People are risk averse and therefore think it more important to be informed about bad things that are happening and could happen to them?
As a former journalist these two quotes sum things up:
1)'tell me something positive i'll write you a paragraph'
2)'tell me something negative and i'll write you a page'
It might be always positive like news in DPRK, but seriously,
it does not matter positive or negative - as soon as they do not touch real issues (healthcare, fraud in courts etc.)