Constructive journalism

Constructive journalism is an emerging domain within journalism that is slowly getting grounded within academia 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 intelligent. By giving more background and also reporting what is going good, so that people are more able to create a realistic view of the world. Instead of only reporting the issues, with constructive journalism the journalist also addresses what the consumer can do with the information. What can I do to change it? etc.

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 journalist, 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.

It aims to avoid a negativity bias and incorporates findings from positive psychology research to produce novel frameworks for journalism. Therefore, instead of solely reporting on conflicts and problems, constructive journalism aims to gain a more comprehensive portrayal of the issues at hand. 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. Constructive journalism aims 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. The world's first Ph.D. dissertation on constructive journalism was completed at the School of Journalism and Mass Communication at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, by Karen McIntyre.

According to the Danish journalist Cathrine Gyldensted, the Canadian family systems therapist Karl Tomm's four types of therapeutic questioning can be adopted into an interview approach that can also be used by journalists. Tomm's original framework provides four types of questions a therapist can use in psychotherapy sessions to bring about positive therapeutic outcomes from clients. By using the same model in journalism, similarly constructive answers could be obtained from the interviewee.

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