Most people hear about bad things happening around the world but don’t feel much because the events feel distant. What if there were an Empathy News Channel that retold world news as if those events happened in your own city?

For example: instead of reporting, “A market bombing killed 15 people in [country],” it might say, “A market bombing killed 15 people at [your local shopping mall].”

The idea is not to mislead — the channel would be completely upfront about what it’s doing — but to help viewers imagine what these events would actually feel like if they happened close to home, and therefore build more empathy for people who live through them elsewhere.

Do you think such an empathy news channel would be effective in making you care more about global tragedies?