Of all the weird and wonderful names that have are used for newspapers around the word, the Arran Banner has to be one the most bizarre. Published every Saturday on the Isle of Arran, the weekly publication gets the inspiration for its name from a variety of potato developed in the early twentieth century by a local man on the island. With subscribers from all round the world, the Arran Banner is known for the feisty discussion that takes place on the letters page, covering subjects as diverse as climate change to local traffic and ferry services.
As the prominence of online sources for consumers looking to find their news rises, the death of traditional newspapers has long been predicted. The decline in sales of print editions has been dramatic, and several tiles have ceased publication completely.
The immediacy of social media means that news, true or false, is now available in real time. There is no need to wait for tomorrow’s paper to discover what might have happened the previous day. Any death of a celebrity, natural disaster or terrorist atrocity will be known world wide minutes after it occurs. The idiom, ‘bad news travels fast’, could be the motto for the internet age.
But why should bad news be the driver of the news cycle, when there is so much to celebrate?
The book of Proverbs in the bible, a ‘collection of collections’, brings together wise sayings, instructions for moral loving and right conduct, all under the repeated theme of submission to the will of God. A variety of authors, some named, others left anonymous, have contributed to the several hundred ‘proverbs’ that make up the completed work.
Among the sayings, two of them in particular have something important to say about news;
‘Bright eyes gladden the heart; Good news puts fat on the bones.’
‘Like cold water to a weary soul, So is good news from a distant land.’
Although there is much in the world to be concerned about, good news, whether it be a sporting achievement, a wedding or a birth, or the awesomeness of God’s creation, the bible tells us that good news can feed our very souls.
(May 2019)