Earlier in the semester, a former investigative reporter for my local newspaper came and talked to my class about his recent trip to China. He went to learn about the corruption within the Chinese government.

He did however find some evidence. He found limited newspapers, people who knew little about what was happening outside of China, and coverage of the presidential elections that only captured Hillary Clinton.

What he didn't expect to find though, was a country that was so warm and welcoming.

We talked for an hour about Chinese customs, their food, their games. We spoke about how they love to sing in groups in a park across the street from Tiananmen Square. The mandatory retirement age is 60, and grandparents spend their days with other retired folk. Kids love their grandparents with every fiber in their being, and value time with them. Youth value and respect their elders. Schools were filled with students who wanted to learn, not students who were miserable about having to be there.

He said how he couldn't believe that this was a communist country. He couldn't believe that we never heard about the beauty of the Chinese culture in the mainstream media.

Why not, though?

One student in my class mentioned how it doesn't fit the "American" mold of what we report on China. To us, China is only the government, which embodies communism, one of our biggest enemies. Another mentioned how news about the elderly doesn't interest him.

While I can see where they are coming from, most of the class was so enamored by our guest speaker's stories.

We could learn so much about the beauty of not just Chinese culture, but other cultures if it was more widely reported in the mainstream media. With so much negative in the world, why couldn't we report more on beautiful cultures and customs of foreign lands?

To learn both sides of a culture is to understand its people. By only reporting the negative of the land, we are only showing the masses the ugly side of the world, and let's face it, America has plenty of ugly too. It would be disheartening to know that only the bad about your country is being broadcasted worldwide when there is so much good within it.

The mainstream media is a valuable tool in informing the people. I wish we could use the media as a way to unite the people and educate, instead of causing polarization and such hatred. It would be lovely to see positivity on the screen instead of negativity. The world might just find out we have more in common with one another than we once thought.