Constructive journalism

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Constructive journalism is a domain within journalism that is grounded within academia^[1][2] and involves the field of communication that is based around reporting solution-focused news, instead of revolving only around negative and conflict-based stories. The idea behind constructive journalism is to give stories more context and make the consumer of the news more informed by portraying the world more accurately by adding nuances, context, progress and solutions. By giving more background and also reporting what is going well, so that people are more able to create a realistic view of the world. Instead of only reporting the issues, some practitioners of constructive journalism also addresses what the consumer can do with the information, such as how they might take action on the issue. The domain should be seen as an umbrella where different experimentation takes place, from more classic, conservative applications to more progressive and experimental applications often seen in newer newsrooms like De Correspondent, (NL) or Correctiv (DE).

The journalist does not reflect his or her opinion and also does not render or implement what those solutions are, but tries to inform the society of what solutions there might be. Pioneers of constructive journalism say that as a journalist you have a big impact on the way people think, because of the way you construct the news. Journalists need to be aware of that responsibility more by being more careful in the way they construct their stories. They think that many journalists, who use a very cynical way of reporting the news, forget that by reporting everything that is going wrong from a distance, they also move the society.^[3][4]

It aims to avoid a negativity bias and incorporates findings from positive psychology research to produce novel frameworks for journalism.^[5] Therefore, instead of solely reporting on conflicts and problems, constructive journalism aims to gain a more comprehensive portrayal of the issues at hand.^[6] It aims to expose core causes of problems but also to report on emerging ideas and developments to shift society towards more impartial and sustainable paths.^[7] Constructive journalism aims to express how change is possible and highlights the role each member of society may play to foster it. Additionally, it strives to strengthen the ethics code of journalism by avoiding the distortion of information in order to provide a more real portrayal of the world. Constructive journalism attempts to create an engaging narrative that is factually correct without exaggerating numbers or realities. ^[1] The world's first Ph.D. dissertation on constructive journalism^[8] was completed at the School of Journalism and Mass Communication at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, in 2015, by Karen McIntyre.^[9]