OPINION: Is a ‘slow news day’ really such a bad thing?

SLOW news day. Those three words are the most tiresome thing a journalist can hear, but not for the reason you may think.

SLOW news day. Those three words are the most tiresome thing a journalist can hear, but not for the reason you may think.

It's probably one of the most widely used terms when people think they've landed on planet boredom with a news story.

Journalists work in a field where we are wide open to criticism, and that's okay - everyone has an opinion and we can't always agree on everything.

So if we write a light-hearted story and hear the term "slow news day" used to describe it, fair enough, it may have been a quiet day in the office - that or we just wanted to share a story we hoped you might enjoy.

See, in my career I haven't met one reporter or editor, or photographer, who likes bad news.

What we'll usually call hard news, is often the kind of thing no one really likes to hear about.

We report on those things because we should - it's a must that we let people know about impending disasters, it's important we report on the horror of traffic crashes to try and alert people to the dangers.

Journalists don't like bad news any more than anyone else, and after years and years of it, it can be pretty sad to see people suffering and to watch terrible things unfold.

So when there's a light-hearted news day, don't knock it 'til you've tried it.

Read about the lady who makes jam, or the quirky list of facts about shopping, because life is just too short to focus on the bad stuff all the time.

Of course, breaking, big news will always be important.

A slow news day is just a day when a reporter gets a break from the chaos and gets the chance to connect with locals in a happy way.

And a soft news story doesn't always mean it's been a slow news day, sometimes we just like to bring you a mix of news and leave the choice to you.

If nothing bad is happening around the place, we can all be happy.

Originally published as OPINION: Is a ‘slow news day’ really such a bad thing?