Constructive journalism: What it is and how to do it

A brief history of constructive journalism

Constructive journalism has its roots in the peace journalism movement, a framework conceptualised by Norwegian sociologist Johan Vincent Galtung in the mid-20th century as a reaction to war journalism, coverage which was biassed towards violence and conflicts.

It is a broad school which covers more niche concepts such as solutions journalism and other kinds of slow news journalism that focus less on the here and now and more on the future. It aims to be calm, fact-based and oriented towards resolving conflicts rather than creating them.

The biggest push for constructive journalism in the 21st century was started in Denmark by, among others, Cathrine Gyldensted, credited with coining the term, and Ulrik Haagerup, a public broadcaster executive director who went on to found the Constructive Institute in Aarhus.

How do I get started? 

Sweden’s public broadcaster SVT has been working with constructive journalism tools since 2009 and recently decided to make it part of their overall company strategy. I asked Anne Lagercrantz, head of news, for her top advice for constructive journalism beginners.

Her advice suggests it doesn’t have to be difficult: “Start by asking fairly simple questions such as: what happens afterwards? Are there possible solutions? Has anyone else had the same problem and solved it? Why hasn’t it been done this time? Do these solutions have limitations?”

SVT’s transformation was started by the foreign news director at the time, Ingrid Thörnqvist, after professor Hans Rosling – world-renowned for using user-friendly statistics to explain the state of global health – was invited to speak to their newsroom, only to tell them off in no uncertain terms.

“You journalists don’t understand anything about what’s really going on in the world. You only report on war and misery, about diseases and starvation. But the world doesn’t look like that,” he said.

Instead of taking a binary approach where the news is “good” or “bad”, constructive journalism complicates the narrative (an expression used by the Solutions Journalism Network, which focuses on solutions journalism, a niche within constructive journalism – read more here).

Just as constructive journalism aims to reflect the full breadth of news, it aims to reflect the full diversity of the population in terms of, for example, education, origin and gender. It takes extra care to move beyond “the usual suspects” and include a range of voices in its reporting.

Three things to do today:

• What now? Don’t just focus on past and current events, ask what happens next

• Include more voices or voices you usually don’t include

• Ask questions you usually don’t ask. Aim to complicate the narrative

How do I level up? 

There’s no limit to how constructive you can make your journalism or newsroom.

SVT sets targets for how much constructive journalism they produce across both their televised programmes and their digital site, and regularly evaluates the results, Lagercrantz explains.

“Few things are as much in demand. When we have coffee with the audience one of the most common remarks is that we’re so negative that they turn us off. They feel hopeless and everything is dark. That’s also reflected in research into so-called news avoiders or casual users,” she says.

“We want to use constructive journalism to make an effort to offer more perspectives and nuances. Yes, the world can be dark, and we should cover that, but humans are astonishingly good at finding ways forward. Reality also includes solutions and hope. We should cover that, too.”

Since the turn of the year, constructive journalism has been part of SVT’s overall strategy, and the newsroom holds annual internal awards for the best constructive journalism they’ve produced.

They’ve also created a new spin-off of their flagship current affairs programme Agenda, which instead of putting politicians head-to-head puts research and solutions at the front and centre. In Agenda Utmaningen (“Agenda – The Challenge”), researchers are asked about a problem such as energy supply or the climate crisis and politicians are encouraged to agree on a solution.

“It became a completely new kind of current affairs show and the response was incredibly good,” says Lagercrantz, naming the show as one of the constructive projects she’s especially proud of.

Three things to do next:

• Reward constructive journalism in your newsroom

• Measure the performance of constructive stories

• Make constructive journalism part of all your journalism, not just its own segment

Pitfalls – mistakes to avoid

While it may make sense for some newsrooms to brand constructive journalism as its own separate segment when starting out, leaving it in its own little silo is often a mistake.

“We think constructive journalism is different from other kinds of journalism. It is not. It’s about using journalistic methods to seek out the truth, and to critically and with nuance highlight possible solutions,” says Lagercrantz, adding that constructive journalism “looks towards the future”.

The perhaps most common mistake is to think that constructive journalism is positive news. There may well be a place for positive news in the media, but it is not the same as constructive news. The latter aims to broaden the narrative, not narrow it to advocacy or feel-good stories.

In fact, as Lagercrantz argues, “constructive journalism presupposes that there is a problem”.

If you plan to measure the effects of your constructive journalism, make sure you’re clear about what metrics you’re measuring and how they can be linked to your constructive project. It can generate more conversions, but a lot of the time the change happens over time and its effects are hard to confirm, such as increased loyalty, trust in the news or feeling empowered.

A qualitative reader survey, carried out at the start and a while into the project, may be more useful than a short-term look at reach (which is often biassed in favour of negative stories) or conversions.

Three things not to do:

• Think that constructive journalism is the same as positive news
• Separate constructive journalism from the rest of your journalism
• Expect to see quick results

Where can I find out more?

The Constructive Journalism Institute, based at Aarhus University in Denmark, is one of the founding and leading voices on constructive journalism.

The Bonn Institute was established by public and private stakeholders, including Deutsche Welle, in 2022 to foster constructive journalism in Germany and beyond. Here’s their English-language newsletter.

This panel from the 2023 International Journalism Festival in Perugia hears from three female founders who chose to put a constructive strategy at the heart of their news organisations.

Listen to Cathrine Gyldensted speak about the need for constructive elements in journalism at a TEDx Talk in 2016 here.

Spanish-speaking readers may be interested in the Instituto de Periodismo Constructivo, which offers training workshops and promotes solutions-focused reporting.

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