a false spoken statement damaging to a person’s reputation). Another limitation in our right of free speech is that a person cannot write something that is not true about another person (called libel – the act or crime of publishing a false statement that is damaging to a person’s reputation).

Scientific research over the last 30 years has consistently demonstrated a pattern in people called “negative bias”, which suggests that negative information more strongly influences people and their feelings and emotions than positive information.

Recent scientific research suggests that people generally need to have a minimum of 3-1 “positivity ratio” in order to have a happy and successful life and be able to overcome the strong negative messages, feelings and emotions we experience in today’s negative bias society. This positivity ratio means that people need to experience three times as many positive feelings and emotions as negative feelings and emotions to achieve success and happiness. So how can we achieve a positivity ratio of at least 3-1 if the vast majority of the information and messages we receive every day from the media are negative?

Since our attitudes, beliefs and success (or failure) in life are directly related to our feelings and emotions, the more we see and hear negative words, images, sounds and other  ”negative stimulus”, the more negative we generally become in our thinking, beliefs, feelings, relationships, health, wealth and happiness.

The “business” of traditional media is selling billions of dollars of advertising, and to do that, media companies and advertisers will do almost anything to get YOUR ATTENTION. Media companies  KNOW that NEGATIVE news, information, sounds, and pictures will get your attention in an increasingly crowded global media market…today there are hundreds of times more cable channels, radio channels, newspapers, magazines, internet sites, blogs, etc. fighting and competing for your limited time, wallet and attention.

Traditional media companies have understood this concept of “negative bias” for years and have exploited this information for their financial gain. Media companies know that people respond more strongly to negative information and stimulus than to positive information and stimulus, so as a result, media companies highlight and focus on negative stories that are full of negative drama, sensationalism, fear, shock and awe in order to get your attention.

As Darren Hardy, Publisher of SUCCESS Magazine says about traditional media, “STOP THE INSANITY!  It is time to take back control of your brain. You are continually being pumped with fear, worry and anxiety riddled messages. This could be having a profound impact on your creative potential and hindering you in ways you might not even be aware of.”

News channels like CNN and FOX pick a dozen or so of the “worst, most negative, horrific” stories each day to cover, continually replaying these negative stories over and over again throughout the day, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week – all just to get your attention! Traditional media executives are trained to believe that “bad news sells” and as a result, these traditional media companies are constantly pumping out “doom and gloom” stories and negative information to get your attention.

As a society, we need to absolutely create greater awareness among consumers about “negative bias” in the media, increase consumer pressure on media companies and advertisers to become more positive and balanced in their communications, and offer both media companies and advertisers a better economic model based on a “positive bias” and help change the way they attract consumers using positive messages versus negative messages, because the current “negative bias” media model does not really work well for anyone in our society over the long-term.

Media companies need to adopt a ”positive bias”, as consumers are becoming increasingly selective in which media sources they watch, listen to or follow online. And if given a choice, would you pick something positive or negative?  And, as new online tools and mobile apps are developed that provide savvy consumers with the ability to instantly “rate and rank” media sources by their level of positive or negative information, this will allow consumers to instantly “turn on” positive media sources and “turn off” negative media sources.

These new market dynamics will put increasing pressure on traditional media companies to change their approach or loose market share, and will result in the growth of new “positive-minded” media that is more positive and balanced in the stories they cover and more focused on communicating positive information and messages that serve the best interests of all their customers and advertisers.

Media companies need to increasingly think and act like Steve Jobs at Apple would have acted if he were still alive today. Steve Jobs was passionate about changing the world in a positive way and Steve focused Apple on creating real “positive value”, unique features and benefits, high quality products and services that were easy to use by mass consumers.  As a result, Apple became one of the most profitable and valuable companies in the world.  Media companies need to follow Steve Jobs’ lead and do the right thing – focus on the positive, not the negative.

If you or I as individuals cannot abuse our right to free speech and yell “fire” in a crowded theatre, why are media companies allowed to “poison our minds” with negative and harmful messages thousands of times every day? I think traditional media companies and their executives need to be held accountable for what they do…and be held accountable for the growing negative impact their “negative bias” is causing to billions of people around the world.

As individuals in a capitalist economy, our greatest strength is our collective power as consumers to vote with our feet and with our wallets. If we want to change the world for the positive, we need to start by becoming more positive in our thinking, and more positive in our choice of media and in our communications.  We need to leverage our massive consumer power and select and reward those empowered media companies, TV channels, websites, blogs, radio channels, etc. that are committed to focusing on positive information.

Traditional media companies and corporate advertisers are seeing increasing customer demand and preference for a “positive bias” in the media they choose to consume, and those leading media companies that provide the positive bias that consumers are increasingly demanding will benefit as a result with bigger audiences, more advertisers, greater sales and higher profits for those media companies that embrace a more positive approach.

So what do you think?