There is an old saying in news: "If it bleeds, it leads." Fear-based news stories prey on the anxieties we all have and then hold us hostage. And they convince us that the world is a darker place than it actually is!
Dr. Danilo Yanich, a media scholar from the Associate Professor in the School of Urban Affairs at the University of Delaware, has found that news, especially local television news, creates a skewed vision of reality. In short, the news shows us a concentrated grouping of the worst of humanity, but it's not representative of humanity as a whole!
There are millions upon millions of good things happening all across the world at any given moment. The fact that our media sources choose not to focus on them is purely an attempt to play on our fears and convince us that we must continue to partake in their grim-fests.
Humanity, as a whole, is a positive, good, and caring community. People, in general, are more good than bad. In the movie Silverado, the character of Paden, played by Kevin Kline, says "I figure you might as well go through life thinking everyone's your friend or nobody is. Either way is doesn't make much difference." So, why not think everyone's your friend until you prove otherwise? It's just as easy as thinking no one is, and eminently more pleasant.