Can We Change the News for Good?, organised by Action for Happiness, will take place at 7pm on 25 March at Conway Hall in Holborn, London. Both Positive News editor Seán Dagan Wood and the newspaper’s patron, former BBC news presenter Martyn Lewis, will offer insight into what has become an increasingly popular topic.

While Positive News has pioneered a credible, positive journalism approach for 22 years, debate about the role of media in society was reinvigorated by a recent BBC Radio 4 documentary. Good News is No News charted the rise of a wave of alternative media outlets which are challenging ingrained ideas of how the media should be. And even the mainstream press is now taking note.

Wood said it is an exciting time for discussion.

“When society faces deep crises but is making progress on many fronts and holds so much potential, a more balanced approach in the press can create a fertile ground for society to respond to its challenges in an empowered way.

“If we want a happier and more caring society, we need more balanced news.”

“Digital technologies are disrupting the media industry while evidence is showing that positive stories are in demand, can engage audiences more and benefit society.”

The approach championed by Positive News chimes with Mark Williamson, director of Action for Happiness. His organisation provides resources to a growing movement of people who are committed to creating a happier and more caring society.

“Action for Happiness has convened this event because we sense that people are absolutely fed up with a constant diet of negative and cynical news,” he explained.

“They don’t want more fluffy ‘cat rescued from tree’ stories – but they want the news to be more balanced and to include coverage of constructive and empowering stories alongside the more negative news, which of course must still be reported.”

But a solely negatively-focused media, Williamson said, has a “toxic and detrimental impact” on national wellbeing.

“It heightens our anxiety and reduces our levels of trust and social cohesion. If we want a happier and more caring society, we need more balanced news. So it’s great to see publications like Positive News taking forward this debate and helping to change the news.”

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“While positive stories used to be relegated to the ‘and finally’ slot,” added Wood, “other media are now following our example.

“They are realising that we can report positive developments in a rigorous and compelling way and that there is a huge desire from people to have access to a more inspiring lens on the world.”

Can We Change the News for Good? takes place at Conway Hall in Holborn, London on 25 March at 7pm. Find out more and order tickets here.

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Manuel Chavajay and Rebecca Wilcox: This Might Be a Place for Hummingbirds

Despite 8,000km stretching between Guatemala and Scotland, two artists will both consider the similarities between their hometown communities. Manuel Chavajay paints indigenous memories on shops in San Pedro de Laguna using the original Mayan language of Tz’utujil. Both Chavajay and Glasgow’s Rebecca Wilcox will create newly commissioned pieces on translating issues in both countries and locating the space where language, experience and violence coalesce.

CCA, Glasgow until 18 January
More information: www.cca-glasgow.com

By William Morris

Love is Enough

Artist Jeremy Deller turns curator to unite mammoths of the art world: the mythic decorative beauty of William Morris and the bright surface sheen of Andy Warhol. Deller spent two weeks with Warhol at the Factory in 1986 and his recent Biennale show paid homage to Morris’ socialist politics, depicting the Victorian artist hurling an Abramovich yacht (this piece can be seen at Turner Contemporary until 11 January). Both artists were committed to collaborations and their work, expansive networks and production techniques redefined the 19th and 20th centuries. A mighty pairing.

Modern Art Oxford, Oxford until 8 March
More information: www.modernartoxford.org.uk

© The Estate of Sire Terry Frost

Terry Frost: Eleven Poems by Federico Garcia Lorca

Terry Frost’s (1915-2003) long career in painting began after he was taken prisoner during the second world war, he also first encountered poetry at the frontline, igniting a love affair with the writing of Federico Garcia Lorca. Five decades after Lorca was killed by Pro-Franco militias in the Spanish civil war, Frost created a series of etchings mostly in his ‘prime colours’ – red, black and white – inspired by the writer. Shapes splash and rush around the paper, echoing the pace and violence of Lorca’s most popular pieces.

Pallant House Gallery, Chichester until February
More information: www.pallant.org.uk

Work by Willem de Rooij © Max McClure

Willem de Rooij/Fujiko Nakaya: Fog Bridge

Global outpourings of emotion are exposed in de Rooij’s large-scale installation Index: Riots, Protest, Mourning and Commemoration. Eighteen panels hold a selection of photographs cut from newspapers from January 2000 – July 2002. The pictures come without a provenance, time, description or reference to the original articles. Images of nameless firefighters, freedom fighters, supporters, mourners and marchers democratise grief, presenting a global perspective on images in the media.

Arnolfini, Bristol until 8 February

Fujiko Nakaya has played with weather for decades, creating artificial phenomena from Japan to Spain, obstructing and revealing fields and forests, public plazas and parking garages and now Pero’s Bridge, Bristol, is to be engulfed in her trademark sculptural material of choice: clouds of fog.

Arnolfini, Bristol 12 -23 February
More information: www.arnolfini.org.uk

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Media and communications industry leaders, thinkers and innovators from around the world will gather in Washington DC this November for the Transformational Media Summit, an event focused on how storytelling and the media can create positive change in our lives.

Following on from the inaugural London summit, held in September 2012, this year’s event will bring together speakers and attendees from a variety of backgrounds including film, photography, journalism, music, technology, business and economics. Workshops and talks will cover areas such as constructive journalism, the power of storytelling, sustainable business, health, wellbeing and mindfulness.

Organisers hope to see affiliated events such as film screenings and discussion groups held around the world in the week leading up to the main summit on 1 November. Attendees that complete a preliminary workshop at the UN Foundation on 31 October will also earn a certificate from the UPEACE Centre for Executive Education.

“We have a unique opportunity now to harness the tools of media to support individual and collective transformation.”

Speakers at the summit include industry leaders and sustainable business professionals such as UN Foundation vice president for communications Aaron Sherinian, ABC News anchor Dan Harris and Positive News editor Seán Dagan Wood.

Wood said: “We are now surrounded by a constant deluge of information, so we have to ask questions about how it affects us and about what information is really valuable.”

“Realising the power of the stories we tell, and the impact of the way in which we tell them, people in the media industries are increasingly looking to create media with purpose and values,” Wood added. “At a time when we face significant economic, social and environmental challenges, we have a unique opportunity now to harness the tools of media to support individual and collective transformation.”

The summit is intended to bring together people from around the world who understand that the narratives we create can shape the world we share, said summit coordinator and Ideal Media founder Jeremy Wickremer.

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“By working together to create new, better narratives for our lives, for business and society we can bring these stories into reality,” Wickremer said. “By gathering people and organisations from across sectors that are connecting the dots between interrelated issues and looking at the big picture for collective good, the summit hopes to create lasting impactful change.”

The Transformational Media Summit has partnered with a number of organisations including Girl Up, a youth campaign that supports UN programmes serving adolescent girls in developing countries. During the summit the UN foundation will also host a working session of change-making organisations and individuals to discuss collaboration and partnerships for good causes.

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Ten minutes after Positive Money’s third annual conference opens and I’m sneaking my way through the already packed hall of people, following the smell of fresh coffee, but eager to get to my seat and to the answer to the question on everybody’s lips – just what are we supposed to do about this financial mess?

The trouble with money

Speaking to a sold-out crowd of nearly 300 people, director of Positive Money and Positive News columnist Ben Dyson explains that at the moment, 97% of our money supply is created by private banks as debt, leaving just 3% to be created by the Bank of England in the way most people assume all of it is – printed and minted as physical notes and coins.

The problems with letting banks create money in this way are manifold, but can be summed up by pointing to the recent financial crisis and our ongoing (double dip, triple dip?) recession – asset bubbles, inflation and an economy saddled with debt.

Full-reserve banking

The solution? Don’t let private banks create money. Simples. Over the course of the day, the team from Positive Money drip-feed their solution into our waiting ears through talks, guest speakers and video footage from MPs and academics who support their cause, including Caroline Lucas and Herman Daly.

Instead of letting private banks create money, the Positive Money reforms would entrust the creation of any new money to an independent committee at the Bank of England, and also mandate a policy of ‘full-reserve banking’. This way banks can only loan out the same amount of money as they have in savings.

New money created by the Bank of England would be transferred directly to a government cash account and spent as any other government money would be – whether given back to citizens as a tax cut, spent into circulation through capital spending and wages, or used to pay down our ever-mounting pile of national debt.

Campaigning for change

But instead of just telling us what they think, Positive Money takes the opportunity to mine their audience for information. Through two breakout sessions, our hosts encourage us to brainstorm how they can best engage new supporters and make such complex ideas relevant to people’s lives.

It’s clear from the conference turnout that the three years of hard work Positive Money has already put into this campaign is definitely starting to pay off. And the movement is growing: Positive Money now has over 10,000 supporters on their mailing list – over 8,000 on Facebook and nearly 4,000 on Twitter. Local Positive Money groups are springing up all over the UK and across the world, from the USA to New Zealand.

Excited by the conference turnout, Ben tells us: “This is the biggest gathering of people that I know of, worldwide, that have come together to talk about this issue.”

2013: a turning point?

As the conference draws to a close, Ben declares: “this is going to be a really big year in pushing this [idea] out to people.” Indeed, thumbing through a copy of his new book, Modernising Money, on the train home, I become more and more confident that he might just be right.

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Did you know that, according to official records, the speed of light changed by 20km between 1928 and 1945?

In 1972, the scientific community fixed the figure at just under 300,000 km per second and it looks set to stay at that measurement forever, according to research scientist Rupert Sheldrake. But, speaking at an event in East London in January 2013, Sheldrake revealed that the speed of light in fact regularly fluctuates.

This was one of many fascinating insights to emerge at TEDxWhitechapel, a conference about challenging ideas of what is real, fixed and possible in the world, which took place on 12 January 2013.

With the subtitle Visions for Transition: Challenging Existing Paradigms and Redefining Values (For a More Beautiful World), the event hosted a range of speakers who revealed the transformations that can happen when we break down our assumptions and belief systems, and follow our hearts.

The TED (Technology, Entertainment and Design) events are a global network of conferences, which began in 1984 and feature short talks that are also broadcasted online. The events have become known for conceptualising world-changing ideas and many of the videos – of which there are now more than 1,400 – notch up thousands and sometimes millions of views.

The Whitechapel event, at Toynbee Studios, was a TEDx conference – independently organised events affiliated to the official TED conferences that take place in the US and Scotland each year.

“We organised this event because we’ve been through anger, despair and dissolution, with seemingly intractable changes before us and can see clearly that governments and world leaders are failing to address the situation,” we were told by the three young women – university students – who orchestrated the sold-out event.

“People working in oil, consultancy, banking, permaculture and health, young and old, are here today, united by the desire for a better world”

“It’s easy to dismiss this as naive young idealism, but people working in oil, consultancy, banking, permaculture and health, young and old, are here today, united by the desire for a better world and the deep intrinsic knowledge that we can do better than this,” they added.

Satish Kumar, editor of Resurgence & Ecologist magazine and founder of Schumacher College – an international centre for ecological studies – set the scene with an illuminating story showing the disconnection between the financial system and the ecological world.

“Not long ago I was invited to speak at the London School of Economics,” said Kumar. “I was honoured that such an established university was inviting me. I asked the professor chairing the meeting where the department of ecology was. But they didn’t have one.

“Do you understand the meaning of the words ecology and economy?” Kumar asked the puzzled professor.

“No wonder that the world economy is in a mess, because they don’t know what they are managing,” he said to the TEDx audience, explaining that there can be no disconnection between the natural world and the system used to manage its resources.

Kumar said UK universities should follow Bhutan’s example – the country that measures gross national happiness rather than gross domestic product (GDP) and also teaches students this ethos.

Understanding what makes us, our fellow citizens and our planet happy, and understanding how we all connect to each other was a thread that ran through the day.

But biochemist Rupert Sheldrake believes the way many people treat science as a ‘world view’ is hindering a genuine investigation and understanding of our universe and how we all connect to each other.

“The science delusion is that science already understands the nature of reality in principle, leaving only the details to be filled in – this is a very widespread belief in our society,” said Sheldrake. “It’s the kind of belief system of people who say, I don’t believe in God, I believe in science.

“But, there’s a conflict in the heart of science, between science as a method of inquiry based on reason, evidence, hypothesis and collective investigation, and science as a belief system or a world view. And unfortunately, the world view aspect of science has come to inhibit and constrict the free inquiry which is the very lifeblood of the scientific endeavour,” he suggested.

The 70-year-old has a double first class honours and a PhD in biochemistry and won the University Botany Prize at Clare College, Cambridge. In his book, The Science Delusion, Sheldrake analyses ten ‘dogmas’,or assumptions about life and the world, and questions them using scientific principles. “None of them stand up very well,” he said.

“We need to question the agendas behind our education, our culture, the media, religious institutions and the political and economic ideologies that underpin our lives” – Raoul Martinez, film-maker

The dogmas include the notion that nature and humans are mechanical-like, that matter is unconscious, that the laws of nature are fixed, that the total amount of matter and energy is always the same, that nature is purposeless, that any psychic phenomenon is impossible and that mechanistic medicine is the only medicine that really works.

“These assumptions are the basis of our educational system, the NHS, the Medical Research Council, the government and many others, but I think every one of these dogmas is very, very questionable. When you look at them scientifically, they fall apart,” he said.

Sheldrake told the Whitechapel audience that such a dogmatic view of our world does not give the opportunity to see the underlying connections to each other, plants, animals and the living environment itself, and that this inhibits us in moving towards a better world.

In a passionately delivered talk, author Graham Hancock echoed Sheldrake’s call for a re-examination of our collective assumptions about ourselves and the world, saying that “consciousness is the greatest mystery of science.”

New understandings

If Sheldrake questioned widely held views about science, the artist and documentary film-maker Raoul Martinez equally unsettled our preconceptions by questioning our ideas about each other.

People are not born free, he believes – they do not choose their genes or the environment they are born into, whether they are born into a poor or rich family, into a war zone, or into a certain religion.

He suggested an Israeli and Palestinian, for example, would be on the other’s side if they were swapped at birth. He also spoke about a true story of a man who developed paedophilic tendencies when he had a brain tumour, but who no longer had those tendencies once the tumour was removed.

Martinez said we are taught to blame people and hold them to account, but to do this means we can be in a dangerous position of just writing people off and not trying to understand why people are like they are and what forces they have acting upon them.

“We have to ask why we have the habits we have and, crucially, whose interests do they serve? It once served the interest of monarchs to spread among their subjects the divine right of kings, and the interests of imperialists to spread the idea of racial superiority. Our patriotism, consumerism, materialism and religious loyalty are not inevitable, they’re learned.

“We need the tools to make our own discoveries and to question the agendas behind our education, our culture, the media, religious institutions and the political and economic ideologies that underpin our lives … the American dream tells us anyone can become rich and those that do, deserve it, and those that don’t only have themselves to blame. As it happens, this incoherent view of thinking makes it far easier to justify inequalities of wealth, power and opportunity.”

He believes that understanding the forces that shape people is an important step in being able to be compassionate towards others. It is from a point of compassion that we can then begin to shape the world, rather than it just shaping us.

In a similar way, schoolteacher and co-founder of the Mindfulness in Schools Project, Richard Burnett, revealed how we can each learn simple ways to bring more awareness to how we respond to our everyday experiences. “Our mental health and wellbeing are profoundly affected by where and how we place our attention,” he said.

“It is from a point of compassion that we can then begin to shape the world, rather than it just shaping us”

So what happens when we feel freer and more aware of who or what is influencing our lives? Ideally, people would feel able to move towards a more genuine existence, where they can find their purpose and “give their gift” to the world, as the headline speaker, Charles Eisenstein, put it.

Sexual health, spiritual and wellbeing coach, Ella Lauser, said allowing herself to be endlessly curious led her to find her purpose. Speaking on stage, she encouraged us to use our intuition and follow our hearts so we too could give our gift.

Likewise, Polly Higgins, the activist and barrister known as a ‘lawyer for the Earth’, told the audience to “dare to be great” and talked about the importance of taking time out in nature to let our minds wander and explore new ideas about our purpose.

The day’s surprise guest, anthropologist David Graeber, in turn explained how creative solutions to world problems are not lacking, but that structures of social inequality are the barrier, while entrepreneur Patrick Andrews called for human values at the core of business, and Tim ‘Mac’ Macartney stressed the importance of “dreamers and poets as well as the doers” in the world.

A selection of artists interspersed the talks beautifully, including storyteller Ben MacFadyen; musician Cosmo Sheldrake, who entertained the audience with an impressive bag of improvised vocal sounds; hang player Kim Riccelli; the Feral Theatre Group; and the insightful and hilarious spoken word poet Lula Edmonds.

Finding purpose

So what is your purpose? What is your gift? The audience were prompted to ask themselves and each other these questions throughout the day.

Eisenstein, the author of Sacred Economics, encouraged us to do what feels right in our hearts. “Our hearts know that a more beautiful world is possible; I’m sure you’ve had that feeling many times here today,” he said. “But our minds do not know how it’s possible. Our minds cannot see how to get from here to there, because our understanding of causality doesn’t allow for a path from here to there.”

He encouraged us not to try to force others to change their way of thinking and not to view people working in large corporations, for example, as ‘evil CEO monsters’.

“What happens if we act from love, and we act from understanding that this person is like me, that person has a gift to give to the world and will not feel happy unless he or she is giving that gift?” he asked.

Disarming people with understanding, forgiveness and generosity weakens the old understanding of the world as a place of competitive self-interest and offers an alternative, believes Eisenstein. And, as their world of ‘business as usual’ continues to fall apart, they’ll be ready to try something new, he said.

Finally, Eisenstein said that we shouldn’t think it a waste of time to ‘preach to the converted’ or ‘speak to the choir’ at an event like TEDxWhitechapel. “The choir makes beautiful music together and when a lot of us sing, the world will be able to hear it,” he said warmly.

The videos of talks from the day will be uploaded to the TED website in February 2013

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Combining a focus on wellbeing and healing with electronic dance music may have seemed an ambitious idea at first. But as DJs, musicians, spiritual teachers and spoken word artists gathered at The Big Om to perform sound healing compositions together for the first time, the atmosphere among the crowd was palpably elevated and open-hearted.

At the sold-out event on 12 December 2012, revellers gathered in the vividly coloured Zu Studios arts venue in Lewes to celebrate what they saw as the beginning of a new era for humanity.

The Big Om was an alcohol- and drug-free event that culminated in a half-hour long collective chant of the sound ‘Om’, considered to be sacred in a number of belief systems and regarded by some as the primary sound of the universe. The event was broadcast live online, with people linking up globally to join in the chant.

The date of the event was specifically chosen in anticipation of the end of the Mayan Long Count calendar on 21 December 2012.

The Big Om was instigated by Barefoot Doctor, a sound healer and practitioner of Taoism, who said he spontaneously heard the Om sound – which he describes as “a background radiation wave” – as a child.

“I had a vision while living with the Hopis 30 years ago, to create a mass sound healing and electronic music event and to take it round the world,” said Barefoot Doctor. “It embodies my deepest desire to contribute something huge and healing to the world by creating a positive happening that reverberates far and wide.”

A massive fire pit outside the entrance crackled, warmly welcoming the audience as we walked in to the sound of an autoharp being played. Om symbols hung from the ceiling as kaleidoscopic lighting caught the eye and the rabbit warren-like spaces and cosy alcoves inspired heartfelt conversations.

A blessing from medicine woman Ju2 set the tone for the journey ahead. In the build-up to the ‘Om’ itself, performers included Katie Rose, a spiritual songstress who enchanted the crowd; DJ Golly, who mesmerised with a mantra dance, and author and F**k It retreats leader John C Parkin, who gave a punk-spiritual set of songs.

Jamie Catto made the air stand still with a spoken word intervention and the ‘laughter yogi’ Joe Hoare got everyone laughing and hugging, while hip-hop poet Sonny Green showed his freestyle skills and Hofer66 brought the sonic chi of Ibiza.

Between each act, Barefoot Doctor provided a shamanic narrative, gradually bringing everyone to a single focus: to send a healing sound wave out to all the world.

Then Basement Jaxx and their brilliant percussionist Ollie, master sound-toner Tim Wheater, Katie Rose and Barefoot Doctor took to the stage, and the ‘Om’ began.

Once Barefoot Doctor got the crowd ready, the incredible, pulsing, compelling Om-scape soundtrack, which he produced with Felix from Basement Jaxx, started up and the chanting began.

With microphones on the crowd, the sound was fed through a specially built processor to preclude feedback, add sub-bass and amplify the sound. The sound was powerful and otherworldly, lasting a full 36 minutes – 12 minutes for each 12 in the date 12/12/12.

There was then one minute’s silence before Basement Jaxx performed their DJ set and everyone celebrated on the dance floor.

Finally, Adam Freeland played a take-it-to-the-sky closing set with a whole new raft of music using Om sounds and healing frequencies and blew what was left of my mind. And all this without drugs or alcohol.

Speaking at the event, Felix Buxton from Basement Jaxx said they hoped to be part of similar events in the future: “The Big Om vibe, this whole sound healing scene, it’s the first time we’ve performed live with Barefoot Doctor and it’s been an incredible journey. It’s an alcohol-free zone which is being respected this evening, and it’s fantastic because everyone is just here, being their true selves, definitely more of the same for 2013.”

Proceeds from the event went to two charities: Nordoff Robbins national music therapy charity and a local charity, Alala, which supports orphaned children affected by natural disasters.

A larger Big Om event is being planned in London this year.

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Titled Sacred Economics and Sacred Law, the event will feature Higgins and Eisenstein speaking about their life paths, current work and their visions for the future.

Charles Eisenstein is a public speaker and the author of Sacred Economics. His work focuses on the idea of the gift economy. Polly Higgins is a self-proclaimed lawyer for the Earth and campaigner for Eradicating Ecocide, an organisation working towards giving rights to the Earth.

The event takes place on Friday 2 November from 6:30-8:30pm at the BPP Law School in Holborn.

There is no set price for tickets, however donations are requested.

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