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New book urges news consumers to change their media diet
As a news consumer and positive psychology researcher, Jodie Jackson was fed up with the relentless negativity she encountered in the news. She set out on a seven-year journey to change her news habits, and find evidence for why you should do the same. The result is her new book, ‘You Are What You Read – Why Changing Your Media Diet Can Change The World’.
Since launching on Unbound’s crowdfunding platform today, the book already raised over 20% of its target to fund the first print run. It comes at a time when a growing number of mainstream media outlets, including The Guardian and the BBC, are publicly committing to producing more solutions-focused, constructive journalism.
Research – conducted by Jodie and many others over the years – shows that the excessive negativity in the news, quite literally, makes us miserable. At best, it leaves us indifferent, but more often than not, it triggers low mood and a passiveness that can even lead to anxiety and depression. But there is another side: more recent studies show that, by contrast, solution-focused news makes us feel more empowered. It helps us believe that our actions are able to make a difference.
In this book, Jackson shows her readers how. First, by understanding the way in which our current 24-hour news is produced. Who decides what ends up on our front pages and in our social media feeds, and why does it matter in the first place? Next, she uncovers a parallel universe, beyond what the news industry refers to as the “good news is no news” principle. Combining well-evidenced research from psychology, sociology and journalism with real-life examples, this book makes a compelling case for the greater inclusion of solutions focused news into our media diet.
“This is not a call to be naïve and ignore the negative. Rather, it asks from us to not ignore the positive”, says Jackson. “For every problem, there is someone, somewhere, trying to do something about it. Or at least thinking about what we should be doing about it. Only by including this ‘What Next’ part of the story will we get to a better place – both in our minds and in the world.”
Reasons to feel constructive about 2018
With the year drawing to a close, we’d like to end on a high.
The last few months have seen an amazing amount of development in the field of constructive journalism globally. We’ve seen constructive journalism mentioned at various industry events in the UK, universities have launched constructive journalism hubs and courses in the Netherlands and we spoke at the world’s first constructive journalism conference in Denmark.
We have also seen trusted colleagues launch more and more platforms for journalists and researchers to discuss and promote constructive journalism across Europe and the US, and we’ve been working with incredible press freedom organisations to adapt our own training to different international contexts, including for conflict regions like Syria.
We are encouraged to see mainstream media adopt and promote constructive journalism. As often, change started within the grassroots, but we need everyone on board to change the industry for good. With big legacy players joining independent media and start-ups, we’re expecting a real drive in consumer demand for more constructive news in the year ahead.
As Guardian editor-in-chief Katharine Viner wrote in an editorial recently:
“If people long to create a better world, then we must use our platform to nurture imagination – hopeful ideas, fresh alternatives, belief that the way things are isn’t the way things need to be. We cannot merely criticise the status quo; we must also explore the new ideas that might displace it. We must build hope.”
On that note, we’d like to wish you all an inspiring, solutions-focused and hopeful New Year!
PS For more on these industry developments, you can view and subscribe to our latest newsletter right here.
Constructive journalism comes to North Africa
Last month our workshop trainer Veronique Mistiaen travelled to Tunisia to introduce correspondents from Egypt, Libya and Tunisia to constructive journalism. Here, she reflects on a full-on weekend in which participants discussed opportunities for a constructive approach to conflict reporting, political debate and social transformation.
“Wouldn’t constructive stories belittle the problems we are facing?” asked the tall Libyan journalist. “If we write stories with a constructive angle, how can we make sure that they won’t be used as propaganda by the regime?” the thoughtful Egyptian journalist wanted to know.
These were some of the stimulating questions journalists from Libya, Egypt and Tunisia asked during the very first Constructive Journalism Project workshop in the region.
The political and media landscapes in post-revolutionary North Africa are not only very different from those in the UK and EU, where we have been running our workshops – but they are also different in each of these three countries. This led to very interesting, challenging and passionate discussions.
Nineteen journalists participated in a three-day workshop in Tunis on November 25-28 organised by Media in Cooperation in Transition (MICT), a German non-profit organisation that runs media development projects in crisis regions. In addition to working for various media outlets, many journalists also contribute to Correspondents.org, a bilingual digital magazine (Arabic/English) designed by MiCT to cover three countries.
We began the workshop by analysing the various newspapers and media they work for, discussing the balance or imbalance in the news and its impact on the readers and audiences, on major issues such as migration and climate change and on democracy.
Constructive journalism was a new and rather unfamiliar concept to all participants, but they could see the need for a journalism that moves from the crisis rhetoric, trying instead to capture the complexity of social and political life, reconnecting with communities and reinvigorating our profession.
We then explored practical tools the journalists could use in their own reporting in order to produce stories that are more balanced, explore new angles and possibilities and ask different questions to those in power, the experts and those too often referred to as ‘victims’ without much consideration for their well-being, dignity or resilience.
During our last session the journalists pitched constructive-angled story ideas for Correspondents.com. These included stories on a Libyan port city, where the community and police worked together to drive traffickers out; transitional justice in Tunisia; projects to get young people off drugs in deprived areas in Libya and a profile of a young female hero from Cairo’s Tahrir Square.
“In our country, more than 90 percent of the news is on war and conflicts – who wins and who loses. Everything else is ignored,” a Libyan journalist said. “Now we can change that.”
Q&A with positive news researcher Jodie Jackson
Frustrated with the way mainstream media ignores much of the progress being made in the world, researcher Jodie Jackson embarked on a master’s in positive psychology. Her thesis, titled Publishing the Positive, uncovers the power of positive news. She tells Danielle Batist what she has learned.
Why did you choose to research positive news?
I was interested in researching the psychological impact of the news because of personal experience. I found that my opinions and beliefs were becoming cynical, distrusting and perhaps even paranoid at times, largely due to the relentless focus on problems and the continuous depiction of humanity at its worst.
I was interested in positive psychology and ideas around self-efficacy: a person’s belief in his or her ability to succeed in a particular situation. I realised that negative news was negatively affecting my self-efficacy and I wondered if I could change that.
I began seeking out ‘solutions journalism’ to provide a balance. What began as emotional relief became something quite inspiring. I felt able and motivated to engage with the stories I was reading. Because of my own strong emotional reaction to the news, I wanted to research this further to understand how common this was and pave the way for a collective experience rather than just a personal one.
What surprised you most about your findings?
The aspect that surprised me most was the relationship between people’s motivations for reading solutions-focused news and the consequences of doing so. What I found was that positive news can lead to optimism and those who are optimistic, in turn tend to seek out more positive content.
Some readers say they consume positive news because it fits with their personal values and reinforces the way in which they see the world. Those who consider themselves hopeful, optimistic and believe in their ability and motivation to effect change, will seek out material that is line with their outlook on life. Other readers say that positive news changes the way they see the world and generates feelings of optimism, hope, self-efficacy and a restored faith in humanity.
The suggestion that the categories identified can be both a motivation and a consequence was really significant to me. It supports the idea that increasing consumption of positive news content can create a positive feedback loop.
This is the comparative opposite of the well-documented anxiety feedback loop, that suggests that reading predominantly negative news can lead to anxiety and that those in a state of anxiety may seek out negative news. (This is based on research by Mogg, Mathews and Eysenck carried out in 1992).
This theory is supported by research suggesting that individuals with high optimism or self-efficacy pay more attention to positive stimuli and those with low levels of self-efficacy or low levels of optimism pay more attention to threat-related stimuli. It is exciting to see that the consumption of positive or solutions-focused news can turn this feedback loop into a positive one.
What role could positive news play in the current landscape of divisive politics?
Looking at the world through the lens of the media, we’d not be mad to think it a terrible place and the people in it no better – regardless of our politics. We need the news to help us understand our differences, not sensationalise them for the sake of clickbait.
On a personal level, I’ve consciously chosen to widen my lens when seeking stories about the world. I have been inspired by reports about progress and possibility that create a balanced perspective of the world. I have seen how great people make great people, how wisdom inspires, how compassion heals and how love and respect dissipate hate and ignorance. It is encouraging to see that the research findings support what many audience members instinctively know.
What would you like to see happen next?
I hope my research will help to spark a shift in ordinary people – the ‘consumers’ of news. Media publishers and editors are hugely influenced by consumer demand. This is where I think the real power of my research lies: it speaks to news audiences, not necessarily to industry professionals.
I believe one reason for the continued acceleration of the negativity bias in the news is a lack of accountability. Media outlets can be powerful instruments in helping to correct wrongdoing, investigating problems and exposing them to the public. But while they are formidable forces in holding others to account, they are not always very good at turning the lens on themselves. We have to ask ourselves: who holds the media accountable? I believe we, the consumers, do.
By grasping the psychological impact that news streams have on us, we can move from being merely consumers to becoming conscious consumers. If we create a shift in demand, it could in turn create a shift in supply.
Jodie Jackson is a research associate for the Constructive Journalism Project. She has a master’s degree in positive psychology from the University of East London, where she was awarded a distinction for her thesis, titled Publishing the Positive. Jackson has delivered talks on the psychological impact of the news to journalism students in the UK and at industry conferences internationally.
Disclaimer: The sample for Jackson’s study was made up of readers and journalists of Positive News. The research was conducted independently by her.
Positive news stories bring people together, study finds
Consuming positive news can lead to an increased acceptance of others, a feeling of community and motivation to contribute to social change, new research shows
Titled ‘Publishing the Positive’, the research demonstrates that at a time of divisive politics, positive news stories have the potential to unite, inspire and empower groups of people in society.
Positive psychology researcher Jodie Jackson, who conducted the study at the University of East London, said: “Participants expressed that an excess of negative news led them to see the negative in other people, and feel isolated from society. However, the opposite was experienced when participants read positive news, which created a sense of admiration for other people and ‘restored [their] faith in humanity’.”On an individual level, news stories that focused on solutions were shown to improve wellbeing. They can also boost self-efficacy; a person’s belief in their ability to make a difference.
Another finding was that positive news stories lead to an increase in hope and optimism. This in turn made news consumers more likely to notice positivity and become more solutions-oriented, creating a ‘positive feedback loop’.
Participants in the study reported higher levels of what is known as ‘active coping’: being able to approach and engage with a problem rather than avoiding it. In a media landscape where many audiences avoid news because of an excess of negativity, caused by what Jackson refers to as a “negativity bias”, genuine positive news can engage audiences and empower them to respond to problems.
The sample was made up of readers and journalists of Positive News, a media organisation dedicated to journalism about progress and possibility. Publishing online, and in print as a magazine, Positive News is the longest-established brand of its kind. The organisation is set up as pioneering media co-operative, owned by readers globally.
The research suggests a distinction between the term ‘positive news’ – a reference to the content of what is reported – and the term ‘constructive journalism’, which refers to the way a topic is approached and reported by the journalist.
The research coincides with growing momentum for the constructive journalism movement. Following decades of alternative media beating the drum for a more solutions-oriented journalism, high profile mainstream outlets, including the Guardian and BBC in the UK, and Spiegel Online in Germany, are among those embracing constructive journalism principles.
Jackson states that reporting positive news does not mean journalists ignoring negative news. Rather, it simply requires them to no longer ignore positive elements and, where feasible, to include them within the wider narrative of a story.
“Positive and negative news stories should not compete, but co-exist,” said Jackson. “We need to notice achievements alongside failings in order to understand the world more accurately.”
Disclaimer: Seán Dagan Wood , co-founder of the Constructive Journalism Project, is also Editor-in-Chief of Positive News. This research was conducted independently by Jodie Jackson, with no interference from Positive News or the Constructive Journalism Project, other than to provide open access to its networks of readers and journalists.
Covering solutions: how do you know what works?
It’s one of the questions we often get asked during our courses: once you know the ins and outs of a problem, how do you get ideas for where solutions might be? First of all, we believe that as journalists, we don’t invent solutions. We simply research and report on solutions that are out there, either already happening somewhere in the world, or existing in the minds of experts. Importantly, we believe that experts are not just those in ivory towers, but rather the people on the ground who are affected by the problem. After all, it is in their best interest to solve it and more often than not, they have already taken steps to do so, or at the very least have ideas worth hearing.
A good way to get started when researching constructive stories is by letting different questions guide you. Questions like:
•Who is solving what and how?
•Who is thriving, where is there resilience?
•Where is there creativity, passion and innovation?
•Who has grown, or experienced post-traumatic growth?
•Where is there co-operation and collaboration?
•Where are new possibilities being explored?
•Where is the conventional narrative around this issue being disrupted?
It’s the last question that often sets good constructive stories apart – and make you stand out as a journalist pitching the story to an editor or audience. When done well, constructive journalism shows a different side of the coin. It shows that change is possible, and makes people sit up and take notice. The response we aim for is one of: ‘wow, I had no idea.’ If you can trigger that sense of awe, you not only have a captive audience, but your journalism becomes valuable in more ways than one.
We”ll cover more constructive journalism tools and techniques in our next workshop. Join us on 21 October 2016.
The glass half full approach
“The industry’s focus on bad news is often well intentioned, stemming from an important commitment to being society’s watchdog, However, for the news media as a whole this mentality has gone too far”, said our co-founder Seán Dagan Wood in a Guardian interview recently. He spoke of the “big elephant in the newsroom”: the fact that people are fed up with media negativity.
Through our workshop series at universities and real-world examples at Positive News, we’ve seen the global appetite for constructive journalism grow explosively in recent years.
Initiatives like the Guardian’s new ‘half full’ series show that mainstream media have woken up to the fact that audiences want constructive journalism. And the ongoing demand for our courses for freelancers inspires us to keep spreading our experiences, learnings and research with as many people as we can.
Speaking of which: we’ve just announced our next workshop on Friday 21 October 2016 (booking online). We stay in touch with many of our previous participants, who often embark on exciting constructive journeys. Following journalism entrepreneur Calum in Glasgow, who launched Positively Scottish (we wrote about him here), we also heard from Jane in Wales, who was on the workshop last year:
“I attended your course in June last year and found it very inspiring. Since then I have started a blog and published various articles about food. I’m drawing particularly on our Food Values project (…) to see how we can use food to engage with positive values and transform society.”
And Sian, who was on our summer workshop last month, kindly informed us she’d written about the course on her website. She refers to an example clip we discussed of 6-year old children playing news presenters and seemingly naturally making up terrible and tragic events:
“At the beginning of the course, we drew a mind map of ‘how the news makes us feel’. Common key words were powerless, anxious, sad, angry, confused…You get the idea. Constructive journalism aims to leave the reader inspired, motivated, informed and empowered. As the next generation of journalists, creators and leaders, it’s important to remember that the news, the media and the messages we are sending out are shaping our world view, and ultimately our world. If we keep sending out negative messages, our world view and perspective will be negative. If we can begin to inspire feelings of hope, empowerment and change, maybe the next generation of six year olds will have a kinder world to re-enact.”
We couldn’t agree more.
Former workshop participant starts ‘Positively Scottish’
One of the things we love most at the Constructive Journalism Project is connecting with changemakers in media all around the world. Our workshops attract a wide range of entrepreneurs, who often use the session to kick-start their own constructive journalism ventures.
Glaswegian Calum Macdonald is one such ‘journopreneur’. After attending our workshop in February this year, he went on to launch Positively Scottish in June. The solutions-focused online magazine runs as a social enterprise. Just one month in, Macdonald reports “good early traffic, decent sign-ups, and no shortage of stories”. Time for a catch up with Calum, to see how he combines his experience as digital editor of the Herald and Times Group in Glasgow with the constructive approach to journalism he now takes.
What inspired you to launch Positively Scottish?
I’ve been a journalist for 30+ years in Scotland and lived through the good times for the media industry. Now mainstream publishers are in deep trouble, my hunch is there’s space to do things differently: by using the traditional tools of robust, independent journalism to find stories about people – but adding a new dimension for an audience that clearly seeks positive, constructive alternatives, especially online. And that creates new work opportunities.
Why do you think there is a need for constructive journalism in Scotland in particular?
The Scottish media’s legendary, core strength in print has always been a local readership, based on cities and towns. In a digital age, a truly pan-Scottish publication can appeal to readers across the country – and the millions of expats – who share the recognisable national values of compassion and a communitarian approach to problems. So telling constructive stories is both a need and an opportunity for us.
How did the course benefit you in launching the platform?
It reinforced my sense of purpose, and helped convince me I wasn’t alone! I’m acutely conscious that what we’re all doing is breaking a very entrenched mould, so mutual support is really beneficial.
How did you go about launching it, particularly in finding the start-up costs and content?
I had very positive (sorry!) feedback from colleagues and friends, and then from trusted third parties and potential editorial partners. Content’s not an issue – we’ve got a team of 15-20 freelances, a great mix of some experienced hands and a group of keen young graduates we can help shape. Funding – I’m in the fortunate position of having an inheritance from my late father, so I’ve set up a legacy fund in his name which will pay for at least one story a day for phase 1, as we try to prove there’s an audience. I wrote more about this on Medium.
Positively Scottish is a social enterprise- why did you decide that and how do you plan sustainability?
Put bluntly, I think the commercial model for all but a few media giants is fundamentally broken. Being a not-for-profit perfectly fits the social values of Positively Scottish – and I suspect makes us more attractive to both readers and editorial partners. Three potential funding streams, assuming we can deliver a signed-up audience and good traffic: editorial partnerships with (mainly) third sector groups who want to share their brand with those readers; voluntary subscriptions; and grant/philanthropic funding.
What are your aspirations for the platform?
To become one of the first online sites in the world which marries positive/constructive/
