From mirrors to movers pdf full

FROM MIRRORS TO MOVERS FIVE ELEMENTS of

POSITIVE PSYCHOLOGY in

CONSTRUCTIVE JOURNALISM

Cathrine Gyldensted

Copyright Š 2015 by Cathrine Gyldensted No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise), without the prior written permission of the author of this book. The scanning, uploading, and distribution of this book via the Internet or via any other means without the permission of the author is illegal and punishable by law. Please purchase only authorized electronic editions and do not participate in or encourage electronic piracy of copyrightable materials. Your support of the author´s rights is appreciated.

Publisher: GGroup Publishing, 1st. edition, 2015 ISBN-13: 978-1514777497 ISBN-10: 1514777495

Cathrine Gyldensted is the initiator of applying positive psychology and related fields to the innovation of journalism. She has pioneered constructive journalism methodologies since 2011 and works with media companies and journalism schools globally. Many portrayed in this book. She has co-authored “En Konstruktiv Nyhed” (Constructive News, 2012) and “Handbook of Constructive Journalism” (2014), two Scandinavian books on the topic, and has worked for 15 years as an investigative reporter and foreign correspondent. She holds a Master of Applied Positive Psychology from the University of Pennsylvania, USA. Photo: Marie Hald http://www.goldensted.com

To Alma and Ella Your future guides my work

Contents ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS................................................................. 1 PROLOGUE .................................................................................... 5 ELEMENT ONE: EXPAND THE MIND ........................................... 15 CHAPTER 1: We Create Reality. But Which? .............................. 17 CHAPTER 2: De Correspondent. ................................................. 29 CHAPTER 3: How the Other Half Works ..................................... 41 CHAPTER 4: Going Blind. The Fixation Error............................... 57 CHAPTER 5: The Anatomy of Conflict ......................................... 65 ELEMENT TWO: STORM THE BRAIN ........................................... 69 CHAPTER 6: Try the PERMA Tool .............................................. 71 CHAPTER 7: Investigative Journalism ......................................... 81 CHAPTER 8: The Journey to Solutions Journalism ...................... 89 ELEMENT THREE: CHANGE THE QUESTION ................................ 95 CHAPTER 9: Change the Question .............................................. 97 CHAPTER 10: From Objective to Accountable .......................... 111 ELEMENT FOUR: TELL IT RIGHT ................................................ 129 CHAPTER 11: Tell it Right .......................................................... 131 CHAPTER 12: A Veteran War Photographer with Hope ........... 143 ELEMENT FIVE: MOVE THE WORLD .......................................... 153 CHAPTER 13: Move the World ................................................. 155 CHAPTER 14: South African Media and the Mandela Legacy .. 171 CHAPTER 15: The Sixth W: What Now?.................................... 179 EPILOGUE .................................................................................. 187

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I am grateful for the life-changing year 2011 which I spent at the University of Pennsylvania. I had the privilege to learn from brilliant scholars like Martin Seligman, James Pawelski, Adam Grant, Jonathan Haidt, Barbara Fredrickson, Ed Diener, Ray Fowler, Barry Schwartz, David Cooperrider, Karen Reivich, Angela Duckworth, John and Julie Gottman, George Valiant and multiple others. I owe much gratitude to Daniel Kahneman, Karl Tomm, Chris Peterson, and Jonah Berger and their formative research. My advisor, Peggy Kern, competently steered me through statistics and scientific data, quite a feat considering I was a journalist and not a scholar. I also wish to acknowledge Scott Barry Kaufman for immediately seeing the potential for innovating journalism through prospective psychology research. High praise to Steven Pinker for offering a more accurate portrayal of the world, a long time before we in the news began to.

My heart still lies with my classmates, the MAPP.6’ers and the whole MAPP community, people who offer endless support, wisdom and learning. A very special thanks to Georgia Shreve, Meghan Keener, CNN’s Elise Labott, NPR’s Andrea Bruce for being dear friends. They always ask good questions, which forces me to do better. Meghan Keener have also written extensively on positive psychology and it's potential within all kinds of media in her 2012 masters thesis from the University of Pennsylvania: 'Positive Media: An Introductory Exploration'.

Praise to NYU’s Jay Rosen who pioneered public journalism before any other and shared this work in his seminal book ‘What Are Journalists For?’ Another influential book is Bill Kovach and Tom Rosenstiel’s ’The Elements of Journalism’. They state that journalism should strive to portray the truth, that news should be comprehensive and proportional.

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That journalism should provide a forum for both criticism and compromise. This book strives to strengthen all these values.

A bow and thanks to all the pioneering and enterprising media organizations, broadcasters and colleagues, who are either portrayed in this book, or whom I have had the privilege to work with. Especially Anja Thorkelsson, Gunilla Sax, Tomas Gustafsson, Anne Sseruwagi and all their additional visionary editors and reporters at Sweden’s National Radio in the Kalmar, Malmö and Göteborg region.

Thanks to U.S.-based IVOH.org and Solutionsjournalism.org. To Transformational Media Summit’s Jeremy Wickremer, Sean Wood and Danielle Batist from Positive News, Martyn Lewis, CBE - British media professionals active in constructive journalism. In France Gilles Vanderpooten of Reporters d’Espoirs is leading the effort with great results. In Germany the bright minds of Maren Urner, Han Langeslag and Bernhard Eickenberg from Positive Daily paves the way.

I also wish to thank Michael Christiansen, Chairman of Danish Broadcasting Corporation, who shared with me how he initiated the work on constructive journalism in his organization. I wish to express gratitude to Karen McIntyre, who spearheads research in constructive journalism, and to all the organizers and bright thinkers I’ve met at journalism conferences, who show not only interest but also take action in this new domain. Let’s keep up the good work.

A thank you to Associate Professor from the Danish School of Media and Journalism, Malene Bjerre, who has written the chapters ‘The Anatomy of Conflict’, ‘Going Blind. The Fixation Error’ and contributed to ‘Tell it Right’, work stemming from our Danish Handbook of Constructive Journalism.

I feel deep gratitude to Christina Boutrup, Astrid Haug, Pernille Tranberg, and Stine Carsten Kendal - my professional network - for their 2

support and encouragement. To DIS and my curious and brilliant American students there, who themselves are pioneers by choosing to study constructive journalism.

A deep-felt thanks to my family for adding meaning to my life. Especially Torsten Jansen, my life partner and best friend. In the final stretch of any book writing process you often find yourself fatigued. To my aid was Lisa Sansom and my father, Carsten Gyldensted, who both tirelessly read the manuscript over and over again and, even then, were able to give me constructive feedback.

Lastly, I am obliged to you, dear reader, for being curious and picking up this book. Without you there is no change.

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PROLOGUE I had flown to London to meet my colleagues face to face. I was looking forward to it, but it was also with a certain portion of dread, because I knew that what I had to say would not fare well with my peers. Now I was sitting there in a conference panel with a Head of News from one of the United Kingdom’s biggest broadcasters and a Professor of Journalism from an equally well-regarded British journalism school. The moderator asked us whether news journalism mirrors society or whether it moves it. First at the microphone was the Head of News. He thoroughly explained how a premier function of any good journalist is to report on what is happening in the world, solely mirroring events. Then it was my turn to speak.

I still remember the disbelief in my fellow panelists’ eyes when I went on to elaborate what a big misconception and erroneous belief it is to think that the news mirrors society. How we choose to report on events, how we choose to interview sources, and what slivers of reality we bring to public attention are tangible and the impact is downright measurable, I claimed. News reports often provide a basis for political decision-making. News stories inform the public and influence public perceptions and knowledge. I went on to say that I was aware that I challenged a deeply set belief stemming from the training journalists receive during their studies, but that does not make it less true. We absolutely move society, I argued, and not necessarily in a positive direction.

None of my fellow panelist came around to agreeing with me.

They held a different set of beliefs, and the discussion came to a natural end. However, afterwards quite a few from the audience came over and expressed how they thoroughly agreed with me. News journalism might work under the faulty premise that it mirrors society - but in reality, it 5

From Mirrors to Movers moves it. The next good question is, then: In what direction are we moving society? Forward or backward? Upward or downward?

Quality news and current affairs reporting has critical inquiry at its core. When Danish American photojournalist Jacob Riis exposed the squalid conditions of New York City’s tenement slums in 1887, it had a historical and longitudinal impact. Riis’ photo documentation of the lives of the poor was published in his now seminal book ‘How the Other Half Lives.’ The exposure meant it was no longer possible for society and those with power to stand idly by, laws were passed, and journalism was shown to have a role in improving society by exposing the negative sides of life. Today, more than a century later, we face a problem with being too caught up reporting on negatives, stemming from a belief that only by focusing on what is wrong with the world (being ‘critical’) can we keep power accountable. We believe that to maintain a healthy and well-functioning society, we need the stick. It keeps corruption at bay and wrongdoers afraid of being exposed - which is probably true. But, what if we added more carrot while we kept the stick?

Adding more carrot could be in the form of facilitating more debate of future-oriented thinking, creating mediating principles to political debate coverage. Adding more carrot could mean reporting on resources and solutions and less on wrongdoing and faults. All in all, constructive journalism - adding more journalistic carrot - is necessary for turning the wheels of society forwards, counterbalancing the stick that may push us backwards. It would also offer a more accurate portrayal of the world, which is seen as a core function of journalism.

Surveys show that many people today choose to avoid news journalism. Many report that it is because of the negative format, and the news gives them a feeling of hopelessness, which they do not need in their already demanding lives. One news consumer wrote me: ‘Good happens every day. People are kind every day. Yet the reporters print the dirt, the bad and the ugly. Most people are unaware 6

Prologue and believe that the newspapers and other media serve them the full truth about life, but instead they are only offered unsavory tidbits of life. I would like this to change. I would like the reporters to educate people more about what news is and to help them become better consumers of it. I would really like fair, decent and honest reporting.’

********** This book proposes the innovation of journalism through behavioral sciences like positive psychology, moral psychology and neuroscience - not to weaken journalism, but to strengthen it. The intention is to develop even better journalism and broaden the field of our profession - to create content that involves and inspires readers, and to present journalism that adds perspective and gives people the opportunity to act.

Steve Jobs of Apple famously said that it’s the intersection of technology and liberal arts that makes our hearts sing. It’s also in this intersection that Steve Jobs got the ideas for many of Apple’s innovations. I propose that modern journalistic innovation is ripe for the same development by drawing ideas, new formats and methodologies from the intersection of journalism and behavioral sciences.

Constructive journalism recognizes that faults, failure, and abuse exist in the world; however, it maintains that simultaneously there is always development, growth, and opportunity. This way, it makes the world a bigger place. Constructive journalism investigates opportunities, looks at dilemmas from all sides, and indicates remedies. It does not ignore the problems and it does not trivialize them; instead it focuses on how these problems can be solved.

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From Mirrors to Movers

Yin and Yang This Chinese concept refers to any pair of seemingly opposed forces which are in fact complementary and interdependent. Male and female, night and day are not enemies but together form a complete cycle.

Same with hot and cold, summer and winter. We need both, often in a shifting, alternating balance. Likewise with negative stories and constructive stories. The negative stories always contain some ‘light’. In constructive stories we always find some darkness, like challenges, conflicts or setbacks. Together they portray the world accurately.

This book also takes a look at the new behaviors of people when they share journalistic stories on social media. We get much of our news through social ties and social media, so sharing has become an instrumental part of journalism. We need to understand what makes people share stories to make sure journalistic content gets the attention it deserves in the vast and growing sea of information.

Journalists pride themselves on being curious, courageous and anti-authoritative, but we tend to lose those qualities when we are challenged to change our ways of doing journalism. This book invites you to be curious, courageous and anti-authoritative towards the way you do journalism. It will challenge some set beliefs and sacred values in the profession - but don’t worry, it ends well.

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Prologue Believe it or not - and many of my colleagues do not - journalism has wide blind spots hindering balanced reporting. These are cognitive biases that hinder an accurate portrayal of the world, not necessarily because of ill will, but because of ignorance about what modern psychology has identified and explored in recent decades: key research findings that are hugely relevant for journalism.

Drawing on my experience seeking and reporting on the truth, it seems to me that the ‘truth’ we are reporting is solely a pathological version of the world, which hardly qualifies as being the only ‘truth’. If we are truly seeking and reporting on truth, we must include examples of human resilience, posttraumatic growth, positive emotions, accomplishments and solutions.

We all know about conflicts, corruption and abuse of power. We report political dissent, victims of war and catastrophes, and we should cover them. I strongly support meticulous investigative reporting - my own domain for many years. That was why I wanted to become a journalist, to keep power in check, to keep society healthy by being the best possible watchdog through reporting on political cover-ups, terror cases and fraud. I uncovered how hundreds of military radar-personnel from the Cold War had gotten cancer from their work, and how one of Interpol’s most wanted men was hiding in the countryside avoiding prosecution for years. I also believe that being a reporter watchdog is necessary for maintaining well-functioning, uncorrupt societies. Absolutely.

But something happened that caused me to see my blind spots and gain a more well-rounded perspective. Many people have asked me why I chose to leave a traditional career path and get involved with the innovation of journalism through behavioral sciences. It was through an encounter with a homeless woman in Washington DC in 2009.

We were in the middle of what became the recession years 2008 to 2011. I was interviewing her at a homeless shelter and this woman’s willingness to reflect more broadly on her situation gave me other an9

From Mirrors to Movers swers to quote: answers that explored her difficulties, her pain, and her loss but also documented her transformational journey with lessons of resilience, relationships and meaning.

I was completely taken aback when she started to describe the latter during the interview. Suddenly I had to hurry to write down her responses on my legal notepad, all while checking if the audio recorder, with its blinking red light, still had a functioning battery. I had visited a homeless shelter in Washington DC for a story for the Danish Broadcasting Corporation. As usual, I had agreed with the editor back home in Copenhagen on which story to go for. The recession had hit the U.S. hard. Banks, investment companies and pension funds went bankrupt every week. The federal government had to make cuts including less funding for homeless shelters and food pantries. Millions of dollars were cut all over the USA. It was a classic journalistic story: homeless Americans feeling the cutbacks. Find someone who’s affected. Tell the big story through a report from a food bank. A nation in economic and political crisis. Clear-cut news.

Bonnie Jacks, an elderly woman, had received food and aid for a long time here at the shelter, and she agreed to talk to me. I wanted to flesh out her experience of being homeless - how things got harder after the cutbacks. It worked out just as expected, and she was clearly moved by having to revisit and describe her difficult situation. I already had enough to edit the piece as planned yet, mysteriously, I found myself asking Jacks entirely different kinds of questions: • What have you yourself done to move on?

• Who helped you?

• Have you learned anything from this?

• What will it take for you to be able to resolve your problems?

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Prologue The result was astonishing. At first, Jacks looked at me, puzzled.

Then she began to answer more enthusiastically, with grand gestures.

She gave lengthy, detailed answers. The interview now included unexpected responses from a constructive narrative. From a homeless person. A seeming victim.

The only explanation for my impulse to ask different kinds of questions was that I had begun to reflect on the nature of questions that we typically ask our sources. I realized that our questions shape reality for society and for the people we interview.

It is always easier and less time consuming to stay with an approach you master. So, when I left the homeless shelter with this long interview, I had actually made my professional life more difficult. Yet, when I listened to the interview, it was an eye-opener changing my career path. The constructive answers I had gotten created a foundation for a different angle than the classic (victim) story, which was the story that I had agreed on with my editor.

I sent an email back home telling him that the interview had unfolded differently than expected and suggested a different angle. The story would no longer deal with hopelessness and defeat - it would explore what makes some people cope through adversity. The facts, documenting cutbacks on aid for the homeless, would be kept in the story and my interviewees would still speak of their hardships. But now, my interviewees were also allowed to express how they had managed the hard times. The next morning, I found the editor’s reply in my inbox.

‘Let’s do it,’ he wrote.

While interviewing this homeless woman I realized how I might have fostered victims in all my preceding years in news journalism. I assumed that anyone who had lost their job and home would see themselves in the role of a victim. This woman did - and she didn’t. Both scenarios hold truth, and journalism must reflect both.

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From Mirrors to Movers In the spring of 2013, I got an email that stood out. It came from Karen McIntyre, a Ph.D. candidate based at the University of North Carolina - Chapel Hill, School of Journalism and Mass Communication. She had read about my work on synthesizing positive psychology research into journalism. McIntyre’s Ph.D. thesis is the world’s first on constructive journalism and works on anchoring the concept in academia and conducting relevant research.

McIntyre and I knew how important it was to clarify differences between positive journalism and constructive journalism. Although both include positive elements, the two forms differ in goals and story topic selection.

Constructive journalism is committed to upholding journalism’s core functions and reporting of social significance. However, positive journalistic stories are not generally concerned with journalism’s core functions and tend to be stories lacking meaningful significance to society. Yet positive content remains highly popular and generates considerable online traffic and user engagement.

I had worked for some time on these definitions and characteristics, combing through news stories that were either constructive or positive. I looked for significant characteristics like sources included, story angle, design of the story, etc.

Yet, it wasn’t until McIntyre came onboard that the pieces came together. She coded for typical news values (societal impact, conflict, watchdog, etc.) and found that positive stories were often entertaining and emotional but lacked the conflict, watchdog function and coverage of authority figures - all of which are journalism’s core functions.

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Prologue From our work together, we coined these working definitions: 1

Positive Journalism: Has strong positive, emotional value but lacks societal significance. Does not strive to adhere to journalism’s core functions of serving as a watchdog, alerting the public of potential threats, disseminating important information in order to create an informed public. Examples include: ‘Cat rescued from tree’, ‘Man rescues woman from drowning’, hero narratives lacking broader importance to society.

Constructive Journalism: Implements techniques from positive psychology and related fields. Stories have a high importance to society. Adheres to one or more of journalism’s core functions, i.e.: Serving as a watchdog, alerting the public of potential threats, disseminating important information in order to create an informed electorate.

This book is not a scholarly body of work. Rather, I have chosen to focus on practical tools applicable for journalists in their everyday work. I will also present the underlying research which forms the base for my framework. Numbers in the text refer to relevant resources in the back of the book. Errors are unintended.

I continuously upload videos, learning materials inspired by this book, and new examples of constructive journalism on my website: www.goldensted.com. There, you can also get an overview of constructive journalism’s growing landscape. The website is also the place to contact me for comments, suggestions and improvements.

Overall, this book presents a novel and systematic framework on how to innovate journalism in engaging and constructive formats 13

From Mirrors to Movers through positive psychology and related fields throughout the journalistic work process. You will learn about five key elements in constructive journalism: 1. Expand the Mind 2. Storm the Brain 3. Change the Question 4. Tell it Right 5. Move the World Constructive journalism is a rapidly growing domain, therefore I am not claiming that this book will provide a total overview of media organizations working with constructive journalism. Most case stories you will read about here are from media corporations I work with. They are experimenting on their own and some are implementing methods put forward in this book. Therefore, I am able to showcase their work in more detail. My intent is that their example will serve as a source for inspiration, know-how and best practices for readers of this book.

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ELEMENT ONE EXPAND THE MIND

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CHAPTER 1

WE CREATE REALITY. BUT WHICH? ‘Kill your victims’. Those are the words on a small sign Ingrid Thörnqvist has written. She holds it up to her employees when she wants them to carry out constructive journalism. Thörnqvist is the head of Foreign News at the Swedish national TV station SVT. She is not advocating having real-life, actual victims put to death. Rather, she is trying to kill the standard stories produced by journalists about these people. Examples include stories about poor African women without resources who may be seen as passive victims of catastrophes and exploitation. But this is not the whole story of Africa, and her sign is intended to remind journalists to think along new lines. Chronic and repeated victim narratives are bad journalism, pure and simple. It is a sort of simplistic journalism that only describes misery and hopelessness, insisting that the weak are weak and need to be passively helped, as well as reporting on villains, who are purely evil. It is this kind of simplistic journalism that provides an inaccurate and distorted view of the world.

When we unilaterally turn people into victims, we demean them. We ignore their resources, and we maintain or even escalate the conflicts we are describing.

Jan Grarup, a war photographer and eight-time World Press Photo winner, discovered that his photographs gather considerably more attention if they portray elements of hope. He takes photos of people impacted by poverty, war, and natural disasters, of course. Yet he always identifies positive elements in their situation - examples of compassion, hope and meaning. This makes his reporting from the far corners of the world even more powerful.

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From Mirrors to Movers De Correspondent, a Dutch online news platform, broke the world record in crowdfunding back in 2013. They have assigned a ‘Correspondent Vooruitgang’ - a correspondent who covers progress - and a ‘Correspondent Vindingrijkheid & Vernieuwers’, which means a correspondent covering Curiosity & Innovators. This news platform believes that what you focus on, you get more of. De Correspondent knows that their highly engaged members want to know about progress and innovators, and they know their readers are curious. De Correspondent is seeing a rise of subscribers which they chose to call members because they participate actively with De Correspondent’s staff of reporters and co-create under the tagline: ‘From Breaking News to Breaking New.’ In South Africa, one of the country’s largest media companies is Times Media Group/TMG. They have launched a comprehensive effort in constructive journalism by training their news editors and journalists across the nation. Paddi Clay, Head of Editorial Training and Development at TMG, has a bold vision: she wants her reporters and newseditors to take on a new responsibility. TMG has given lots of space to exposing corruption, revealing mismanagement and bad governance, and they will continue to do this. Yet, they also want to engage readers by facilitating a constructive debate, seeking solutions to the problems for South Africa’s young democracy.

Asbjorn With received the most prestigious Danish journalism award - The Cavling Prize. He did not work with classic victims and villains when he covered system failure in a regional municipality. Instead, he insisted on meeting with both parties as human beings meaning that the ‘victims’ must be described in a way retaining their dignity, and the ‘villains’ must be treated with the same respect as other sources.

Natascha Kampusch was held captive in a basement in Vienna for over eight years. In her autobiography she writes that she experienced the media’s portrayal of her as an additional abuse. After she escaped, news media insisted on describing her as a victim and never as 18

Element One: Expand The Mind a resourceful young woman coping mentally during her captivity and insisting on moving on with her life.

The Guardian’s chairman, Alan Rusbridger, was clear when he in 2015 launched a whole new effort and editorial approach on how his media corporation would be covering the issue of climate change. Journalism looks too much in the rear-view-mirror, he wrote, and The Guardian is actively changing that, adding a more future-oriented inquiry - an inquiry on how we can solve ‘the most important story of our time’, as Rusbridger stated it. Under the slogan ‘Keep it in the ground’, The Guardian is demonstrating a strong example of journalistic coverage with future orientation at its core, aimed to move society constructively forward on a global, burning issue.

Moreover, a new pattern is emerging. The stories being most shared in social media, those that go viral, are stories giving us hope and inspiration in our own lives. We do not wish to identify purely with a victim narrative. Rather, we wish to identify with people who succeed in changing their situation for the better.

So kill off those victims. Go out and search the abundance of constructive stories that exist. Look for people who have found meaning through setbacks, companies that have changed course and have developed surprising constructive partnerships, countries which have found workable solutions to difficult conflicts, stories that show the way to a better-functioning world.

Language in News Media A clear indicator that news reporting has a negative bias in valence is to look at the explanatory style used in the reporting. Explanatory style is a positive or negative psychological attribute that indicates how people explain to themselves why they experience a particular event. This phrase was coined by Professor Martin Seligman at the University of Pennsylvania stemming from his research in the field. A person’s explanatory style gives a clear sense of that person’s outlook on 19

From Mirrors to Movers the world, be it pessimistic or optimistic. People with a negative explanatory style typically attribute negative outcomes to internal, stable, and global causes. They are more likely to suffer depression when negative events happen to them, as a negative explanatory style can become a downward mental spiral.

In contrast, people with a positive explanatory style typically attribute negative outcomes to external, temporary, specific causes. This optimistic style is often associated with personal resilience, subjective well-being, and meaningfulness. Most often positive explanatory style builds an upward mental spiral.

Extending this model to classical news reporting, the explanatory style used in most news narratives is negative. This finding is strongly supported by eight research studies going back to 1947. They suggest that media, fictional and actual, influence the explanatory style used by people who read, watch, and listen. Another early example is a 1977 study reporting that CBS and NBC newscasts modelled helplessness seventy one percent of the time. This study suggested that evening news was actually inducing learned helplessness to viewers. Unfortunately, the scene has not improved since the 1970s, and arguably has become worse. 2 Since 2013, I’ve taught a course for American undergraduates studying in Denmark, called ‘Changing the News - Innovating News Journalism through Positive Psychology’. It’s been highly rated and is increasingly popular with the students who come from both communication and psychology studies. When I first meet my students, we talk about their consumption of news. Some of them have classic patterns watching and listening to morning news and evening news on radio and TV, but a majority of them do not like to consume news at all. They often express being torn between knowing that they ‘ought’ to consume news in order to be informed citizens and, on the other hand, feeling that there’s no real added value for them in consuming news. I first 20

Element One: Expand The Mind thought that their disregard stemmed from an egocentric attitude, that everything has to be centered on their life before it’s interesting. But I found this not to be the case. What my students really meant was that they longed for more context and deeper exploration of topics. They longed for reporting on paths forward. Who will take action? Who will collaborate? Who is doing something positive and out of the ordinary?

My students brought the photo blog ‘Humans of New York’ to my attention. They all love it, read it, share it and comment on it multiple times every day. Humans of New York (HONY) is a photo blog featuring street portraits and interviews collected in New York City. It was a simple idea that inspired photographer Brandon Stanton to start the blog. He wanted to photograph people he met in the streets, and soon he added his conversations with the people he photographed. Today HONY is a media sensation with more than twelve million followers on Facebook and 2.1 million followers on Instagram. (January. 2015).

Why? What is it about these portraits that so stimulates and engages the audiences? The short stories and the photos complement each other. The content is emotionally moving, authentic and engaging and almost always creates narratives drawn from the subject’s positive elements. This is not done in a fluffy or meek way with happy people possessing fake smiley faces. Rather, it’s stories about lifelong love, losing what you once held dear and learning from it, about being resilient through adversity, and other clever anecdotes on lessons learned through life. Themes of joy and awe are the stories with golden nuggets of what positive psychology teaches. To me, it’s an indicator of what people are most longing for: meaningful content through inspiring authentic storytelling.

‘Upworthy’, a U.S.-based website curating viral content, is the one of the biggest media success in recent years. Upworthy’s team curates videos, articles and Internet debates with one common thread: they must be uplifting, awe-inspiring, inspirational, and meaningful.

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From Mirrors to Movers They also must awaken our curiosity. The people behind Upworthy understand the emotional formula that will get readers to click, share and get involved. Upworthy has faced criticism because some of the headlines oversell or mislead. However, their formula of presenting content in an emotionally engaging way is so effective that Upworthy has entered into a partnership with ProPublica, an independent non-profit New York-based newsroom producing prize-winning investigative journalism. The intent is to use Upworthy’s formula of presenting uplifting content to also include investigative journalism. This means that more people will also read and act upon ProPublica’s stories.

When Arianna Huffington launched two new sections for the Huffington Post, she stated that it was time to shed light on the things that work. ‘Good News’ and ‘Impact’ launched in 2011 and soon noted big success. You need not spend much time with Arianna Huffington to realize that she is a savvy businesswoman. ‘Good News’ and ‘Impact’ were also launched because Huffington Post saw the potential for business success, and Huffington was right. Based on the number of unique visitors, these two verticals are Huffington Post’s most visited. In the spring of 2015, Huffington Post took yet another leap into constructive journalistic formats and launched a global HuffPo editorial initiative labelled ‘What’s Working.’ This initiative aims to cover what is working well while still continuing to cover stories of a more classic nature. The Washington Post has created their online section ‘The Optimist’, the New York Times spearheaded their weekly ‘Fixes’, Aftenposten, a Swedish newspaper, has launched a ‘Good News’ section, and so has the Australian The New Daily.

On social media, people share stories with each other in a new and interesting way. Researchers Katherine L. Milkman and Jonah Berger at Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania have uncovered what makes content viral, i.e. what characterizes stories and news that people choose to share with others via social media.

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Element One: Expand The Mind Using a data set of New York Times articles published over a threemonth period, Berger and Milkman examined how emotion created what they are calling virality. 3 The data set consisted of almost 7000 articles across a wide range of topics. Their results indicate that positive content is more viral than negative content, yet the relationship between emotion and social transmission is even more complex.

Virality is also driven by physiological arousal. Content that evokes high-arousal positive (awe) or negative (anger or anxiety) emotions is more viral. Content that evokes low-arousal, or deactivating, emotions (e.g., sadness) is less viral. Articles that generated awe were shared the most. Stories that generated negative emotions, such as anger or anxiety, were also shared, albeit to a slightly lower degree.

Most notable was that the stories leaving readers feeling sad were generally not shared.

Overall, the constructive and positive stories beat the negative ones by a notable margin. We can see that not only does constructive journalism present more complete and comprehensive journalism, there is clearly also an audience for this kind of approach.

What is Awe? Psychologists who research ‘awe’ list its defining features: A feeling of vastness (or connection to the sublime); A need for accommodation; An experience of beauty, ability, or virtue; A connection to the supernatural.

Awe embraces both fear and amazement, creating a feeling of insignificance and simultaneous optimism, combining confusion with wonder.

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From Mirrors to Movers I spoke with Jonah Berger for this book, and the research in this domain is far from completed. On the contrary, the digging is just getting deeper and even more exciting, because the research will provide a detailed insight to what is that makes people share journalistic articles.

When we know more, we can make better use of it when we craft our narratives and coverage. Some might think that it is being too servile towards consumers of news; however, as Berger underscores, there’s an overload of information around the clock. We are being bombarded with all kinds of content from numerous platforms. So, why not master the inner workings of what makes people pay attention and share journalistic content, so it gets the attention it deserves?

Berger and his colleagues are pursuing more answers and are currently looking at what causes people to read more of an article. People talk about page-views, but just because someone clicked on something doesn’t mean they read it. The researchers are investigating how aspects of the content itself (e.g., emotion) influence whether people keep reading. This is key research applicable for modern innovation of journalism and news content.

So why are there so many negative stories out there? Aren’t readers and TV viewers simply getting the journalism they want? Don’t people want to read and watch edgy, confrontational stories? Research shows that no, this is actually not the case.

A study from 2011 showed that audiences are tired of negativecritical journalism. 4Seventy-five percent said that they were tired of politicians yelling at each other. Eighty-three percent were looking for reporting exploring solutions to challenges we face in the world.

Interestingly, sometimes unbalanced and negative bias stems from journalism’s own methodology, even if this wasn’t intended. One of the major media corporations that has faced this problem is the BBC. In two reports by the BBC Trust, the body overseeing the British broadcaster, published in 2011 and 2014, the conclusion was clear. 5Fringe 24

Element One: Expand The Mind scientists got too much airtime compared to scientists representing the main body of research on climate change. But how does this bias arise?

It seems mainly to stem from a methodology taught in journalism, namely, that balance is achieved by listening and giving fair weight to sources on both sides of a story.

No matter what critics of journalists may believe, we endeavor to be fair and impartial. In the pursuit of this fairness, there’s a tendency to report what one side says, report what the other side says, and call it balanced. The trouble is, there isn’t always equal merit or numbers on both sides.

In cases where one side is largely fact-based, and the other can be talking nonsense, treating both sides equally isn’t balanced. It creates a false balance and is, therefore, misleading.

Lastly, studies show that the general public has the tendency to overestimate the degree of contrarian opinions in climate science and to underestimate the level of agreement among scientists.

Since the reports came out from the BBC Trust, seminars training nearly 200 journalists and editors have taken place with the aim of teaching that impartiality in journalistic coverage is not attained by simply reflecting a wider range of views, but depends on the degree of importance (due weight), attributed to the views.

Constructive journalism shares DNA with other forms of journalism, like civic or public journalism. These domains in journalism seek to integrate journalism into the democratic process, where the media not only informs the public but also works towards engaging citizens and creating public debate. However, the difference is the synthesization of research findings from behavioral sciences, mainly positive psychology.

It’s in this intersection that the innovation happens and we create modern, engaging journalistic formats with constructive value.

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From Mirrors to Movers How can it be done? I currently work with these five elements adding to the classic journalistic work process. Later in the book, I will go more into depth on all five. Here is an overview:

1: Expand the Mind Off with the blinders. Educate colleagues and journalism students about key findings in positive psychology and related disciplines.

Why is this relevant, you might ask? Because if we only know about the disease model of the world, we tend to seek out interviewees portraying only that model. We find that which we seek. This then creates an inaccurate and biased portrayal of the world. Knowing about the wellbeing model of the world which positive psychology studies gives a starting point for more precise and comprehensive reporting on reality.

Admittedly, we tend to love ‘victims’ in news journalism. Those ‘victims’ are the reason why many of us choose to be reporters: we are guided and inspired by keeping power to account. We seek to challenge authorities, fight for the weak against the powerful. We are on the side of the little guy.

In positive psychology, however, I learned that just as helplessness can be taught, so can optimism, grit and resilience. In short, not all people are victims even though they find themselves in difficult life situations. Even more worrisome, it might it be our actual questions that augment the victimizing aspects of the situation. Are you in fact creating the victims, where they did not previously exist?

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Element One: Expand The Mind I am calling for awareness of this, not to make news reporting feeble, but to acknowledge our hidden negativity bias and unintentional contribution to the victimization of our subjects. ‘Manipulative!’ I hear someone whisper. Well, we already use framing in everyday reporting.

Let’s start by acknowledging this dynamic. Acknowledge the blinders and then start to make conscious choices for more fairness and balance.

2: Storm the Brain How can we challenge our conventional ideas and brainstorming process in the newsroom to be better able to come up with ideas, framing and story angles on solid and important constructive stories?

In this book, I offer a user-friendly and applicable tool: PERMA in the newsroom. Just because something has constructive elements in it, that does not mean that it’s toothless or fluff. The dramatic arc is just as important in stories like these, like in any other journalistic story of substance.

3. Change the Question Here we work on broadening our interviewing skills, focusing on expanding the nature of questions we ask. It’s coherent with already existing interview practices in journalism. We will just add some missing elements.

Questions are the most powerful tools and are key to any information-gathering process. They also act as floodlights casting light on dimmed and undiscovered areas. If you want to add constructive elements to your interviewing, add questions exploring learning curves, questions that explore overcoming setbacks.

Constructive interviewing also encourages mediation in political debates where the goal is to facilitate a debate on collaboration, solutions and visions. This concept creates quite a stir when I tell politicians about it because they feel challenged. All the more reason for diving in!

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From Mirrors to Movers Imagine forcing politicians out of their standard message tracks with this format. Hence, it’s a better way of holding power to account, because it is much more demanding to collaborate than just throw mud at your opponent.

4. Tell it Right How we end our stories matters to audiences. A handful of studies are pointing to the finding that adding a constructive closing paragraph or narration greatly influences the audiences’ emotional state and engagement.

5. Move the World Add questions oriented towards the future. There’s an extraordinary pattern of past-orientation in journalistic interviewing: journalists have been taught how to be a detective and sort out who did what, when and why. But why not add more interviewing muscle and ask questions of a more mediating and future-oriented nature? There’s a strong potential for generating headline-grabbing news stories here, because your sources are more inspired to give you newsworthy answers when they are taken out of the classic question track.

There is an alternative to covering disagreements as conflicts, which we in the news media often do. Instead, look at them as dilemmas. Dilemmas constitute difficult but solvable choices with more than one solution. We must expose the advantages and disadvantages of the various proposals and perhaps present a third or fourth option. This ‘dilemma layer’ is a perfect place to involve and engage with your audiences because you are inviting them to comment, debate or share knowledge on the different dilemmas. Lastly, it’s a more accurate portrayal of reality. Most issues in real life contain dilemma scenarios. Constructive journalism seeks to be true to that.

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CHAPTER 2

DE CORRESPONDENT. ON A MANDATE FROM THE PEOPLE A correspondent is usually the journalist who may serve as our eyes, ears and voice from a conflict zone somewhere around the world.

But not the journalists at Dutch online news site De Correspondent.

They do it differently. They still send their correspondents abroad, but their approach and aim is unlike any other media corporation.

De Correspondent has changed the classic journalistic beats. It’s not only Politics, Foreign, Defense, Investigative, Health and Entertainment. Rather, they have also assigned a ‘Correspondent Vooruitgang’, which translates, to ‘Progress Correspondent’ and a ‘Correspondent Vindingrijkheid & Vernieuwers’, which means ‘Curiosity & Innovators Correspondent’. These are acts of bold innovation because these new labels foster a novel outlook across classical beats and conventional journalistic domains.

I visited De Correspondent’s team in their light and airy headquarters in Amsterdam. Deputy Editor-in-chief Karel Smouter welcomed me and we walked into the kitchen. He and I had met on Twitter because we tweeted under the same #constructivejournalism hashtag.

‘How are you working with this domain?’ I tweeted. Smouter answered back: ‘The most popular, debated stories we’ve published this past year were constructive’.

Of course that was reason enough to fly to Amsterdam. Fortunately, Smouter agreed to meet and now we were absorbed in conversation around De Correspondent’s goals. Philosopher and founder Rob Wijnberg joined us. He used to work as editor-in-chief at NRC Next, a 29

From Mirrors to Movers sister publication to NRC Handelsblad, the Netherlands’ biggest daily national newspaper. Wijnberg left NRC Next after experimenting with what qualified to be headline news. Truth be told, he was fired. I asked Rob what happened, and he readily offered insight: ‘I know why I was fired. Because they told me: It may be all right with you, philosopher type, but we want news; this is a newspaper, not a non-news newspaper. They basically said they wanted to reverse my crazy ideas. I had decided that it was not really news to cover the day when the Finance Act is presented in Parliament, and covering it is press herd mentality. We all put it on the front page, even when we do not know the details or numbers. We might cover it when we know more about the numbers and content, I said, and put something else on the front page. The management of NRC Next thought I was going off track with what a newspaper should be. I thought I was being on track. We lose audiences, and the news management is not paying attention to it.

My idea was that if you want to save news journalism, you have to change what it is about.’

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Element One: Expand The Mind

Rob Wijnberg, Co-Founder & Editor-In-Chief, De Correspondent, The Netherlands “Why not do something with even greater impact, like giving our members new ways of thinking about these problems? Such as facilitating a conversation that generates more solutions-oriented and visionary thinking?”

Photo: Bas Losekoot /De Correspondent

After being fired from NRC.Next, Wijnberg was invited on national Dutch TV to talk about his vision for a new kind of news media.

He envisioned a platform, De Correspondent, which existed online and engaged in new forms of conversations. Not with ‘subscribers’, but with people who would become ‘members’.

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From Mirrors to Movers Wijnberg elaborates: ‘‘Members’ has another connotation to it than ‘subscribers’. It tells you much about our relationship to the people we write with. We write with them in a co-creating process.’

De Correspondent went on to set a world record in crowdfunding before they launched in 2013. In eight days, 15,000 people had signed up and many added donations on top of their subscription fee.

During that same week, De Correspondent raised over €1 million (about $1.3 million USD). Since then, the platform has continued to grow with its special take on news and by adding constructive elements to their reporting, which I went on to ask more about.

Q: What are the key constructive elements that you work with here at De Correspondent?

Smouter: ‘We have identified new domains to cover and assigned them to some of our reporters. Our constructive correspondent Thalia Verkade reports on people who try to bring about change. She currently writes on cutting-edge brain research promising to have major health outcomes. Our progress correspondent Rutger Bregmans’ strength is forward thinking. He looks at how the world is evolving. Rutger believes that for society to evolve, we need visions. New utopias. So, he asks: Where do we want to be in 50 years? Who’s creating visions? Who is working on them? And then Rutger writes about it. He helped put the issue of the Basic Income (‘Free money for everyone’) on the national agenda and subsequently several political parties adopted his ideas within a year These stories have been amongst our most popular pieces in the time we have existed and drawn in hundreds of thousands of readers and thousands of comments.’

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Element One: Expand The Mind Wijnberg: ‘I have given a lot of thought to how constructive journalism can best be put into practice. This is what I think: First of all, share your learning curve with your audience. That goes for both the correspondent herself and the sources - it is through the journey of exploration that we learn.

‘An example could be from our colleague Joris Luyendijk. He chose to cover the Financial Crisis in a style different from that of other journalists. Luyendijk said: I want to tell people that a bank is failing and tell them how it came to be. Therefore, I need a granular understanding of how the banking world works.

‘He then went to City of London’s Financial District. Here he began asking the same questions that laypeople would ask, put all the interviews online, and distilled some basic answers about how that world works.

‘For me, that is sharing a learning curve and Luyendijk begins at zero. After three years of reading his articles, you have solid insights.

You know what it is when people talk about failing banks. You also know how it can be changed. How to understand the people who work there.

They are not crooks but human beings with all kinds of actions and emotions.

‘Constructive journalism should deliver novel insight - aha moments.

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From Mirrors to Movers

De Correspondent's most shared article since the online media launched in 2013. A constructive and newsy piece, written by their progress correspondent, Rutger Bregman.

‘In our mission statement for De Correspondent, I write that we want to go from Breaking News to Breaking New. ‘Breaking News is: A bank fails; people lose their jobs and end up on the streets. Breaking New is: These are the mechanisms, structures and inner workings creating these problems. This is what we should explore and understand, to get an idea of how to change, how to vote.

‘I compare it to: If you want to repair a computer, you have to understand its different components. What you see in the news is just the blue screen signaling: your software failed, repair it or buy a new one. It does not show you the inner workings. Now when I think about it, it’s not the best kind of constructive journalism that just serves solutions. Why not do something with even greater impact, like giving our 34

Element One: Expand The Mind members new ways of thinking about these problems? Such as facilitating a conversation that generates more solutions-oriented and visionary thinking? News reporting is especially super status quo oriented. It’s mostly confirming what we already know. If you only see what is wrong with the world and how things fail, the best thing for tomorrow to happen is that it’s not worse than today! This is a very conservative outlook and not a world view that we share.

‘Lastly, we have implemented a whole new conversation with our audience. When we put a piece online, we ask our members to contribute to our research by sharing their knowledge and their expertise.

For instance, our health reporter asked for examples from practitioners and received hundreds of emails from both doctors and patients. They respond, we talk back, and we co-create the content.

‘We try to tell our journalists that they are not writing for De Correspondent. They write for their audience. You are a conversation leader, rather than a writer at a news media.

‘Another important part is that the author is an integral part of the whole thing. Being specific and transparent about your subjective choices is important.’

Q: What would you say to those who think that this is not objective, and an activist approach, unsuitable for journalism?

Wijnberg: ‘Objectivity is an illusion. All reporting is a product of subjective choices made by the people producing the stories. Caring about the world does not make you an activist. I am not saying that you have to be partisan or with a set agenda which you put forward in spite of evidence and facts. We should report different scenarios and dilemmas, and if those who read this still think it to be activism, my answer is: Then it is a good thing to be.’

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From Mirrors to Movers

Karel Smouter, Deputy Editor-In-Chief, De Correspondent, The Netherlands “I hope that journalism will be among the forces improving the world.

This is an ideal that I had to hide while I worked with traditional media.

Being at De Correspondent speaks to me as a journalist, but also as a person. That is quite something.”

Photo: Janus van den Eijnden/De Correspondent

Q: You both have been transparent about how you think news journalism feeds cynicism. What do you mean by that?

Smouter: ‘Mostly it stems from the kind of questions which news journalism asks to people in power and the world in general. It’s about the stories which make a soap opera out of everything. Political coverage, for example. When I think back on the past ten years as a news con36

Element One: Expand The Mind sumer, all I can remember are the clashes between the opposition and government. All the scandals. I cannot remember one single step forward in the right direction in the past ten years. I can only recall the drama. This is not the type of world I want to live in - or report on. I hope that journalism will be among the forces improving the world.

‘This is an ideal that I had to hide when I worked in traditional media. I mean, everybody around me had this ideal, but we were not allowed to show it. There’s a strong culture for what is prestigious and considered quality journalism in newsrooms. We were hired to follow journalism’s standards and conventional thinking. Being at De Correspondent speaks to me as a journalist, but also to who I am as a person.

That is quite something.

‘One story I did was on Immigration. That might give you an impression of what the difference looks like. Immigration is a huge problem in the Netherlands. The office handling the cases for immigrants is often vilified in the public domain for either being too strict or too soft. I followed their work for a month and found out that they were struggling with a lot of dilemmas. There was a human side of their work. I concluded my coverage with five things they could do differently, and this struck a chord with many of the sources themselves. My coverage did not paint a pretty picture. It exposed real dilemmas and gave the sources something to think about. The immigration office even invited me back to explain more about it. That kind of approach allows them to show another side than just being defensive, and it helped them to think about their work in new ways, because of the questions I asked.’

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From Mirrors to Movers Q: Your questions did that?

Smouter: ‘The people at the Immigration office said that. They actually thanked me for fostering reflection.’

Q: De Correspondent has celebrated its first anniversary. You have expanded your base of members, from 18,000 to 37,000 and counting.

What is the reaction to your new way of reporting?

Wijnberg: ‘I would say that our audience has approved our vision. Almost nobody has complained about us not being newsy.’

Currently, De Correspondent is internationalizing its outreach.

And they also allow their members to make expert dossiers on their subjects of interest and share this with other members. This way, De Correspondent is taking their relationship with members even further, adding features on their online platform to ‘wikipedia-ize’ the content.

Members will be able to create their own collections and add their own commentary plus external research and notes. Lastly, the members will be able to visualize connections between articles and research in other collections or external content. By doing that, De Correspondent is giving the initiative to their members and providing them with an option to steer the journalistic research, therefore becoming a social network for sharing knowledge.

The conversation has changed, for the better.

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CHAPTER 3

HOW THE OTHER HALF WORKS. SCIENCE RELEVANT FOR CONSTRUCTIVE JOURNALISM For many decades, psychological research has mainly focused on mental illnesses and disorders in order to understand and cure them.

But interest in the opposite dimension, mental wellbeing, has grown significantly in recent years. Interest in identifying, understanding and building strengths and virtues dates from ancient Eastern philosophy to the Greek Philosophers, personified by Aristotle, who studied elements defining a virtuous life.

One of the U.S. founding fathers, Benjamin Franklin, also spent a lot of time practicing to be a better and more complete person. He defined thirteen virtues to practice: Temperance, silence (avoid empty talk), order (everything in its own time), resolution, frugality, industry, sincerity, justice, moderation (do not go to extremes), cleanliness, tranquility, chastity, and humility.

Franklin approached his virtues systematically. He practiced one virtue each week, and he put a cross in his notebook each time he did not adhere to the week’s task.

Franklin got better with time and acquired fewer crosses in his book, but he never managed to entirely adhere to his virtues. In particular, moderation and chastity were difficult for him, due to his love of beer and women. In this way, Franklin and Aristotle have come to be seen as pioneer thinkers of positive psychology, which today is a recognized and well-established scientific field.

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From Mirrors to Movers

Benjamin Franklin and the author on the campus of the university he founded. No doubt Franklin would have been pleased had he known that research on human virtues and prospective psychology - domains within positive psychology - would come out of his University of Pennsylvania.

Positive psychology covers a sophisticated range of scientific research. Where classic psychology focuses on treating mental illness, positive psychology is the scientific study of what enables individuals and communities to thrive: How do we get people to perform better? How do we increase goal orientation, self-control, and learning? What generates endurance and the ability to cope in difficult situations? What are the meaningful, potential- and resource-oriented aspects of the human psyche? What is love? How can we foster it? How is the brain changing through meditation? How do you get individuals, organizations - even nations - to thrive?

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Element One: Expand The Mind The same mindset underpins constructive journalism. Many people we report on deal with traditional negative conditions, but a more comprehensive form of journalism - constructive journalism should commit to cover positive conditions as well for a more accurate portrayal of the world. Let me provide an example of a new way of thinking about this.

In 2012, the British television station Channel 4 provided a change in their sports coverage. Their principles stem directly from positive psychology. Channel 4 won the rights to broadcast the 2012 Paralympic Games. With Alison Walsh at the helm, Channel 4 had a special plan for the Games, where disabled athletes compete for medals. They wanted to try something new – not portraying the athletes as victims.

One of the three principles in the television station’s program strategy was to create social change so the Paralympics would no longer be covered with an undertone of pity suggesting that Paralympic athletes are not as good, fast, or strong as their counterparts in the Olympic Games.

Channel 4 decided that the athletes who had made it all the way to the Paralympic Games were, in reality, superhumans who struggled with adversity in life, but with strength, endurance, and grit taking these athletes all the way to The Paralympics.

Channel 4’s new approach is clear when you watch the trailer launching their coverage. It was titled ‘Meet the Superhumans’.

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From Mirrors to Movers

In addition to changing the narrative at the 2012 Paralympics, Channel 4 spent £850,000 on recruiting and developing a new generation of presenters and reporters, all with disabilities, for their coverage of the 2012 London Paralympics.

Screengrab from Channel 4´s video trailer 'Meet the Superhumans'

The lights are lit in an aquatic center. We see a rain-splattered racetrack where the camera zooms in on the white starting lines. A bicycle stadium in a split second. A rolling basketball. The Olympic stadium set between the buildings of London. Then the first image of a person. She is short in stature. She is a ‘Little Person’ and walks in silhouette directly towards you. Are those swimmer’s goggles dangling from her hand?

Then we see a circle of muscular men. But they are all sitting in wheelchairs. They clap each other on the shoulders. On an indoor basketball court. Then a brief clip of highlights. Points scored, games won, 44

Element One: Expand The Mind swimmers stretch their arms in victory, and athletes compete. Rap music accentuates the words on the screen: Forget everything you thought you knew about strength.

Forget everything you thought you knew about humans.

It’s time to do battle.

Meet the Superhumans.

Channel 4’s coverage of the Paralympic Games in 2012 ended up breaking the broadcaster’s viewing records. Five hundred hours were broadcast - an increase of 400 percent. Two out of every three viewers stated that Channel 4’s coverage changed their perception of disabled people, but also their perception of the Games.

It changed from an event for disabled sports practitioners to an event promoting top athletes on their own terms.

The opening ceremony was watched by 11.2 million viewers. 6.3 million British viewers watched the men’s 100-meter final and 4.5 million watched the 200-meter final.

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From Mirrors to Movers

One in four UK TV viewers watched Channel 4's Paralympic coverage every day, a 252 percent increase from the 2008 Paralympics.

Screengrab from Channel 4´s video trailer 'Meet the Superhumans'

Of course, sports are not the only domain which can be presented differently. Constructive journalism encompasses all classic beats: domestic, foreign news, politics, health, science and business – in sum, everything. The same applies to genres: breaking news, top stories, features, interviews, investigative journalism and debates.

Keeping the Stick The classic journalistic mindset, with a focus on the negative, is a part of every journalist’s DNA. It is in our blood from years of training, history of journalism and icons, as well as from a fair amount of habitual thinking. In order to counteract this, we must begin by training constructive journalism skills. Critics of constructive journalism believe that this means becoming a mere microphone holder or providing PR for 46

Element One: Expand The Mind people in power – at the risk of creating only a type of cheerfully naïve journalism.

It is important to take these concerns seriously, because they have to do with journalism’s professional foundations and selfperception. Yet, some of the central criticisms towards constructive journalism are myths. Let us take a look.

Four myths in journalism, deconstructed: Myth 1 ‘Constructive journalism is uncritical’ Constructive journalism is still critical towards sources and the documentation regarding the story topic, and it strives to be critical without a negative outset, aiming to look at solutions and not just problems, considering paths forward instead of faults.

Myth 2 ‘Constructive journalism puts a lid on conflicts’ On the contrary. There is still plenty of conflict material in constructive journalism. The world contains fundamental opposites, which create conflict. It is the role of the journalist to report them. Quality journalism of a constructive nature always remembers the ‘C’ in the story: the conflict, the crisis and the complications. Otherwise, the story becomes insipid and untrustworthy. That said, constructive journalism makes a conscious choice not to escalate conflicts or to make them chronic. Instead, it also seeks and reports on resources, realistic solutions or compromises.

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From Mirrors to Movers

Descartes paved the way for critical thinking An initiator and founding father of critical thinking was French philosopher and mathematician, René Descartes (1596-1650). He created the basis for our scientific methods. Descartes introduced his ‘Method of Doubt’ in works from 1637-1641. He emphasized the importance of an open and curious critical investigation. Descartes said that to be absolutely sure we accept only what is genuinely certain, we must first deliberately renounce all of the firmly held, but questionable, beliefs we have previously acquired by experience and education.

Descartes even questioned the validity of views put forward by ancient authorities like Hippocrates and Aristotle, views that were being accepted as true for more than two millennia. He taught us how to be critical without a negative outset. In journalism, being critical has been reduced to being critical with a negative frame.

How Descartes described his ‘Method of Doubt’: ‘I never accepted anything as true if I had not evident knowledge of it being so.’

‘I divided each problem I examined into as many parts as was feasible.’

‘I directed my thoughts in an orderly way, beginning with the simplest objects.’

‘I made throughout such complete enumerations that I might be sure of leaving nothing out.’

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Element One: Expand The Mind Myth 3 ‘Constructive journalism is not hard news’ The fact that there are stories with a constructive focus in the general public is nothing new. Top news stories can certainly be constructive. The news value lies in documenting a different reality, rather than the one we think we know so well. Of course, it requires a story of resonance and societal value to be front-page material – just as other top news does.

The Economist often chose to report on major news stories with a constructive story angle: ‘Seize the day: How diminishing oil prices and new technology offer a chance to transform energy policy.’ 6 Or, The New York Times reports on efforts to rehabilitate ISIS warriors by including them in society when they return: ‘For Jihadists, Denmark Tries Rehabilitation.’ 7 Myth 4 ‘Constructive journalism is not objective’ Correct. But no journalism is objective. Objectivity can be defined as presenting and communicating everything about a given case.

Journalism is slices of a larger reality. All of it is framed through a chosen angle, from the story idea, through researching to publishing. Before writing, the journalist has already decided which aspect of a story topic their piece covers. Instead of having a faulty belief around objectivity, we should strive for being fair, balanced, and accountable.

The balance between negative and constructive stories It is difficult to ascertain whether the negative and positive are evenly distributed throughout the world. It is in the eye and mind of the beholder to determine whether there is more sadness or joy, or whether there are more reasons to worry than be optimistic. It is clear how journalism has traditionally looked upon this distribution, as most peo49

From Mirrors to Movers ple will feel that news coverage is dominated by negative-critical stories. This position is substantiated in the data. The Mayhem Index from Rocky Mountain Media Watch has shown how large a percentage of the news broadcasts on local TV stations involved stories with subjects like crime, catastrophes, war and terror. On average, these negative-critical stories constituted forty-six percent of all news broadcasts. 8 A study from 1997, published by Center for Media and Public Affairs, found that from 1993 to 1997, network evening news tripled their coverage of crime, specifically increasing their coverage of murders by 700 percent. 9 During the same period, actual crime rates decreased.

The pattern has continued to the present day, with television news broadcasters as the biggest culprits compared to newspapers.

Christian Science Monitor Most recently, the Christian Science Monitor/CSMonitor has added a ‘Take Action’ vertical. It covers topics like education, environment, human trafficking, disaster relief and recovery. The CSMonitor wants to connect their readers with organizations tackling these issues.

They explain their initiative like this: ‘Today, with social media as a stable and key part of modern journalism, it is problematic to maintain the notion that our users do not want to engage and act on what they read.’

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Element One: Expand The Mind

'We are also interested in providing paths to deeper understanding and action for readers who've been inspired to combine their reading of the news with an ability to act in a way that is meaningful and unique to them', wrote The CSMonitor when they launched their 'Take Action' initiative.

Screengrab from The CSMonitor's webpage.

Ryot.org Four young Americans got so tired of their pent-up feelings and the feeling of helplessness they got from reading the newspapers that they set up their own website - Ryot.org - where news stories are linked with opportunities to take action. At the bottom of every article, Ryot.org explains how they decided whom to link to.

For example, consider the news story covering the shootings at Fort Hood, the American military base in Texas, in the spring of 2014.

This story was combined with an invitation to donate money or take 51

From Mirrors to Movers part in a petition for the National Alliance on Mental Illness, an organization working towards reducing the number of people with mental disorders in the United States.

If you ask the founders of Ryot.org about why they combine journalism with activism, their answer is: ‘Well, the old guard is objecting, of course. But we do it anyway. We believe that it is the right way to go, and we are confident that more media will join.’

Deseret News The American newspaper Deseret News in Utah has collected data on how well constructive stories did in comparison with negative versions on the same story topic. The results are noteworthy. A story with a classic approach covering prisons filled to capacity received 700 clicks. The constructive article on the same story topic received 15,321 clicks - more than twenty-one times as many. This pattern repeats for all examples. The constructive stories generate a lot more engagement in the form of clicks, likes and shares, as documented in Deseret News’ 2013 report, ‘A Transformational Journey’. 10 A 2014 study from the University of Texas looked at how constructive stories affect readers. A total of 755 readers participated in the study. Half read classic articles covering poverty in India, homelessness in New York, and children with psychiatric problems. The other half read the same stories, but these versions had endings focusing on solutions.

The readers who had read the constructive articles indicated that they felt more informed, involved and were interested in reading more on the subject compared to the readers of the stories that had no solutions-focused information. 11

Get Better Ideas using Positive Psychology Neuroscience and behavioral research suggest that positive states of mind affect people much like the way light affects plants. In the presence of the sun, plants awaken, grow, spread their leaves, and 52

Element One: Expand The Mind bloom. It is the same with people in the presence of positive emotions.

We become more creative, collaborate better and are able to see the big picture. Positive emotions in general broaden our awareness. Our worldview and perspective literally expand. We know that even very mild and subtle positive emotions fundamentally change how the brain works and increases the breadth of our field of view. 12 When people experience mild positive emotion, they look around and take in more information. This is documented through studies where eye movement is monitored through eye-tracking. When in a neutral emotional state, we pretty much look at what is in front of us.

Brain imaging studies support these same findings.

Positive emotions tend to break us out of our self-absorption.

We notice that there are other people around us. We are more likely to think in terms of inclusive perspectives - the ‘we’ instead of ‘me’ vs ‘you’. This is a mode of thinking that comes naturally when we experience mild positive emotions. People also get better at taking someone else’s perspective when experiencing a more uplifted mood or joyful sense. Even more crucially, things that tend to divide us like race and cultural differences slip out of view when we are in a positive emotional state, and people are more able to recognize individuals across racial and cultural boundaries and make connections. In psychological research, this is called the ‘broaden-and-build’ theory.

The German Psychologist Karl Duncker carried out emotional experiments in 1945 wanting to study cognitive performance when it comes to problem solving. 13His task for the test subjects may seem quite simple, but it turned out to be difficult for most of them: ‘Attach a candle to a noticeboard, but the candle may not drip on the floor when lit.’ The available tools consisted of a box of tacks, a candle and matches.

Several research participants tried to stick the tacks through the candle in order to pin it to the noticeboard or use melted wax to stick 53

From Mirrors to Movers the candle to the noticeboard, but neither of the two methods could support the candle. The solution lies in emptying the box of tacks, attaching one side of the box to the notice board using the tacks, then placing the candle in the bottom of the box and lighting the candle.

In the 1980s, American Professor of Psychology Alice M. Isen tested whether our mental state was related to our ability to solve the candle problem. It is. Research participants who were shown a funny or uplifting video clip prior to the test solved the problem better than subjects who did not watch a funny video. The group who was shown a sad video exhibited the worst performance, with significantly fewer people solving the puzzle. 14

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CHAPTER 4

GOING BLIND. THE FIXATION ERROR A critical part of journalists’ self-image is that we cover reality as it is without differentiating whether a story will prove to be positive or negative. But this is not the way it unfolds in reality. Our journalistic culture and habits take over, and seeing reality as it is becomes far harder than we imagine, and we are often unaware of this.

English scientist and philosopher Francis Bacon (1561-1626) identified and investigated deep-seated human tendencies like our tendency to prefer information that confirms our existing positions. Today, psychologists refer to this as our ‘confirmation biases’. Bacon wrote in his seminal book “Novum Organon” (1620) that human intellect is more moved and excited by affirmatives than by negatives: ‘The human understanding when it has once adopted an opinion (either as being the received opinion or as being agreeable to itself) draws all things else to support and agree with it. Though there be a greater number and weight of instances to be found on the other side, yet these it either neglects and despises, or else by some distinction sets aside and rejects, in order that by this great and pernicious predetermination the authority of its former conclusions may remain inviolate.’

Of course Bacon’s goal was not to lament our tendency to err his mission was more constructive. He wanted to aid us in the remedy of it. Today, scientific evidence supports his concerns about these human biases which of course also happen in journalism, whether we admit it or not.

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From Mirrors to Movers In modern life, many professional groups recognize this phenomenon and work with it, such as judges, police officers and counselors, for example, who make important decisions about other people’s lives, who work at playing the devil’s advocate, who have long phases of investigation before making decisions on rulings, convictions and filing charges.

Social workers, who visit children with problems, naturally look for causes for concern but they also look for evidence indicative of the opposite. For these reasons, they often wait as long as possible before making their decision on a possible forced removal. Doctors demand several different teams of colleagues to check off items on a checklist before determining whether a patient should be diagnosed as brain dead. Researchers struggle to investigate whether their hypotheses hold and, to a certain degree, they may not attempt to confirm those hypotheses, but rather to disprove them.

The human brain does not work as rationally as we would like to think. When we finally make a certain decision, the decision we made will later seem far more justified than any alternative that was considered, perhaps even quite early in the process. Even if we consider arguments against our original decision, they will seem less convincing.

We neither see nor hear clearly and objectively.

This has been shown time and again. Evidence becomes overestimated or underestimated, according to our biases and preferences.

Blood test numbers are overlooked. Concerns are given too much or too little consideration. Coincidences are interpreted as patterns, or patterns are dismissed as coincidences.

For this reason, researchers, doctors, police officers and social workers all try to eliminate the impact of their prejudice by constructing an obstacle course of procedures around themselves. They are all in a position where they need to make critical decisions about other peo-

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Element One: Expand The Mind ple’s fate and wish to overcome their natural biases and tendencies to prefer their own decisions.

Scientists do the same thing, and their work resembles that of journalists in some ways: we develop a working hypothesis, we do some preliminary approaches and assemble a collection of material used to test the hypothesis. Then, once we feel certain enough, we make a decision to determine the approach, the framing of a story.

But, in contrast to scientists, journalists rarely try to reject the story. Rather we aim to confirm it.

Therefore, we become extremely susceptible to what we could label ‘fixation error’ - we become so fixated on a decision, that we only see the things that support it without duly considering the evidence that opposes it. Fundamentally, we will have a natural human tendency to prefer sources and information which support our angle and not consider those that oppose it. Naturally, we want to ask our sources questions leading to a confirmation of our position. We want to treat them so that they react in a way consistent with this angle, whether that means being friendly or aggressive. We will disregard some of what they say or we will reject it as irrelevant and exclude it from the story.

It is common knowledge that this brings poor journalism. You can find the warnings in journalistic textbooks under headlines on intended objectivity, interview techniques and ethics. But the important point about fixation errors is that we do not even realize that we are committing them. In the earliest stages of story preparation, we have made a preconceived decision of how things are, and then we start making reality fit that decision. Psychologically, it is a wonderful experience when everything tells us we are right, but it is bad journalism.

Fixation errors happen to everyone, and they are committed within all professions by both the experienced and novices. The constructively inclined journalist who wants to tell a story about how a certain company is contributing positively to the local society can also be 59

From Mirrors to Movers subject to fixation errors in relation to the constructive angle. This is not a phenomenon only limited to the negative approach.

Nonetheless, there is reason to think that constructive journalism may help discover and avoid some of these fixation errors. News journalists, it seems, are particularly prone to committing negative fixation errors. One core function of news journalism is the surveillance of government and power-holders; another one is alerting the public of potential threats. Taken together, these two functions form a watchdog role important for journalism, therefore explaining why some news is inherently negative. Many news reporters have, early on, decided upon a negative version of the story and then get confirmation for this negative angle. It fits perfectly into the classic self-perception of journalism that journalists should not be interested in solutions, that villains will abuse victims, and that the ‘system’ fails the weak and is not acting sufficiently to help people who are suffering. In this view, it is the journalist’s duty to be on the lookout for this image of the world and this alone.

In my master’s thesis, ‘Innovating News Journalism through Positive Psychology’, I argue that the negative preponderance is rooted in journalism’s own history, where the Watergate scandal leading to president Nixon’s resignation cemented the ultimate ideal for journalists, which is to topple the president or some other person in power. 15 This certainly guided me for many years, and still is an active value. If wrong is done, I want to uncover and disclose it and see justice carried out.

In the modern day, beginning with around Watergate, ‘great reporting’ was ‘critical reporting’ – i.e., negative. Since Watergate, news reporting has stalled into describing a disease model of the world. Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward became idols and are still viewed as role models for journalists. They should be – it was excellent investigative journalism - but there’s room for more.

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Element One: Expand The Mind Buzz Merritt, editor of The Wichita Eagle, describes his personal experience of this culture change in detail: ‘An event that should have been a plateau from which the profession moved on to even greater heights turned out to be a peak. The journalistic norm became ‘we catch crooks’. Scalps on the belt, particularly government scalps, were the sign of rank and the measure of testosterone at gatherings of the tribe. Investigative reporting continued to prove its value in exposing abuse and corruption, but it also shaped what journalists came to value above all else: ‘The relentless uncovering of wrongdoing, no matter its ultimate importance to the public or the great scheme of things’. The triumph of Watergate gave new shape to the profession’s image of itself: the journalist as a folk hero, the astute political analyst or media star.’

Yet this ideal comes at a price. When negative-critical stories become what journalists prefer to write and what the editors most want to print, this opens the door for fixation errors. We begin making decisions too quickly. We close our eyes to whether the department secretary did in fact act lawfully. Whether the people in power actually abused their power. Whether the authorities were actually careless.

It is important and correct for journalists to hold people in power accountable and to keep an eye on them. Still, it is just as important that journalism does not report a distorted image of reality, therefore giving readers a skewed and shaky foundation upon which to act.

Breaking with this paradigm can open our eyes and make us conscious of negative biases resulting in fixation errors. Much like other professional groups, we need to develop rigorous methods and procedures to ensure we cover all angles and elements, the positive, negative and neutral versions of the world. These methods and procedures would hold us in check when we look for our stories, carry out research, select and interview sources and determine the final approach. Other-

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From Mirrors to Movers wise we risk being stuck in a traditional - negative – account of reality.

As mentioned earlier, we risk feeding into the availability cascade.

For example, most people have heard of post-traumatic stress disorder or PTSD. It is a reaction experienced in particular by soldiers returning home from war and may also be experienced due to other extreme traumas in life. But did you know that there is a positive counterpart to PTSD? This positive phenomenon is called PTG (post-traumatic growth), or personal growth derived from living through a traumatic experience and coming out the other side stronger. It does not refer to the positive sides of having experienced trauma, but rather to personal development after the trauma. Post-traumatic growth manifests itself as: Increased personal strength More meaningful and intimate relationships New and deeper understanding of life New priorities, which are perceived as meaningful to the individual Mental development In the public sphere there are numerous examples of people who have experienced post-traumatic-growth and thrived: Nelson Mandela was released from his harsh incarceration after twenty-seven years and united South Africa instead of encouraging violence. He received the Nobel Peace Prize with his former adversary, Frederik Willem de Klerk (1993).

Aung San Suu Kyi, the prominent Burmese opposition politician and chairperson of the National League for Democracy, spent twentyone years as a political prisoner. Even during her incarceration she was a strong advocate for national unity and peaceful coexistence. During house arrest, Suu Kyi received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1991.

Parts of society, or even society as a whole, can experience posttraumatic growth after facing war, catastrophes, illness, stress or abuse.

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Element One: Expand The Mind Classic journalism would normally zoom in on the victim status and the negative spiral which we know as post-traumatic stress, and thus contribute to a public perception that post-traumatic stress is the natural outcome. However, studies and reports point to another reality.

Post-traumatic growth is much more common than posttraumatic stress. Researchers have found that reports of growth experiences in the aftermath of traumatic events far outnumber reports of psychiatric disorders. One report monitored Vietnam War veterans that had been captured and tortured. The report concluded that sixty-one percent of the veterans later regarded their military service in Vietnam as a (mental) growth experience. 16 Post traumatic growth is likewise reported in individuals who have experienced bereavement, HIV infection, cancer, heart attacks, sexual assault and sexual abuse and refugee experiences. So, both negative and positive conditions exist and must be covered in balanced journalistic coverage.

What If? Fixation errors can be difficult to identify. But you can try to ask yourself some questions based on a ‘What if the others are right?’ framework.

Have you stopped being curious and instead become dead certain?

Do your ‘villains’ actually have a point?

Does the proposed legislation, which you are criticizing, solve several problems?

Are you forgetting to investigate advantages because you are busy demonstrating the disadvantages in a situation?

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CHAPTER 5

THE ANATOMY OF CONFLICT Constructive journalism focuses on journalists’ own role in the classic news criterion: conflict. Do we foster conflict by the way we behave and report?

The American Arbinger Institute was founded in the late 1970s and specializes in conflict resolution. The Arbinger Institute has worked on uncovering mechanisms that steer us to avoid personal responsibility and instead blame external circumstances or other people for our problems. More importantly, the Arbinger Institute establishes methods for altering and dismantling these self-protective mechanisms.

The underlying problem is that we do not realize that we are the problem. We exist in our own reality – ‘in the box’- as the folks at Arbinger call it. We tend to forget that others have equally good justifications for what they are doing. When you exist in your own box, you are also inducing others to remain in theirs, and that is trouble. These boxes make us irrational and prevent us from reaching our goals. This model applies to the political scene, to workplaces and at home - and it comes with costs that we do not even consider.

At a TEDx talk, Jim Ferrell from the Arbinger Institute spoke about conflict resolution. TEDx events are independently organized conferences under license from TED. TED is the banner under which the original annual conferences were held in Vancouver (Canada), Long Beach and Palm Beach (USA) with the tagline ‘Ideas worth spreading.’

During his TEDx talk, Jim Ferrell told this story: A son asks his father for permission to borrow the car. The father is not thrilled at the thought.

The son has stirred up a lot of trouble recently and hangs out with bad 65

From Mirrors to Movers company. So as not to directly turn the son down, but at the same time making the arrangement less attractive, the father says, ‘OK, you can borrow the car if you are back by 10:30 pm.’

‘Alright, Dad’, says the son and drives off.

The father is absolutely certain that his son will not return by the agreed time. So, as the time approaches, he constantly looks at his watch. With one minute left to 10:30, he says to himself, ‘OK, that was that, the straw breaking the camel’s back! My son will never be allowed to borrow the car again.’ That very second, he hears the gravel crunch as his son parks the car in the driveway. What happens now? Will the father be happy?

In his TEDx talk, Ferrell asked the audience this question. Everyone laughed uncomfortably, because they all knew the father would not be pleased - on the contrary, he would be disappointed. He had just found the perfect argument that his son was irresponsible and unreliable, which would have been useful in the ongoing conflict. Then the son suddenly lives up to the agreement. How annoying! And irrational.

In reality, if the son had a tendency towards being irresponsible, his father should be happy and relieved by his ability to return home in time, demonstrating that things were not as bad as the father feared.

But when it comes to conflict, we are not rational. We fool ourselves into thinking that there is nothing we would rather have than a resolution, only it is a delusion.

It could be that we want a solution, but the Arbinger Institute shows that all too often we would rather be right! We want confirmation of our view of the other party – as this makes us feel so wonderfully guilt-free since it reduces our own contribution to the situation.

The father tells himself: ‘What can I do but scold my son and not let him borrow the car when he is so irresponsible?’ The son tells himself: ‘My father is so unreasonable. It’s not worthwhile to always do as he says. He is so angry and unsympathetic.’ Each only blames the other.

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Element One: Expand The Mind Conflict alliance refers to the conflicts we actively maintain to justify ourselves. The parties implicate each other in an alliance to support their self-image, even though the two parties are opponents in the conflict. Instead, they are really in an alliance to maintain the conflict.

Instead of a resolution, they both get what they prefer: they get to be right. This is the anatomy of conflict according to Arbinger. When the conflict develops into conflict alliances, the inner logic is not focused on resolving the conflict but rather on maintaining it.

This is an essential component that journalists and media professionals must consider when we work with our sources. Are we sufficiently aware of sources’ hidden (sometimes subconscious) motivation for keeping conflicts alive?

Conflict is good news material. Conflict adds dramatic tension to narratives. Someone wants one thing, others want something else – who will win, and how will it all play out? It infuses energy and development into any story. It is also in some ways a realistic portrayal of the world. There are, more often than not, conflicting interests in most situations.

Conflict, furthermore, introduces a potential for development.

We know this from any personal or fairy tale narrative. Only when the main character encounters the challenge intended to make him see the world from a different perspective will he rise to the occasion and begin to grow.

There's a good side to realizing we are in conflict alliances. When we know they exist and are aware of our own role, we can deconstruct them. In constructive conflicts, parties enter into dialogues and learn. In conflict alliances, the conflicts are seemingly entrenched, without any possibility of resolution, and the media often play a part in these conflict alliances. It can be very difficult to see which individuals in a democratic society stand to gain from the media continuing in its current role.

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From Mirrors to Movers We often experience conflict alliances when we cover dissent between government and opposition.

Constructive journalism can certainly report on conflicts if the parties enter into dialogue to learn, but we should be aware to avoid falling into the trap of conflict alliances, where parties are entrenched, therefore playing an active role in sustaining them. So, how do we manage to work around conflict alliances? By asking questions such as: What would the best solution be?

Do the parties have irreconcilable differences, or are there ways to meet them both?

Are there examples where others have resolved similar problems?

These are questions that do not try to side with one party or the other. Rather, these questions support the goal of the conflict, which is to find a solution both parties can live with. It may, however, be impossible to find constructive answers.

Irresolvable dilemmas do exist, where one party’s needs have to give way to another’s. Yet, by acknowledging the conflict alliances, journalists are able to identify whether it is chronic or not. If sources might have an incentive to maintain the conflict, the press can avoid sustaining them.

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ELEMENT TWO STORM THE BRAIN

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CHAPTER 6

TRY THE PERMA TOOL HOW TO BRAINSTORM ON CONSTRUCTIVE STORY ANGLES A fundamental skill for any reporter working in news or current affairs is being able to come up with original, effectual and societal relevant story angles. But, in most newsrooms I have encountered, the dynamic in the editorial meeting is the same. First prize goes to the special, exclusive stories, which are always in high demand. Then, we look at the news of the day. What are great follow-ups? Who is angry because of something that has happened? Who is criticizing what the Prime Minister or President just presented? Can we find a disconnect between what a politician has said and what he is doing? And that would be about it. End of meeting.

When I train journalist colleagues in constructive journalism, quite often someone will raise his/her hand. They then say, ‘Now that I think about it, I am familiar with this.’ Another will add, ‘I did this in a story I wrote once when…’

Many of them intuitively use some of the methods I describe here in their own reporting. I say, keep at it! Yet, continuing to educate oneself about what positive psychology research has uncovered is important because it will expand and widen your knowledge of human nature and psyche, which is important knowledge for any journalist. A fundamental value in journalism is portraying the world accurately. How will you go about this if you only report on the disease model of the world and are not aware or educated about the well-being model of the world?

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From Mirrors to Movers It is necessary to give a name to the new tools in the toolbox.

When things and concepts are explained and labelled, they become easier to use because they are identified and put in a framework for conscious and systematic - not just intuitive - use.

Here’s a suggestion for how to get out of the classic rut when brainstorming on story angles in newsrooms. Journalists tend to think along the same lines, which triggers the same ideas for story angles and therefore the same portrayal of the world keeps getting repeated, which is often a portrayal centered on what is wrong with systems, politicians, states - you name it. But what we focus on is what we get more of. That is why we need a tool that fosters more constructive coverage of any given story topic – in order to get more story angles for better constructive journalism.

I suggest using this simple framework for brainstorming constructive journalistic story angles and ideas. It is based on the work of Professor Martin Seligman, Director of the Positive Psychology Center at the University of Pennsylvania. 17 Seligman points to five elements of well-being: Positive emotions, Engagement, Relationships, Meaning, Accomplishment. This gives us the acronym PERMA: P - Positive emotions Numerous and sophisticated. Happiness and satisfaction are well-known examples of positive emotions, but this also includes more nuanced feelings like gratitude, trust, hope and respect.

E - Engagement Also called flow. This is the mental state of operations in which a person performing an activity is fully immersed in feelings of energized focus, full involvement and enjoyment.

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Element Two: Storm The Brain R - Relationships Positive, constructive and close relationships. They exist in relation to family and friends as well as in a professional context.

M - Meaning Experiencing meaning in life is, in essence, related to attaching oneself to something larger than oneself. It instills the sense that there is a larger purpose to life, and being a part of that confers meaning.

A - Accomplishment To reach a goal you have set for yourself.

Use the PERMA model as a tool enabling systematic idea brainstorming within constructive journalism. Questions simply need to be added to the above-mentioned five elements. These questions will help guide thoughts and ideas in the newsroom around a story topic. So ask yourself: P – Positive emotions: Who is hopeful? Who is grateful? Who has solved a problem? How will this benefit XX going forward?

E – Engagement: Who is experiencing flow? Who has put in a significant effort? Who is passionate about something? Who will be engaged or benefit going forward?

R – Relationships: Who helped? Who has been brought together? Who can be brought together? Where can you find helpful examples of cooperation? Where have closer ties been established? Where is there potential for future closer ties?

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From Mirrors to Movers M – Meaning: Who is wiser now? What did they learn? What is the inspiration for the others? What is the meaning? What is the higher purpose? What will be the higher meaning?

A – Accomplishment: What did it take? What was overcome? What was achieved? What will be achieved?

The list of questions above is not a complete list, but should only act as a guide for your brainstorming. Add your own questions at will, and use the PERMA model when covering complex story topics and news stories in the editorial meeting or even alone. It only takes a few minutes and will broaden your horizons and generate constructive story angles.

In an effort to ensure that your story angles are constructive and not only positive, ask yourself what is the societal importance of your story idea? How is this story relevant and important for society? That way you competently steer away from upbeat, uplifting stories - positive journalism - and create constructive journalism which adhere both to journalism’s core functions and has strong societal importance.

News Journalism. When can it be constructive?

In news journalism, a good news story often fulfills one or more of these commonly used news criteria: • • • • •

Be current/be breaking news Have societal significance Draw on identification Be sensational Explore conflict

Constructive journalism does not necessarily change this. Constructive stories should be just as newsworthy as traditional ones and equally suitable front-page material. Constructive stories can be break74

Element Two: Storm The Brain ing news if politicians suddenly find common ground as a consequence of constructive questions asked from a journalist.

It is sensational when someone succeeds in a tough situation as when Lassana Bathily, a Malian national, hid customers during a siege on a kosher shop in Paris in connection with the attack on French satire magazine Charlie Hebdo in November, 2014.

After aiding hostages during the Charlie Hebdo attack in Paris, France granted Mr. Bathily citizenship.

Or when campers sailed out to rescue young victims of the Norwegian Utoya massacre while bullets were fired from ashore by Norwegian terrorist Anders Behring Breivik in 2013.

The constructive elements include highlighting resilience, courage and bravery, and both examples have great significance to society.

The Charlie Hebdo story has a bigger contrasting message: how a few Muslim men chose to exhibit their religion in a violent, radical way, or 75

From Mirrors to Movers the opposite constructive angle - that another Muslim man chose to live out his religion by helping fellow citizens, who happened to be Jewish, survive an attack by hiding them in a storage room.

The criteria’s identification and conflict require more consideration, but they also work in constructive journalism. The identification criterion is often divided in two: ‘Wish it were me’ and ‘Glad it wasn’t me.’ The latter is usually a victim story. It is also the victim portrayal that we wallow in, like when we hear of a young woman who has been held captive in a basement for years.

Austrian Natascha Kampusch reacted strongly against the media’s portrayal of her. She describes this in her autobiography, ‘3096 days’.

Here, she criticizes being portrayed as a victim by the media after she escaped following eight and a half years in captivity, or as she calls it, she ‘freed herself’. Kampusch does not see herself as a helpless victim. Already as a ten-year-old, she had a strength that helped her get through the horrors which let her emerge even stronger. This strength, in part, came from her ability to see the man who held her captive as someone other than a pure monster. ‘If I saw him as a person with a very dark side and a somewhat lighter side, I could maintain my humanity myself’, Kampusch writes in her book.

She succeeds in maintaining a nuanced image of herself and her kidnapper. This nuance was completely dismissed by the media. The press thought that she suffered from the Stockholm syndrome, defined as sympathy for the captor developed by hostages under stress.

In these kinds of cases we, the press, rarely depict roles other than the villain and the victim. In constructive journalism, however, the identification criteria must be based on more empathy. Can we manage to understand people in this story better and therefore become wiser about our own lives? Does it enable us to act differently? To organize our society better? To avoid repeating other people’s mistakes?

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Element Two: Storm The Brain The conflict criterion is perhaps the most problematic of the news criteria. There are often several opposing interests in a case, and no easy solution. This is, in itself, a great criterion for a solid story. It is when the journalist or media plays a part in escalating the conflict, or even takes part in it directly, that it becomes a problem and results in bad journalism.

Fundamentally, constructive stories do not have less news value than classic negative-critical stories. The difference is just that a ‘good story’ can also be a ‘good’ story.

Pigs Become News For years, reporter Kristian Sloth had reported on agriculture and its production methods with a critical eye. Yet, one Sunday evening in 2013, a different kind of story done by Sloth appeared as a top news story in the investigative journalism magazine on Danish Broadcasting.

Instead of another critical story on the overuse of antibiotics, he reported how a Dutch pig farmer had significantly reduced the use of antibiotics by using probiotics to fight the bad bacteria. As a result, the farmer had lowered the number of resistant bacteria that can be lethal to humans and the method used could be implemented in other farms.

In other words, this example of constructive journalism pointed to a course of action: 'The story had a greater real life effect than many other stories I have done in terms of the reactions I got afterwards from stakeholders because it showed a way out of the trenches. Usually the scenario is an expert criticizing and the industry defending itself. My piece prescribed a course of action, which felt liberating even to me as the reporter.

Sloth’s story from the Netherlands meant that a group of Danish pig farmers has begun testing the Dutch method. They are already reporting lower use of antibiotics.

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From Mirrors to Movers

Reporting on a clever solution from a pig farm in the Netherlands.

Journalist Kristian Sloth, Danish Broadcasting, in action

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CHAPTER 7

INVESTIGATIVE JOURNALISM. HOW CAN IT BE CONSTRUCTIVE? The Cavling Prize is Denmark’s most prestigious journalistic prize. In 2013, it was awarded to journalist Asbjorn With for uncovering severe neglect from social services in the region his newspaper covered: how a father sexually abused his children for years without social authorities intervening. The Chairman of the Cavling Committee gave a speech when he awarded the prize and mentioned how Asbjorn With’s coverage had constructive elements in it. But how can investigative journalism be constructive, especially on a story topic like incest and sexual abuse? It all comes down to the mindset of the reporter and the granular details of the coverage.

Asbjorn With’s prize-winning coverage began when a local council member started asking probing questions. She was puzzled by the behavior of municipal public servants and asked for information on cases handled by the department of social services, but they refused to hand the dossiers over. Then things were set in motion when she alerted the local reporter. In more than hundred and thirty articles, With uncovered the deficiencies: how authorities failed to intervene in cases of sexual abuse, how forcible removal of family members from the home failed, how providing help for the handicapped was shelved. One of the cases, which became known as ‘the Rebild case’, uncovered a father’s years-long sexual abuse of nine children. This man has since been sentenced to twelve years’ imprisonment.

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From Mirrors to Movers

Asbjorn With, Investigative Reporter, Winner of the Cavling Prize 2013, Denmark

“I am not interested in portraying anyone as a villain. I am more interested in bringing to light what these people really think. So, I try to discover the premises and perceptions of reality which these people hold.

When I give people who are being criticized the opportunity to speak, something unique happens.�

I interviewed With after he had received the prize. Together, we went through all of his articles and work methods to identify the constructive elements. Some of them were intentional, and others seemed to have grown from With’s mindset and values as a reporter.

Q: The Rebild case drew nationwide attention. What effect did that have on your coverage of the story?

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Element Two: Storm The Brain With: ‘It bothered me when other media covered the Rebild case, since much of their coverage was not constructive. It seemed as though most of it was about attacking the mayor and demanding promises of future improvements. But this is not good enough. If you want to contribute towards change, you have to understand what the situation was like.

What happened in the past and how can the same thing be avoided in the future? News media is showing up when there is a fire and then they leave. People are left behind thinking, ‘What is the purpose? Who, what, how, when will it change?’ This kind of journalism is not constructive. It is just noise. People stop listening because they are not really getting information they can use.

‘The consequence of journalism being just noise is twofold: First, citizens develop mistrust towards the system. In my case, towards the municipality. Secondly citizens lose faith in journalists because we tell them something that is one-sided and therefore untrustworthy.’

Q: How do you think things got this way?

‘Primarily because of the speed of today’s news flow – but news should not be easily digestible and entertaining. I believe in substance, so that the citizen living in a democracy can make decisions. If you build a solid foundation in a news story, it will remain standing like a good brick, ready for you to build on top of it.’

Q: Do you have tips for ways of working as a journalist that ensure constructive coverage?

‘You have to find your way to the core of the case and resist the temptation if something else comes up - something which may look exciting, but in reality is irrelevant or only serves to put the spotlight on the journalist. I experienced this myself, when the father in the Rebild case had to testify in court. My editors asked me if I wanted to cover the actual 83

From Mirrors to Movers court proceedings. The expected result would mean more front pages and prestige but I said no, because the court case was not about the administrative culture in Rebild, which was the core of my story. A decision to cover the court case would mean that I would lose the focus of my main story, and I did not want that to happen.

‘Furthermore, it is crucial to have competent colleagues. I spent many hours with my editor, Joergen Toettrup, behind closed doors in his office. If he had not had the same basic mindset, this would not have been possible to do. Toettrup acted as my moderator and, among other things, ensured that I remained fair in my articles, especially with regards to my own language. I would naturally get incensed towards certain sources during my reporting, and this reflected in the language of my copy. Toettrup would say to me, ‘Take a walk and get some fresh air.’ When I returned to his office, he would say, ‘Let’s just take this paragraph a notch down, to secure fairness.’

‘Offhand, I would call my approach normal and logical. Yet, when I look back, I can see that I have a certain constructive approach towards my sources. I focus a lot on building trust with people and then living up to that trust. To sources that are not used to the media, I say, ‘You will get to read through it all, because it is your life and your family - you may correct anything you want.’

‘Colleagues tell me that I must not relinquish the right to quote and edit. My response is that it is not my rights in question. It is about the rights of the sources. It is their lives and their stories.

‘I interviewed the boys in the Rebild family after the municipality had long promised that it would help them, which turned out was not the case. When my article was ready, I drove out to the boys. I will never forget what it felt like to sit in their kitchen and read the story aloud.

Sentence by sentence. All three sons were there. The oldest sat on the kitchen table and looked down to the ground, dangling his feet slightly as he listened to me reading aloud. Each second felt like an exam. With 84

Element Two: Storm The Brain every single word I read, I risked that it would all come tumbling down.

That someone would say that I should stop reading - but it did not happen. I ended - and silence set in.

‘After a while, the son sitting on the kitchen table spoke. He said that he had not imagined it possible to describe their situations so accurately, and they thanked me in a subdued manner. The three boys could recognize themselves in what I described, and that is why the reporting works. When I sat there reading it, I had to live up to the trust they granted me. The fact that I have to be so accountable for what I have written means that I am extra careful and that the sources can trust me.’

Q: Do you also challenge the victims when you cover such a case?

‘Yes. First, I explain clearly that I cannot promise that their story will make it to the newspaper - unless it uncovers something new and relevant for the story’s core substance. If their information is the same kind of failings already described in previous articles, I will not print it. Furthermore, I need to have full access to their case records and documents to check my source’s version of events. I often find discrepancies between facts and the source’s story. When I let people know whether their story is qualified for being published or not and the reasons for my decision, they say that I have taken them seriously and express that they appreciate being informed in a transparent way.

‘I have the same approach towards the so-called ‘villains.’ I am not interested in portraying anyone as a villain. I am more interested in bringing to light what these people really think and what actions they take. I do not have a preconception of Rebild Municipality as being a culture of evil people trying to act as badly as possible towards their fellow citizens. So, I try to discover the premises and perceptions of reality, which these people hold. Why did they do things the way they did?

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From Mirrors to Movers ‘It is an important element for a complete coverage of the case.

When I give people who are being criticized the opportunity to speak, something unique happens. Reactions from our readers drive the coverage forward. Rebild’s mayor was allowed to explain herself in more than a brief quote. Then the readers can see whether her explanation is in line with their knowledge. Often it is not.

‘Then I return to the mayor and ask again, ‘New information has surfaced. How does it fit in?’ Then she would begin a new round of explanations, which is much better than shouting at her or adopting an aggressive tone. If that were to happen, she would turn defensive and the quality of my interview would deteriorate.

‘As a journalist, you must also have the guts to apologize. For example, I have apologized several times when I was too aggressive and shouted at my sources over the phone. Then I call them back and apologize. This earns me respect from my sources and, by showing integrity, I find that they do too. For example, people who publicly disagreed with me phoned me later while I was covering the case. Despite the adversarial outset, it could be a tip. When I asked them why, they would say that they respected the trustworthiness and nuances in my coverage.’

Q: I can see from your coverage of the Rebild case that it goes back and forth. For long periods of time, there is no real development, and then you write again?

‘This is the fundamental constructive aspect. To be perseverant and carry on until you find a plausible explanation for events. Stay on the story until there is long-lasting improvement. The journalist has a personal responsibility to stick to the story, even if it takes forever.’

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Tips for Doing Constructive Investigative Journalism: Uncover the problems. Then shift the coverage towards possible solutions.

Continue to cover the case until a valid solution has been implemented.

Remember to also challenge the 'victims' Treat the 'villains' with the same respect and curiosity as other sources.

Hold people in power accountable – yourself included.

Take responsibility for your errors, even publicly.

Let the sources read the finished product and clear up any disagreements before it is published. Do this without compromising documentation and facts.

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CHAPTER 8

THE JOURNEY TO SOLUTIONS JOURNALISM Tina Rosenberg had spoken to her editor at The New York Times about a story they were going to write. This was during the years when AIDS was wreaking havoc around the globe. An AIDS diagnosis in poor countries was equal to a death sentence, medicine being too expensive for most people. Her editor was not interested. The story was too wellknown and depressing. Then by chance, Rosenberg talked to a Chilean doctor who, in passing, mentioned that he wished Chile could install policies like Brazil.

‘What did Brazil do?’ asked the journalist. The answer made her pause and listen. It turned out that Brazil had managed to treat and provide medication for the people suffering from AIDS. The formula was quite simple. Poor people in the slums, who did not receive medicine against the disease, infected others and then spread the epidemic. So to counteract this epidemic Brazil began distributing free medicine to the poor.

‘I knew it and, fortunately, so did my editor. That story from Brazil would be a far better story than a let-us-go-to-Malawi-and-showhow-everyone-is-dying story. Doing the Malawi story again would not provide new knowledge on the problem, but going to Brazil and investigating what the authorities did to treat the poor who were suffering from AIDS while simultaneously stopping the epidemic – now that is news and a very good story’, said Rosenberg.

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From Mirrors to Movers The story was constructive but not without conflicts and problems, as Rosenberg describes: ‘The drug industry and President Clinton’s administration were opponents of what Brazil tried to do. They opposed the manufacturing of cheaper medicine – medicine which was just as effective as the original brands. This meant less profit for pharmaceutical companies, and they did not like that. My story was an investigative story and it was written with the aim of describing a country which had stopped the AIDS epidemic after having fought long and hard.’

When the article came out in the New York Times Magazine in January 2001, it stirred things up in a meaningful way. The article was read at the United Nations, where they were establishing The Global Fund, a global organization whose main purposes included the fight against AIDS in poor countries. Copies of the article ‘Look at Brazil’ were handed out to the participants and decision makers who had earlier heard drug companies state that poor countries did not have the capacity to fight AIDS. Tina Rosenberg’s article documented another reality.

This marked the beginning of an evolutionary journey for Rosenberg and another journalist colleague, David Bornstein. They went on to found Solutionsjournalism.org, an organization consisting of journalists who specialize in solutions-oriented journalism. They do training and work with a range of American media outlets wanting to learn ‘SoJo’. The two partners also spearhead a weekly column titled ‘Fixes’ in The New York Times, whose articles often number among readers’ Top Ten most shared articles.

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Tina Rosenberg, Co-Founder, Solutionsjournalism.org, Writer, New York Times, USA 'Always ask: Who is doing it right?'

Photo: Noah Greenberg

Solutions-focused approaches begin in the research phase, says Rosenberg: ‘If you speak with hospital management about a problem, always ask ‘Who is doing it right?’ This has to be one of your fundamental questions in your inquiry. Normally, when we look at the data set for any issue, we often report the worst-case scenario and the negative examples, but always remember to keep a lookout for the positive exceptions. Investigate what makes them the positive deviants’, says Rosenberg.

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From Mirrors to Movers Solutionsjournalism.org has received funding from The Knight Foundation, and some of the money went towards the creation of a database with comprehensive health-related data on positive deviations across the United States. Journalists can search the database to find where these positive deviations exist. These could include hospitals with reduced number of patients with infectious diseases or U.S. states successful in extending health insurance to uninsured citizens.

It may sound easy, but it isn’t. Rosenberg explains the multitude of challenges. Surprisingly, neither she nor her colleagues encountered resistance from their colleagues in classic journalism - organizations like the Center for Investigative Reporting, The Seattle Times and NBC News actually openly cooperate with Solutionsjournalism.org.

The opposition to SoJo comes from an entirely different direction, namely journalists’ habitual thinking. After a training session, the journalist participants are always excited and full of enthusiasm to change, but once they return to their newsrooms, little happens because they tend to fall back into their old ways. The journalist has changed - the newsroom has not. For these reasons, Solutionjournalism.org’s focus has evolved to develop ways of making SoJo’s news methods an integral part of routines in any newsroom.

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The article in New York Times which set Tina Rosenberg off to the path of Solutions Journalism.

Starting to ask different questions is one step in the process. Another step deals with finding the personal courage to write a story that is solutions-oriented. ‘People are feeling uneasy about these stories.

What if they describe something that falls apart shortly thereafter?

Then they will look stupid and naïve in the eyes of the world. My solution to these concerns is to create good, old-fashioned, solid journalism’, says Rosenberg. She continues: ‘Do not claim something for which there is no support. Do not over-sell. What you are writing about must cover what is actually going on and its effect. It’s a task for great reporters. When you do a SoJo story, you are definitely required to dig deeper, since the world will judge you more harshly if you are mistaken, compared to if you had written a classic problem-story. You must be a really outstanding reporter and a diligent person to engage in this kind of journalism.’

The story on fighting AIDS in Brazil was the turning point in Rosenberg’s career. ‘It was completely different from anything I had done earlier. I felt that I had contributed something special. I had performed 93

From Mirrors to Movers journalism of the highest quality. My story had high societal value and provided new knowledge to the public. It also provided people wanting to implement change with an opportunity to act and achieve results. I think it had the greatest impact of anything I’ve written. It’s going to be on my gravestone that I wrote this story,’ says Rosenberg.

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ELEMENT THREE CHANGE THE QUESTION

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CHAPTER 9

CHANGE THE QUESTION At home in my desk drawer lay a television concept which I had been working on for a while. The title was MEDIATOR. It was supposed to be an effective, strong and innovative debate program for television where politicians not merely bickered but actually had to live up to their promises, working for their country and their voters by finding common ground and compromises with their opponents on live TV. Yet, the concept remained in the desk drawer, because I had to admit that it was not entirely ready for broadcast.

A Danish cabinet minister sowed the seeds of doubt in me. We happened to be sitting next to each other at a gathering, and I told the minister my idea over a glass of wine. ‘Isn’t this exactly what you want?

You say you are tired of media facilitating political mudslinging. You say that we solely focus on your disagreements,’ I said enthusiastically.

The minister looked more taken aback than I would have liked.

‘You will never get us to do that. To enter into political agreements live on air? It will never happen, it is simply too risky,’ she informed me.

Discouraging, but also a true challenge I wanted to work on. But who was the right person to help me? Who should I consult in order to learn how to navigate professionally through disagreement and conflict? Naturally, someone with the right education and practical experience: a professional mediator. The optimal result for a mediator is not being right or winning, but facilitating a common goal that both parties find attractive. Key factors are the questions being asked along the way by the mediator: questions that alter the course of events to identify

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From Mirrors to Movers common interests or build bridges between differences of opinion.

Questions that signal a clear change in the way we think of something.

Mr. Benjamin F. Lund of Core Competence Negotiation is a facilitator who works to provide help during negotiations and stalled conflicts. I asked him: Is it possible to get conflicting parties to agree? To find compromises and commit to working together? On live TV, preferably? Would this difficult task even be possible?

Lund produced an overview on various types of questions from a pile of work papers. ‘Something that inspires my work is the power of questions, in particular the use of, and thinking behind, questions as conceived by Psychiatrist Karl Tomm.18 The questions we ask set the scene for the outcome of the dialogue.

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Element Three: Change The Question You can be the Detective, who asks questions about things that have happened and focusing on the past. These questions are clarifying, defining and investigative in nature - Tomm calls them linear, and they are used to identify a possible problem. This is where we find the classic journalistic questions: What, who, when, where, how, and why?

The Anthropologist also asks questions which look back. The questions are more complex than the Detective’s and circular in nature - circular because they uncover connections, relations, patterns, various positions and perspectives. They also have an investigative intent because they explore relations, differences in opinion, and create context: What were your explanations for…? What was changed compared to earlier? What were important to A and B? What did you think of this? How did it affect all of you? Yourself? How did you tackle it?

Both the Detective’s and the Anthropologist’s questions are oriented towards the past.

The Future Researcher’s questions look towards the future. They are reflective in nature and cover options, scenarios and hypotheses.

Reflective questions have the intent to mobilize and are used to induce change: What do you think A will be thinking when she ends up in that situation? How would you like to…? What will we be able to use it for – individually, collectively? What would you need to do to achieve X goal, result…?

The Captain stands at the helm, and his questions are strategic.

They can be leading and confrontational but also be inspiring and chart a course. The Captain’s strategic questions have a corrective intention and are used to generate commitment: When do you intend to do something about the problem? What must be changed? Which procedures need to change? Who does what?

When? When will there be another evaluation? At what date?

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From Mirrors to Movers Mutual to the Future Researcher’s and the Captain’s questions is their future-orientation, thereby allowing the possibility of changing a situation, perhaps even creating a new reality.

The four roles are primarily defined by Karl Tomm who is a Canadian professor of psychiatry and a pioneer on question-asking techniques. His four question roles should be used in a somewhat set order, beginning with the Detective, then continuing to the Anthropologist, then moving on to the Future Researcher and ending in the Captain’s role where you commit your interviewee to take action.

Tomm is yet another name which we, until now, do not find in journalistic textbooks. Tomm works with family therapy, and his methods have been seminal as an effective therapy for dysfunctional families aiming to break their detrimental patterns and install beneficial ones instead.

Tomm’s professional journey experienced a watershed moment which came following a tragedy hitting one of the families he treated.

The father committed suicide nine months into therapy. This caused Tomm to pause and consider whether anything in his methods contributed to the father’s suicide. It occurred to Tomm that he, unconsciously, had contributed to aggravating the problem in the family. He had become an active part in the family’s destructive pattern, which was a pattern of criticism.

So, he asked himself: What would have had the desired positive effect? The answer was ‘social constructivism’, a philosophical and scientific-theoretical concept stating that all kinds of perception is shaped through a frame of understanding. The frame of understanding is not innate but the result of history and culture of the individual.

When applied to therapy it could be described with a statement like, ‘It is never too late to have a good childhood.’ The memories, feelings and actions you choose to think back on create your truth about

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Element Three: Change The Question your childhood. If you only remember the dark parts, your reality will be shaped accordingly.

If your recollections of your childhood hone in on good, generous and uplifting memories, your emotional state changes. With that, an opportunity to think and act differently.

Most news journalists are skilled Detectives and Captains, but we lack the hemicircle consisting of the Anthropologist and the Future Researcher. Therefore, we often miss out on mapping connections, patterns, reflections and perspectives and the possibility of identifying and facilitating a conversation about future visions and solutions.

This is where our sources have to dig deep down for answers not evident to them - becoming conscious of experiences and feelings that they have but are not aware of.

When news reporting is dominated by the Detective and the Captain, the logical outcome is clear. Journalism then serves to inform citizens on what happened, when it happened and who did what (the Detective), who is doing something and when they will act (the Captain).

Yet readers, listeners and viewers do not learn anything about greater, complex contexts or how factors and people interconnect and influence each other. Neither do they learn perspectives of the different sides nor what could be done differently (the Future Researcher), nor of the events and reflections related to what has happened (the Anthropologist). Asking questions like the Future Researcher and the Anthropologist serves to expand consciousness and also serves to enhance the perception of the audience, who has a better opportunity to learn.

Herein lies the great, unused potential in news journalism - because the public states that they want perspectives, nuances and more trustworthiness from journalism.

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'Training your ABC’s'.

When psychologists teach emotional resilience to clients, one element is 'training your ABC´s'. It might sound like an activity from kindergarten but isn´t. It´s about identifying thoughts triggered by activating events and identifying reactions driven by those thoughts.

The A is an activating event (A) The B´s are beliefs about the activating event (B) The C´s are the behavioral consequences of those beliefs (C) There is a strong correlation to journalistic interviewing here.

All interviews are about an activating event i.e. the story topic (A).Our sources can either have set beliefs (B) about that event or none (if the event just occurred and they haven't had time to reflect on it).

The questions we ask as reporters can either solidify these beliefs or challenge them, which might foster new consequences (C).

Questions asked as The Anthropologist and The Future Researcher are the most powerful because these types of questions are circular and garner reflection and perspective, whereas the Detective and Captains questions are linear in nature. They uncover facts and steer.

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Tomm’s circle correlates to interview techniques in classic journalism, but it also represents new potential for journalists who want to master constructive interviews. According to Tomm, all questions asked by an interviewer contain some kind of intention. All questions originate from assumptions, which we may or may not be conscious of.

That it is possible to include all question roles, even in a brief, live news interview, is demonstrated by Scandinavian radio anchor Karin Palshoej. This interview she did on an hourly news broadcast is 102

Element Three: Change The Question about the growing distribution of child pornography images and is four minutes long. The interview live on air contains three of the four question roles: Q: We see more and more cases of child pornography. Why is that?

(Detective) A: There will always be people who are interested…The Internet opens up a wider range of possibilities.

Q: How does it work? Is the porn distributed by professionals or ordinary people? (Anthropologist) A: It has changed through the years…In the beginning it was ordinary people. Today it’s becoming more professional.

Q: What is the current situation here in this region? (Detective) A: It’s rapidly growing across borders…

Q: What will it take to stop it? (Future Researcher) A: What we see to be effective is treatment of the perpetrators…campaigns, etc.

(End of interview).

The only question type missing in this short live interview is the Captain, but it could easily be added.

Questions like: What procedures needs to be changed?, Who will take action?, When? are logical additions.

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• • • •

Then you have a full rounded interview: It uncovers the problem (This is what Detective questions are good for) Provides reflection (This is the strength of the Anthropologist) Points towards a solution (The Researcher being futureoriented) And commits decision makers to a course of action (The Captain sets the course)

By mastering these four question roles, journalists have the power to ask more efficient and comprehensive questions, and it is a new way of holding power accountable by asking adversaries to put themselves in the shoes of their counterparts, by asking them to find common ground and to create new and unexpected collaborations. The easiest thing in the world is to disagree, criticize and yell. It is far more demanding to listen, agree and work your way towards binding agreements.

Why is a pseudo-critical approach still used?

A ‘hidden’ psychology thrives in the journalistic interview. We reward and admire the interviewers who seem keen and aggressive.

They are audacious. They are asking hard questions. However, most answers obtained from pseudo-critical questions are not satisfactory.

The answers are often downright poor. This is due to the fact that the questions are more about form than content and are full of opinions and value-laden words. These kinds of questions, the pseudo-critical ones, exist in journalism and seemingly well. What is the reason for this pattern?

A few years ago, John Sawatsky, a Canadian interview expert, developed a strong methodology for journalistic interviews. He analyzed stacks of interviews and identified the questions that yielded the best answers, and his work resulted in interview techniques which un104

Element Three: Change The Question covered the micro and macro layers of the interview, as well as the interview’s sins and deadly sins. This framework has since formed the foundation for journalists and journalism educators all over the world.

Yet it was unable to efficiently eliminate the pseudo-critical interview, presumably because of the psychological factor. Even though the pseudo-critical interview often result in poor answers, the reactions of people and colleagues are often supportive. ‘Wow, did she really ask that? That was bold/daring/sharp/brave.’ Through the earpiece the producer tells the anchor, ‘You are asking hard questions. Well done, keep at it!’ This is how pseudo-critical questions get a life of their own.

Sawatsky is now working at ESPN, an American-based global provider of sports TV. He paused when I asked him for the reason why pseudo-critical questions thrive, even when they are producing such poor responses: ‘It could be many things. Either the journalists do not know of other options. They do not see other approaches. If you do not know, you cannot go along a different line. It may also just be about getting quick answers – and moving on. It is easier, but also lazy. Then it may also be because pseudo-critical questions make you look like a prosecutor in charge of things. On the surface it looks good, but generally it does not create comprehensive answers’.

A journalist with a reputation for aggression was the American TV anchor Mike Wallace, who was paid a very high salary and enjoyed VIP status for many decades. ‘Wallace made it to the top of his profession by being pseudo-critical, so why should he give it up and do something else?’ asks Sawatsky rhetorically. ‘Mike Wallace had a strong personal interest in things remaining as they were – and so do many other journalists. It would only change with increased awareness of pseudo critical interviewing’s negative consequences for journalism. So we have to reward journalists who do things differently if the industry really wants to see this change’.

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From Mirrors to Movers On asking constructive questions, Sawatsky points out that the devil is in the details. This is primarily why critical has mutated into becoming negative-critical in modern journalism. ‘Every time you ask a question with words being value-laden, you have begun to pollute the answer’, says Sawatsky.

‘This means that the journalist is now part of the case and is contaminating the interview with his/her own bias and prejudice. In such cases the journalist limits his/her view and possibilities, overlooking comprehensive information which is valuable to the story.’

That negative predominance arose in news journalism is logical, according to Sawatsky.

‘By nature the journalist looks for information which is hard to get. This is normally negative information. The positive is generally easy to uncover. But the journalist risks becoming a critic instead of a journalist, being caught up in his own methods and nature, losing navigation and overview. As a consequence, we transform and become the opposition with the antagonist opinion or position, even when we are conducting interviews. The result is that your interview subject will generally argue even more energetically for his point of view and you, the reporter, become deeper involved in the conflict. In this way we do not do our jobs as journalists. Our work is to inform the citizens on what is happening in society, what will happen and to do it in a reliable and trustworthy way. It must also be done in a balanced way, not just taking the negative version’, indicates Sawatsky, before concluding, ‘it is the citizens who lose out. They get a black and white portrayal of the world – a portrayal that is predominantly black, as in negative’.

The bottom line is that the journalist induces the contamination through his/her choice of questions. It is, of course, possible to explore both negatives and positives without adding pollution.

Here is an example: 106

Element Three: Change The Question Q: How do you perceive the help offered here at the homeless shelter?

A: It has been both good – but also bad.

Q: What do you mean by ‘bad’?

A: (The homeless woman answers) Q: You also said that it was good. What has been good?

A: …

It is as simple as that. In this case it consisted of asking about both parts and not continuing with a question like ‘What are you most unhappy about?’ It is the journalist’s choice to zoom in during the interview. Both directions are equally ‘true’ for the homeless woman. For the audience, it is crucial that both parts are reported for a complete and nuanced coverage.

Questions act like a spotlight you aim at something. Depending on where you direct that light, you discover and navigate through the up-lit area. Constructive interviewing illuminates areas too often left in the dark and adds more ‘floodlights’ to the lighting of the stage (your interview). Future-oriented interviewing has especially huge unharnessed potential and would have the effect of facilitating a public debate more about visions and future perspectives for society. Here is an example: in the fall of 2013, the Syrian regime was accused of having used chemical weapons against their own people. This prompted the West to threaten air strikes. Initially, this was averted by agreements between the West and Russia. During the tension-filled days prior to the agreement, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry was asked an unusual question at a press conference. It came from Margaret Brennan, correspondent for CBS, who had been selected that day and asked a question she had planned: 107

From Mirrors to Movers ‘Is there anything at this point that his (Assad’s) government can do or offer that would prevent an attack?’

The response from Kerry was surprising: ‘If Assad hands over all its [Syria’s] chemical weapons at once and agrees to inspection, fully and completely, then an air strike can be avoided.’

Following this, international diplomacy could officially begin and an agreement to surrender the chemical weapons was set in motion.

Let me home in on the wording and formulation of Brennan’s question: ‘Is there anything at this point that his (Assad’s) government can do or offer, that would prevent an attack?’ is like something straight out of family therapy. The family therapist would have said something like this: ‘Is there something your wife/husband can do or offer at this time that could prevent a divorce?’

The question for Kerry was formulated constructively because its intent was to identify options and map out possible solutions. It was also in the role of the Future Researcher.

Note: I have spoken to colleagues who attended a briefing with Secretary of State John Kerry prior to the press conference. My colleagues tell me that the press corps was aware that something was happening behind the scenes. What the public later learned was that Russia was working on a private proposal. Russian President Putin and Syria’s ally had informed President Obama that Syria might turn over its chemical weapons. Therefore, one could argue that Brennan’s question was inspired by that knowledge. Still it’s an example of a rare journalistic question oriented towards the future, in the role of the Future Researcher.

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Tips: Practice one of the four question roles at a time. Notice the answers.

Are they good? Surprising? Do the responses generate news?

When you are comfortable with all question roles, use all four the next time you do an interview. Notice the answers you get. Keep practicing.

Remember to end your interview with the Captain, who commits. This is particularly important when interviewing decision-makers.

Re-listen/re-read your interviews. Get a trusted colleague who understands the four question roles to rehearse it with you. What worked?

What do you need more of?

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CHAPTER 10

FROM OBJECTIVE TO ACCOUNTABLE Sweden’s National Television/SVT in Stockholm holds its annual correspondents meeting where all their foreign news correspondents, camera crews and administrative personnel are called home for a week of networking, workshops and feedback. Among the correspondents is a blonde woman in her 50s, Erika Bjerström. She is based in the U.S. and is one of Sweden’s most renowned journalists. In her career she has served as news editor for 300 journalists at the Swedish national newspaper Dagens Nyheter and written prize-winning article series and books and travelled to all continents as a correspondent for SVT. Moreover, she works with constructive journalistic formats.

Bjerström began her career as an aggressive investigative journalist, as she says, when she saw conspiracy in most places, particularly when it involved big companies against the little guy: ‘I had a black and white view of the world. Companies were evil and, as a general rule, always lied. I was on a crusade.

‘At one point I dug up a story about ice cream containing cellulose, a residual component from paper manufacturing. It may rarely contain dioxin, an extremely dangerous toxin. So the headline read: Ice cream contains dioxin. The story sparked a wave of reactions, especially from frightened readers. Sales of ice cream plummeted. Then the industry and experts began to attack my media outlet and me, accusing us of sensationalist journalism and rightfully so. The ice cream may have contained cellulose, but it was a long shot that it contained traces of dioxin.

This event was a life-changing experience for me because I realized how much power I had as a journalist.

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Erika Bjerström, US Correspondent, Sweden's Television/SVT 'At one point I gave quite a lot of thought as to whether I should continue in journalism. I was so tired of the person I had become. You point your finger at others and expect everyone else to take responsibility and do something. After 30 years as a journalist I thought perhaps it was time to be part of finding answers.'

‘I concluded from this experience that I had to be far more responsible in my administration of this power.’

Bjerström conceded that she often played a role in spreading concern throughout the population and failed to give her readers adequate tools for proper case-assessment. As a result, she began taking a different approach and started to look for story ideas that pointed forward. She became engaged in covering solutions and facilitating debates on those ideas. In 1993, this new approach resulted in the book 112

Element Three: Change The Question ‘Miljövård. Reportage om miljövårdsframgångar i det tysta’ [Environmental Protection. Reports on untold environmental protection successes].

‘People felt empowered by reading my book and they found the hope that progress and actions matter. They could see that political decisions on environmental issues did, in fact, have a positive impact.

My journalist colleagues were not as thrilled. Had I become naïve and toothless? Did I venture out to cover only happy news? I was known as an aggressive investigative journalist, so they began wondering what had happened to me. And then, because I had completely changed course, colleagues felt insecure around me. They did not know whether they could continue to work with me in their familiar ways. I had retracted from collegial unity and this stirred things up.’

Another experience several years later had a similar effect. Bjerström and a photographer were visiting a Maasai village in Kenya. They wanted to do a piece about the Maasai women, who had to walk a long way to fetch water with their buckets. At one point, the women showed their jewelry to the journalist - jewelry that they had made themselves.

‘They probably have a small side income which contributes to the strained family economy’, thought Bjerström. This turned out to be a major misconception, but it was not Erika’s own questions that put her back on track. She gained insight from an off-handed comment that one of the Maasai women said: ‘We export our jewelry worldwide and business has been really good since we went to Paris Fashion Week.’

The journalist was speechless. It was almost impossible for her to imagine these women on an airplane en route to Paris. Yet, the image paved the way for an entirely different type of inquiry. She abandoned her notion of these women as passive victims and decided to approach them as the active, resourceful businesswomen they were.

Bjerström went to Africa to write a certain kind of story, but came home with a completely different and constructive one.

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From Mirrors to Movers It was a pivotal experience for the Swedish journalist. She ended up making a report series for Swedish National Television/SVT and published a book in 2013 entitled ‘Det Nye Afrika’ [The New Africa]. In the book she discards the stereotypical image of the ‘catastrophe continent’ and instead she interviews the progressive middle class generating positive change: fashion designers, IT tycoons, PR consultants and organic farmers. Bjerström’s new perspective, looking for resources and solutions instead of catastrophes and victims, led her to different types of stories.

Bjerström emphasizes that there should be a mix of different types of journalists in a newsroom, allowing room for both the aggressive and the constructive. A great journalist, ideally, should be both.

Moreover, there is also a kind of family dynamic in newsrooms influencing young journalists; they notice what is being lauded and supported, and they imitate the experienced, older reporters. Therefore, when management and respected reporters start to reward and praise constructive stories or elements too, it creates a virtuous cycle.

‘When I was an editor at Dagens Nyheter [The Daily News], I loved reporters who had their own ideas and who were breaking away from the pack, as long as their ideas fitted into our news criteria. We all love journalists who find their own voice and who have their own independent approach to the material. Therefore, constructive ideas are great if they tie into the news agenda’, says Bjerström.

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Working with adding constructive elements to journalism is also about questioning objectivity as part of the ethics code in journalism. In American journalism ‘objectivity’ was retracted from the Society of Professional Journalists’ ethics code back in 1996 and replaced with ‘accountability.’

Bjerström supports this notion: ‘Being objective is a myth. We are all subjective. It starts with the choice of the type of story we want to write. Subjectivity has a lot to do with what we bring into journalism from our own mindset and outlook, such as our own fears and biases. We rarely talk of these things but, if we reflect more upon it, it represents an advantage for journalism because we have far more choices than we realize. We limit ourselves by following the traditional news agenda and our learned journalistic training which, more often than not, results in conventional thinking.’

To be chronically negative or on a constant crusade is outright infantile, in Bjerström’s opinion: ‘At one point I gave quite a lot of 115

From Mirrors to Movers thought as to whether I should continue in journalism. I was so tired of the person I had become. When you begin to think about it, journalists have many childish traits.

‘You constantly challenge authority. You always ask: Why? Why? Why? You point your finger at others and expect everyone else to take responsibility and do something.

‘After 30 years as a journalist I thought perhaps it was time to be part of finding answers.’

Bjerström made her decision. She is going to stay. As the current U.S. correspondent for Sweden’s Television, she knows her coverage will be different as she moves forward: ‘No longer do I want to confirm stereotypes. I covered the election campaign in 2012 between Barack Obama and Mitt Romney. It would have been so easy for me to travel to the American South and do an ‘Oh no! So-many-poor-people’ story. Instead I chose to look at the effect of Obama’s promises for more green jobs in his own hometown of Chicago. In some cases thousands of new jobs had been created. In one case a solar cell project failed, resulting in only two workplaces. I reported on both.’

Waving signs in the newsroom Foreign correspondents have a reputation for being among the most maverick of journalists. They are sent to the far corners of the earth, where they need to take care of themselves in very difficult circumstances. They solve all kinds of technical, logistical and contentrelated problems alone. This would inspire anyone to become pretty independent over time.

Thörnqvist nonetheless manages to get these foreign correspondents to listen to her. At Swedish National Television/SVT, Thörnqvist is Head of Foreign News and since 2009 they have been producing constructive journalism from world hotspots. These have stemmed most visibly from Africa where they have broadcast stories 116

Element Three: Change The Question about a continent moving forward. In addition, her Foreign News team at SVT regularly covered Europe’s future positive prospects following the financial crisis beginning in 2008.

Thörnqvist says her journey began when she heard professor of International Health Hans Rosling from Karolinska Institutet in Stockholm, Sweden speaking about the world’s many ‘poor’ countries. He explained how these countries in fact improved on democratic elections and living standards. It was an eye-opener for her. Around the same time, an important survey came out. Swedish citizens were asked about Africa and African issues, and the majority of Swedes expressed an outdated knowledge on African issues. Their views correlated better with reality in Africa thirty to forty years earlier. When Thörnqvist saw this, she took it to heart. Clearly, foreign news reporting at the national Swedish TV had a role to play when it came to the public’s outdated view of Africa. When Thörnqvist assessed their African coverage, she realized that they focused solely on famine, corruption and infectious diseases, and never on the rising middle class, examples of good governance or technological innovations in the continent. Thörnqvist elaborates: ‘I began to tell my correspondents to stop focusing only on victims but also to find people who are working to create solutions - people who are doing something extraordinary in difficult situations. When a catastrophe strikes, I want my correspondents to also find the people who did something to survive or to save others. This is substantially more interesting and newsworthy from a journalistic standpoint’.

The news coverage during the first days after a catastrophe typically deals with what happened: who is impacted and how many are affected and so on. However, in the following days post-catastrophe, Thörnqvist now encourages her correspondents to find constructive angles as well, even in the midst of catastrophe. One example is what CNN did during their coverage of the havoc caused by Typhoon Haiyan striking the Philippines in November, 2013. They broadcasted stories on 117

From Mirrors to Movers the lack of food distribution, but also reported stories of successful aid efforts, of doctors finding new ways to help the majority of people, and of untrained but generous locals helping other people in need escape the disaster area. But, there is no change without pushback. Thörnqvist experienced this after SVT launched constructive stories from Africa: ‘When we announced our intention to cover Africa in a new way, showing progress and how things have improved, we got negative reactions from aid organizations and other NGO’s in Sweden. They feared that people’s willingness to support and donate money to Africa would go down if we reported that things were improving. I responded that we as journalists have a duty to present a complete and balanced coverage of Africa, and that included stories of progress. Viewer reactions were very positive. People wrote us that the stories from Africa really were news to them.

‘My reporters agree with the concept. They can see that it turns them into more complete and balanced journalists if they also add constructive coverage. The challenge has been for these new constructive methods to become second nature and for my journalists to remember the new way of thinking.

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Ingrid Thörnqvist, Head of Foreign News, Sweden's Television/SVT 'It is hugely important that we, the management, hold on and steer this change. That we highlight the good examples, that we systematically implement the specific work methods necessary to conduct quality constructive journalism. It is a skill like every other discipline within journalism.'

‘I began waving different signboards during our morning editorial meeting. One of them says ‘Think constructively’ and another ‘Kill your victims’ - meaning that we need to kill off the victim stories. It is hugely important that we, the management, hold on and steer this change. That we highlight the good examples, that we systematically implement the specific work methods necessary to conduct quality constructive journalism. It is a skill like every other discipline within journalism’.

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From Mirrors to Movers There is still some way to go. The news coverage at SVT continues to be mostly classic problem stories and interviews. These stories focus on victims or with getting politicians to argue. However, things are changing and ThĂśrnqvist is steering the change with determination and commitment: ‘I keep track of our coverage: how many stories are constructive, from which countries, and so on. It is important to have an overview of the coverage; otherwise we will lose focus and direction. This is particularly true in the world of news where everything is about the here and now. This helps me stick to the direction we want’.

When a Climate-Change reporter goes constructive If you have ever sat down to eat cheap salmon from fish farms, you probably ingested hormone-disrupting substances. These substances, being difficult to metabolize, are now linked by several scientists to type 2 diabetes, or late-onset diabetes.

Karen Hjulmand, a radio correspondent from Danish Broadcasting was heading to Rigshospitalet, the University of Copenhagen Hospital in Copenhagen. A Norwegian researcher mentioned that he had succeeded in removing the dangerous hormone-disrupting substances, meaning that fish consequently no longer had to pose this potential threat to consumers. He added, however, that the fish industry showed no interest in using the method that could eliminate the health hazard.

Hjulmand, who has covered climate and environmental matters since 1992, had gone out to report on the classic story on the dangers of the hormone-disrupting substances. But on her way there, she changed her mind and decided to cover the solution. For over 20 years she has described the many serious problems facing our planet and attended climate summits before they became a hot topic. At one point Hjulmand decided to add something to her journalistic work process to ensure that the whole story was covered. She wanted to share more than just the problems, and her technique for achieving this was quite 120

Element Three: Change The Question simple. She asks herself this brief question: ‘If this is the situation, what do we do then?’ This one simple question opens up her outlook and approach.

Hjulmand has used it for several years to counteract the excessive emphasis on catastrophe, especially when it comes to the media’s coverage of climate change.

Scenarios of floods, droughts and countries vanishing below sea levels dominate the mass media’s presentation of this topic. Massive migrations. People having lost everything. Wars and turmoil due to struggles for the world’s resources. The sun’s rays cutting through our damaged atmosphere, in conjunction with a thinning ozone layer, causing skin cancer for everyone. This kind of dire news led Hjulmand to find new angles, which would point towards something else. Something new. She looked for people with proposals for needed solutions.

‘I am always looking for sources with knowledge of this kind.

Their thoughts and ideas are the real news. They are enthusiastic about the subject. They are passionate and often have special knowledge on the story topic’, says Hjulmand. She continues: ‘Of course their statements and data must be researched and checked thoroughly as with all other quality journalism. But the ‘whatdo-we- do-then’ stories are important for progression on a societal level. I believe that we, as journalists, greatly influence political decisions.

Politicians are often not audacious when the media stir up public sentiment against a decision, even if the decision might actually make good sense’.

Hjulmand’s experience is that many journalists fight to be heard.

It is all about coming up with the big scoop and the top story, which earns prestige among colleagues: ‘We have a tendency to seek the position no one else has taken, the controversial and contrarian viewpoint. On coverage of climate and environment, this has meant that the same fringe views keep coming up 121

From Mirrors to Movers over and over because they are controversial and conflict laden, even though these views do not represent what the majority of researchers agree upon. So we create noise instead of moving the coverage forward like reporting on what researchers and experts actually agree on. I believe that because of this, political decisions on climate have been delayed by at least ten to fifteen years’.

In relation to the story on the salmon and the accumulated toxins, something could be done. Hjulmand ended up taking the constructive approach and outlined the problem of the hormone-disrupting substances, allowing the Norwegian researcher to explain his solution for cleansing the fish of environmental toxins.

The editors at Danish Broadcasting wrapped up her feature with interviews where experts and decision-makers responded to the solution from Norway. They promised to use the Norwegian know-how in Denmark. For Hjulmand, there was an obvious follow-up: Was action taken? Are decision makers living up to their intentions? Why? Why not? What is necessary for change to happen?

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Karen Hjulmand, Radio Anchor & Climate Change Reporter, Danish Broadcasting Corporation 'The 'what-do-we- do-then' stories are important for progression on a societal level. I believe that we, as journalists, greatly influence political decisions.'

Problem-Solving Reporting Several Regional Media in Denmark have implemented a more activist approach to their journalism and call it ‘problem-solving reporting.’ Here is an inside look written by Jesper Borup, Radio Anchor and News Editor at Danish Broadcasting’s regional radio station, DR P4 Fyn: ‘In news journalism, we tell stories and then we forget to follow up. If we do, it is often much later. Perhaps only when the shipyard closed down and we want to tie up loose ends. At other times, we point to problems without ensuring that someone is ready to take on responsibility for solving them.

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From Mirrors to Movers ‘We leave the work of finding solutions to others, if there is even anyone willing to do it, while we rush on to other tasks. We also happily inconvenience our readers, listeners and viewers by exposing problems and criticism but all too rarely do we tell of initiatives resolving these cases.

‘With problem-solving journalism we choose to be more active, so as to set an agenda and contribute towards solving problems. Our philosophy is: when you point to a problem, you also have the duty to contribute towards the solution. More specifically, problem-solving journalism is a key that opens the door to following up on a good story.

Problem-solving journalism rests on two basic pillars: the first, many goal-oriented follow-ups, and the second is a commitment to contribute towards problem solving by the use of journalism.

‘It is not enough just to have a news angle. You have to consider which underlying problem is being addressed with this angle. Talk to the sources about it and define a clear, limited and specific problem and then decide whether the reporting could contribute towards solving the problem.’

Nine seconds of silence As an example, Borup shared the following anecdote: ‘Nine seconds of silence is a long time on radio. When you hear a break this long, you know that something is going on. It was a ninesecond break that heralded our first, unknowing attempt at problemsolving journalism at the radio station where I work.

‘Well-intentioned organizations had collaborated with the authorities on a campaign focusing on the litter strewn along the sides of roads. Several tons of litter is thrown out of car windows each year.

Authorities spend millions to clean it up.

‘It was hardly the first time this kind of campaign had launched, but this time we tried to cover the campaign differently. Everyone knows the feeling of having litter in the car and nowhere to dispose of 124

Element Three: Change The Question it; so you throw it out the window. So we phoned the representatives of the large car manufacturers and asked why their cars were not equipped with a litterbin. This resulted in many poor answers and bad excuses. Several of them threw the ball back to their customers - the car owners. ‘They could just put a bag in the car for the trash or stick it in the glove compartment until they get home.’

‘Our listeners reacted when they heard us ask the representatives the same questions for several days in a row and began to write to us with suggestions of what could be done about the problem, sharing their own experiences. Some sent pictures of ‘MacGyvered’ solutions like having found room for a small plastic bin close to the driver’s seat.

Jesper Borup, Radio Anchor, Danish Broadcasting Corporation/DR Fyn 'When you point to a problem, you also have the duty to contribute towards the solution.'

Photo: Filip Wallberg

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From Mirrors to Movers ‘One automobile communications manager clearly understood that this was a problem that he could actually help solve. This led to the nine second break on the radio, prompted by our simple question, ‘Why are there no litter bins in your cars?’

‘A nine second pause is a long time in radio. The silence fills the air. Subconsciously you want to react and break the silence. A psychological battle ensued of who could endure the silence the longest, and the listeners were also part of this battle. Why are they not saying anything on the radio? Is there something wrong? Is the microphone even on?

‘We were dealing with a professional source answering questions for the company he represented. He had all the likely questions and answers written on an FAQ chart which he could access at any time in his desk drawer. A professional source, who suddenly did not know what to answer - not because he had been nailed by a wave of critical, investigative questions and now was desperately looking for a way out, but because we had pointed to a specific and real problem, which he could help resolve. That is what he realized during those nine seconds.

He had nothing to gain by refusing to take part in solving this problem.

He had to engage by offering a proposal for a solution. After nine seconds, he cleared his throat. He said that he would be attending a meeting later that year at the car manufacturer’s main facility in France and promised to present the problem and to ask the company designers to solve it.

‘Here the coverage of the story ended, primarily because the campaign week covering the story topic ended, but it should not have stopped here. We should have checked if the communications manager had done what he promised, if something came out of it. We should have covered what the car manufacturer did, going forward. We should have followed up on the story until the problem was solved.

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Element Three: Change The Question ‘We made a note of this for next time we had a specific, real problem to talk about, and that happened several times in the following weeks. We decided that we would take a goal-oriented approach towards finding specific problems in the news and in our everyday lives.

Once you start looking for specific, real problems that you can help solve through journalism, you start to see them everywhere.

‘The problem-solving process resulted in emails of praise. A few satisfied listeners expressed outright pride in paying a licensing fee to a radio station that helps solve problems. We did a small survey amongst our listeners, and the result of the survey was quite striking. Our listeners reported that they remember our entire problem-solving coverage.

They also stated that they were unconditionally satisfied with this kind of journalism, and they let us know, that we should do it more often.’

Order is Crucial A main point when working with problem-solving journalism is the order of the story angles. The order ensures the purpose: to solve problems by using journalism. If the rules on order are not upheld, we lose control of the story.

Two rules are important to uphold when you do problem-solving journalism, according to Jesper Borup: 1: Follow-ups (angles) to the story must always point forward towards a solution.

2: The next follow-up must always be a step closer to a solution.

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ELEMENT FOUR TELL IT RIGHT

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CHAPTER 11

TELL IT RIGHT You have been on a wonderful vacation. Almost everything was great, including the weather and the people you met. But after a couple of days at the lovely hotel, you overheard an ugly argument between the hotel owner and his employees. When you checked out, the hotel concierge wanted you to pay for a towel missing from your room; only after some flustered arguing did you manage to explain to him that you had nothing to do with its disappearance.

When people back home ask you about your trip, the two experiences cast a shadow on the vacation, which does not seem all that great now.

This psychological fact also applies to journalism. For example, when it comes to the design of our stories, i.e., the narrative structure, our audiences remember and react to the emotional peaks and the ending. The peaks are those inducing a highly arousing emotional response.

This could include a notable statement, particularly from a witness source. It could also be factual information that shocks or pleases the recipient. The peaks can be either negative or positive; irrespective of the emotional inclination, your readers/listeners/viewers will remember them. 20

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Peaks are important. Makes the narrative realistic and trustworthy.

If the ending has a constructive message it fosters more engagement from viewers, listeners and readers.

Peaks can also be negative. Both ’positive peaks’ and ’negative peaks’ will be remembered by your audience. Awe evokes most viral content. Fear and anger, less.

The model with the peak-end is already well-known by most journalists, either consciously or subconsciously. This is how a large number of articles and features are structured with a negative ending.

There is an emotional peak along the way, where patients express fear of a tumor discovered too late, or parents tell of their children who had lazy teachers in school, or stressed-out residents demonstrate against living in the vicinity of an industrial site producing chemicals.

All these are examples of ending the story with a negative flick of the tail. This is where we underscore the seriousness of the story and 132

Element Four: Tell It Right lack of action by people responsible. Once again it is emphasized. ‘But the demonstrations thus far have not affected the expansion of the chemical plant’ could be a typical way to end the story.

This is an efficient method if you want to leave viewers, readers and listeners in a state of hopelessness or depression and inability to act. Yet, the potential to achieve the opposite effect is easy. You can leave your audiences aroused and engaged.

The Effect of the Negative Psychological research has determined that the negative has a greater psychological impact than the positive.

The negative carries greater weight. You might already know this from the criticism at the editorial meeting. Plenty of good comments were made about your story, but you were also told that you should have included an extra source. When you leave the meeting, it is the negative criticism you think about, and not all the positive comments also mentioned.

Researchers are still debating how much more impact the negative has relative to the positive, yet, we know that a happily married couple has a so-called 5-1 positive/negative ratio meaning five times as many positive influences than negative ones in their relationship.

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Previously, I described how I returned from the homeless shelter in Washington DC with a collection of quotes on my notepad - answers different from what I had expected from a homeless person. This is how I discovered how we shape reality with our questions, but I also discovered something else. The material allowed me to design the story in many ways. I had material that could be used to investigate how different versions of the same story affected the readers. How would a posi133

From Mirrors to Movers tive peak and a positive end in a news article about homelessness influence readers?

I went on to conduct a large study with 710 participants, together with Peggy Kern, my advisor at the University of Pennsylvania. We tested six different versions of the news article covering rising numbers of homeless in the U.S. 22 First, the classic story, written in a classic journalistic way - a story about how the United States cut back its support for food distribution to poor and homeless Americans by 75 percent due to the financial crisis beginning in 2008. An interviewee, Bonnie Jacks, spoke of how difficult it was to make do with the meals at the soup kitchen and the meager bits of food in her possession. ‘Right now I am managing, but just barely,’ she said, her voice quivering.

George Jones is the head of the food pantry ‘Bread for the City.’

He is also worried about how the organization will manage its task of distributing food. They see an increasing number of people lining up at the food pantry. ‘Sometimes the employees and I are biting our nails, when we think about the economic situation,’ he said.

So this article focused on the problems and the dire future prospects. But it felt like a neutral piece when I first wrote it.

Then I decided to shuffle the deck based on research from positive psychology. I wrote another five versions of the same basic story. I designed the narrative story line with precision. I selected quotes and individual words so that the emotional messages of the articles would differ from one another. The facts stayed the same; only the quotes varied. The article versions became a classic story and a highly negative victim story. Four stories were more positive: the peak-end story, growth story, hero story and a 3-1 positive-negative ratio story.

The classic story was the one that all test participants read first.

Then we randomized what article our test participants would read next, for example, the victim story, where hopelessness, resignation and 134

Element Four: Tell It Right powerlessness were central elements. I emphasized how Americans were the victims of a food supply shortage due to government cutbacks, and George Jones, the manager of the food pantry, described a small boy standing in line.

‘There is nothing as sad as a five-year-old standing with a plastic bag in his hand asking ‘May I have some?’ - When you have nothing great to give him. It hurts, but is daily life here.’

The victim story builds on what psychology research calls ‘a pessimistic explanatory style’, meaning when adverse events are allencompassing (‘everything in life is bad’), moreover, the events are chronic (‘the adverse events will continue’), and to top it all off, it is our own fault.

Then I moved on to four different and more positive versions.

One version was designed with a positive peak and end. ‘When I get a bag of food it is like getting a box of hope’, said Bonnie Jacks, (peak). ‘The bag represents hope, and this is how I see it. It gives me strength and a feeling that society cares, and then I do not need to worry from where the next meal comes.’ The article ends with optimistic notes from George Jones. ‘I hope that our food distribution and other activities generate attention and make others want to do the same in their area. Together we make a difference in the lives of many people.’

Both quotes came from the interviews I had done. Following is the growth story, which builds on the concept of post-traumatic growth, a concept stating that a difficult and challenging situation does not necessarily have to break us but may actually make us stronger and teach us a great deal. In this version Bonnie Jacks’ voice is defiant rather than quivering, and she says, ‘Well of course I am managing. I see myself as a survivor. I have not yet heard of anyone who died of hunger in the United States and I certainly do not intend on being the first’. She also mentions that she has begun to appreciate even the small things.

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From Mirrors to Movers Then there is the hero story, which we know from old fairy tales.

The prince wants the princess, and the king has to say yes. Yet he does not do so until the prince passes certain tests. The drama and our involvement stems from the resistance that the prince encounters underway. With great excitement we follow the struggle to win the fight and the princess, and there are several parties fighting in my hero story: Bonnie Jacks herself, George Jones and his colleagues who ‘have not given up hope’, and the people in the local community who are ‘ready to help’. The article ends on an optimistic note: ‘While we wait to see what will happen, grassroots here in America continue to help.’

As opposed to the victim version, the growth story and the hero story build on an optimistic explanatory style. Bad events occurring are transient (‘It will probably pass’) and limited (‘Things are not that bad’).

The good things that happen are things we earned. Instead of pessimistic people rendered incapable of taking action, these two articles report on people, being ready to take up the fight.

The last version, the 3-1 ratio, is tailored to a pattern of three positive pieces of information for each negative. This is based on scientific knowledge that you need several positive things to outweigh a single negative event, since negatives leave a far greater impression than the positive. The 3-1-ratio story contains most changes relative to the classic story.

It is important to stress that there was enough material for all six versions. All the statements were on my notepad when I got home from the trip to the homeless shelter. Both hope and hopelessness were expressed from the sources I spoke with.

The test participants did not know how the articles differed from one another. They had signed up for the study via an online form informing them that they were to read news articles and indicate their mood before and after. Before starting, they had to state their starting mood on a scale from depressed/pessimistic to neutral to 136

Element Four: Tell It Right cheery/optimistic. Then the computer would present them with the classic version to read. Immediately thereafter, they were to indicate their mood on the scale once again. Then they were asked questions about the article they had just read: What was their assessment? Would they regard it as quality journalism? If so, why? If not, why not? How did they feel after they had read it? Then a series of questions on other subjects followed. This is common procedure in psychological research to wipe the subject’s mental slate clean, therefore affecting the next part of the study as little as possible. This procedure was repeated for the other articles, and then the analysis of the data could begin.

The classic article left people in an outright depressed mood, described with words like hopelessness, feeling of powerlessness, passive.

As expected, this effect was even greater after reading the victim story.

An interesting result was that one of the positive articles was deemed untrustworthy. It was the one with the three positive statements for each negative. Apparently, there is something more attractive about balance than a version that feels too positive.

Silver Linings A research study from The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill suggests that readers remember more story-related information from articles with ‘silver linings. A silver lining is defined as a positive outcome of a negative event. The researchers speculate that readers exert more cognitive effort when reading information about both positive and negative aspects of a situation, which is the very quality constructive journalism should aim for.

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The article deemed to be quality journalism, as well as the most engaging, was the version with a constructive peak and ending. The test subjects reported that this story inspired them to act and made them

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From Mirrors to Movers feel more engaged. Their comments confirmed the figures with statements like: ‘I like that the article presents suggestions for how to solve the problem....It is balanced, quality journalism.’

Comments also included a desire for more fair and balanced journalism: ‘Good happens every day. People are kind every day. Yet the reporters print the dirt, the bad and the ugly... Most people are uneducated and believe that the newspapers and other media serve them the full truth about life instead of only offering them the unsavory tidbits of life. I would like this to change. I would like the reporters to educate the people more about what news is and to help the people be better consumers of it. I would really like fair, decent and honest reporting.’

I want to emphasize that the conclusions are not solid from a scientific standpoint. The sample of test subjects on individual articles was not large enough, and the data, therefore, not statistically significant. More research is required. Yet, the foundation is sound enough for journalists to use the findings, especially when it comes to how we structure our stories.

The reason for the 3-1 article to be deemed untrustworthy could be because its structure is a bit too mathematical. It is probably also because the story topic is negative. The American surplus has shrunk to the point where aid programs can no longer meet the demand. The problem does exist. It may feel somewhat forced to squeeze in much positivity into a generally negative scenario. Our thoughts and feelings are constantly volleyed from one side to the other.

As a model it is not useful, but the idea behind it may be worth holding on to. When most news is negative, and negative hits harder than positive, there is a good reason to look for things which offer hope, growth and action. The peak-end, the hero story, the growth story, are

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Element Four: Tell It Right all realistic narrative models for constructive journalism, as long as they have societal significance and adhere to journalism’s core functions.

The fundamental message in the hero story is that there are things worth fighting for. Someone is actually fighting the battle. The model is suited for generating hope and inspiration. The growth story tells us that overwhelming events harbor opportunity for growth and meaning. The model is also well-suited for counteracting hopelessness.

The focus of the hero story is much about the journey - the learning curve. Examples of this surfaced under the coverage of the Ebola outbreak that began in December 2013 in West Africa. Nurses and medical staff worked under severely difficult conditions, yet many spoke of their work battling the deadly disease as a ‘calling’.

As for all models and theories, you should not aggressively try to force models upon a story. They should be used as inspiration. The journalist must not insist on growth occurring if the source does not feel this has happened. A classic growth angle to an article about a person who has survived cancer is ‘I would not be as strong as I am now without the disease’. This may be a good angle but also provocative for the person in question, who may have preferred avoiding the disease.

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From Mirrors to Movers There are basically three levels:

1. That your source has experienced growth and expresses it; the growth-related answers appear spontaneously.

2. The source has experienced growth, but has not yet thought of it.

Here your questions will make the source reflect upon things with interesting and intense interviews as a result.

3. When the source has not experienced any growth. They just lost their whole family in an earthquake. Here questions of this nature are not applicable.

1: No growth. The traumatic event just happened.

2: Growth is unrecognized. The questions posed create awareness.

3: The source has experienced growth and expresses it; growth-related answers appear spontaneously.

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CHAPTER 12

A VETERAN WAR PHOTOGRAPHER WITH HOPE Through the decades, Jan Grarup has covered wars, catastrophes and conflicts, including the wars in the Balkans, the genocide in Rwanda and Darfur, the earthquakes in Kashmir and Haiti, and the 2005 tsunami in Southeast Asia. He has received so many awards from covering conflicts all over the world that it would be futile to try to count or list them. Grarup, who joined the New York Times as staff photographer in 2011, has won eight World Press Photo prizes in different categories.

Grarup also has his own photo gallery in Copenhagen, Denmark.

It is filled with photographs depicting war and catastrophes, but we also find images pointing to hope taken in the same war zones, catastrophe areas and refugee camps. Here in his gallery he shows me his most striking examples of constructive war and catastrophe images.

In the catalogue of the winners of World Press Photo 2013, we jump to the year’s Sports Feature, which Grarup won photo reporting from Somalia. One picture is taken from above a ravaged and derelict basketball stadium. On the edge stands a man in military camouflage with an automatic rifle and ammunition belts. Down at the bottom, as slender silhouettes, Somalian women are playing basketball. In the next photograph, one of the women from the basketball team is standing in an empty gym among heavy barbells of welded iron and rows of weights above the bare, worn-down training benches. She is wearing a sports jersey and a headscarf and lifts one of the barbells above her head with straight arms while looking at the photographer mischievously.

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Screengrab from video interview with Jan Grarup for this book.

For the original photo and other examples of Jan Grarup's work please visit www.jangrarup.photoshelter.com

‘I did not find the girls in Mogadishu overnight. I heard about the girls by coincidence. People told me they were playing basketball, which was surprising in a country with strict religious laws. I began to look around until I found them. I then wrote the story on how they train and play, while at the same time there is a conflict going on in their country.

Women are not allowed to play sports, to sweat or even wear training clothes. Yet they still want to do sports,’ said Grarup.

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Element Four: Tell It Right

Jan Grarup, Photojournalist, War & Conflict Photographer, World Press Photo Winner 'I realized that if I only show harsh images, people get enough of it quickly, which is extremely counterproductive. So I began working with empathy and emotions in my images. During the genocide in Rwanda I did take some very grim pictures, but I also took some that showed caring.'

‘The image series has been printed all over the world because it contains hope. It also documents negative things: The women are fugitives in their own country due to domestic fighting in their country.

They are stigmatized, and they lack rights. Despite this, I am documenting an incredibly positive story from Somalia - an important story of hope and a budding democracy.

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From Mirrors to Movers ‘The reaction from people who have seen the photos has been incredibly positive: ‘Wow! Is it possible to be like these women?’ Somalia became interesting to them again’, says Grarup.

This war photographer stepped into a deadly conflict zone and ended up with coverage that also showed hope, survival and friendship.

Yet, Grarup’s images have not always been this way: ‘I remember a situation where it struck me how crazy it was that war did not generate more of a reaction - even when I turned my coverage really, really gruesome. This was in the mid-90s. There was a mass attack by the Serbians against the Albanian minority in Kosovo. I, and other press photographers, were embedded with a human rights organization. They began to show us evidence of people who had been tortured, killed and wounded. Each image was more gruesome than the previous. My impression was, ‘It will be hard for me to get people to react and understand the gravity. What if I show these massacres completely raw? It has to work.’ Then I began to photograph the images of the dead. I got no reactions when my photographs were published.

‘Then I thought, ‘Why the hell don’t people react to this? OK then, next time it will be as brutal as it can be – with dead children and skulls open and blown off.’ People still did not react. I normally receive a lot of feedback from my readers, but during this period, there was no reaction. Then it hit me that something was wrong. I realized that if I only show harsh images, people get enough of it quickly, which is extremely counterproductive - especially if you are telling stories from a distant part of the world. My audience could simply not grasp it. They shut down,’ Grarup reflects.

Realizing this led to a new way of working: ‘I began working with empathy and emotions in my images. Even during the genocide in Rwanda I did take some very grim pictures, but I also took some that showed caring. The same in Darfur, where people were butchered and internally displaced in staggering numbers. But I 146

Element Four: Tell It Right began to shuffle the deck. I varied my stories to include both hardship and hope. This meant that we ended with a coverage which was much more complex and multi-faceted’.

In the Darfur region in Sudan, ethnic cleansing has occurred since 2003 and continues to this day. Here the Janjaweed militia persecutes civilians. They have killed between 200,000 and 400,000 over a three year period - unless the militias just choose to maim people, which creates an even greater burden, since others have to care for the wounded and injured people. In Darfur, Grarup met a man who had both his eyes gouged out with a bayonet. He lay on the side of a stretcher, and on the edge of the stretcher sat his small son in his mutilated father’s arms.

‘The fact that this man had the ability to show caring for his son while having such gruesome injuries is to me an image of human survival. It shows how love exists in spite of everything,’ explains Grarup.

‘I would compare it to playing in an orchestra. I began to pursue music in my stories instead of bombarding people with one-sided harsh material. You could say that I got more musicians in my intrinsic orchestra. In the beginning it was just me beating on a drum and boasting about it. Now I play music. In the best case, it becomes a full symphony.’

Grarup’s photo gallery is full of photographs and prints. His image drawers are completely full. He pulls out more examples of constructive press photographs that he has taken.

The earthquake hitting Haiti in 2010: A local woman, heavily pregnant. Her clothing long and fluid. She drifts past the photographer.

With a regal posture she turns her head and looks directly into the lens.

In the background stands the heavy entry gate to the Port Au Prince market area, ‘Marché de Fer’, the only building structure left standing.

Everywhere else is destruction, twisted iron wires, random piles of rubble - everything is covered in white smoke.

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From Mirrors to Movers The story of this incredibly destructive earthquake tells us that people survived in spite of it. ‘This is the image that French newspaper Le Monde chose to print on their front page,’ said Grarup. ‘The feature story in the newspaper ran twelve pages. All the grim images were included, but this was the picture that got people to react. It drew them into the story.’

Grarup opens one of his drawers of photos and pulls out a photograph of a little girl. ‘This is from the earthquake in Kashmir. The little girl broke her legs and hips. While I was at the hospital she suddenly made a delicate and lovely movement, as children do, stretching her arms and hands up and out, smiling directly at the camera. Wow! ‘When that picture was published, people contacted me, in larger numbers than normal. They described how the picture of the girl drew them into the story, how the picture acted as a bridge. I believe people relate to her. She could be their child. Or they think, ‘My God! That little girl is lying there in a terrible situation and yet she still has the ability to smile - she should not have such strength in this kind of adversity.’ UNICEF selected the image as the Photo of the Year, 2006.

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Screengrab from video interview with Jan Grarup for this book.

For the original photo and other examples of Jan Grarup's work please visit www.jangrarup.photoshelter.com

‘I think many photographers and journalists consciously aim for material that is as hard as possible. And we have to cover horrible things. I still do it myself. But when you also show hope amidst the chaos, it creates the contrast which gets people to step up. When I look at my entire back catalogue, I notice what makes people react. It’s mostly if there is a glimmer of hope, joy and survival in the coverage.’ As an example of how an entire picture series can tell a constructive story, Grarup points to one of his recent examples: a refugee camp in Somalia, where people live under miserable conditions. Government soldiers are in power and when darkness falls, and the soldiers have chewed enough khat (a plant that induces a mild euphoria), they go hunting for women among the shacks and tents. Daily rape and abuse of the camp women has been a reality for years until a relatively cheap solar cell system was installed in the camp. The solar cells charge

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From Mirrors to Movers up during the day and illuminate the camp at night - this has lowered rape incidents by eighty percent, explains Grarup: ‘The positive story is also brutal, but you can actually tell a more terrible story if it has a positive element. In this case, rape dropped by eighty percent. It is all about pinpointing out the severity and then moving the story towards a solution - mapping challenges to overcome and then presenting the answer.’

According to Grarup, his reportages with constructive elements always have this duality: • A harsh reality – plus a glimmer of meaning: • The little girl’s broken limbs – plus her smile • The earthquake’s destruction – plus the upright pregnant woman • The buildings in ruins and the rubble – plus the couple walking holding hands • The father with his eyes gouged out – plus the caring he shows for his son • ‘There is always a glimmer of hope or meaning as long as you decide to look for it,’ Grarup concludes.

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Compassion Fatigue Powerful, negative images and stories naturally catch our attention. We see them but our emotional involvement in the stories does not last.

Because the effect of the misery is so powerful, we choose to ignore the stories in order to protect our own mental sanity. It simply becomes too much. The human capacity to deal with negative emotions is limited. In scientific research this is called compassion fatigue. Mother Theresa said: ‘If I look at the masses I will never act. If I look at the one, I will'. In her saying lies a deep truth about human nature, which modern psychological research has studied. The psychological mechanism that often plays a role when mass murder fails to stir action involves what is known as the 'dance of affect and reason' in decision-making. Affect is our ability to sense whether something is bad or good. Psychic numbing arises when these positive and negative feelings combine with reasoned analysis to guide our judgment, decisions and actions. Statistics of genocide do not convey to us the true meaning of such atrocities, as the incomprehensible numbers fail to trigger the affective emotions or feelings required to motivate action.

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ELEMENT FIVE MOVE THE WORLD

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CHAPTER 13

MOVE THE WORLD What do you tell ten Chinese journalists covering climate change? That their nation is the world’s biggest emitter of carbon and what is their press actively doing to cover this in a critical and thorough fashion? Scientists agree that carbon emissions are responsible for raising Earth’s temperature with violent weather events, flooding, water shortages and disturbed ecosystems as a consequence.

Would you tell them that the lack of a free Chinese press and lack of governmental transparency both work to cover up pollution in the big cities as well as unhealthy and carcinogenic production of food?

All of these issues were on my mind when I had the chance to do a presentation of my work within constructive journalistic format before ten Chinese colleagues covering climate change. They came from the biggest Chinese media outlets and visited Denmark to research green tech and innovations within sustainability in agriculture, energy and architecture. But I didn’t tell them any of this, because I sensed that they had heard it all before, that they themselves are fully aware of the problems of not having a free press. And I was right. Several times during our session together my Chinese colleagues emphasized their wishes for more openness and transparency from their decision makers, that they as journalists could be able to ask any kind of questions without being shut down or even imprisoned.

So instead I had decided to introduce them to a new idea in journalism - namely, that we begin to facilitate a more future-oriented debate in the public sphere between politicians, power holders, decision makers of all kinds. Instead of solely describing and reporting on 155

From Mirrors to Movers things which have occurred and are happening right now, journalism could also take on the responsibility to steer the thought-process towards possible futures.

My interest in how prospection could underpin new journalistic formats was boosted when I met Scott Barry Kaufman, who is the Scientific Director of The Imagination Institute at University of Pennsylvania.

The Imagination Institute supports and heads research looking into skills which enable us to imagine what could be, skills with real implications for human innovation and creativity. Kaufman and colleagues have recently launched a global effort to fund a wide range of research projects on prospective psychology at universities and research institutions around the world. Some researchers, for instance, are looking into studying a motivational approach for the enhancement of imagination.

Can illumination and inspiration be measured and developed? A team of researchers will study genetic architecture of imagination; others will look at the measurement and development of narrative imagination, which involves the ability to evoke the past, anticipate the future and combine these elements in a creative way. Yet others will look at the neuroscience. How is the brain generating creative ideas and what parts of the brain are active in the process?

Kaufman had generously agreed to meet me in Philadelphia to cover the potentials for journalistic innovation by intersecting it with research coming out of The Imagination Institute. I know some of you reading this might think that it is not journalism’s business to focus on things still in the future, on actions not yet taken.

A renowned colleague of mine, who for decades covered foreign affairs and served as a EU correspondent for twenty-two years, once said on live television that she ‘was not in the business of fortune telling’ when the anchor asked her to project what would happen next in a political stalemate that she was covering.

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Element Five: Move The World It made me smile, because she was partly right. Journalists should not be asked to project possible futures; but what I am about to argue is that we could very well facilitate a future-oriented debate with the individuals who have the power to make decisions having societal impact, from the county mayor and his local government to MP’s and Presidents.

Before meeting with Kaufman in Philadelphia, I had done some groundwork by monitoring questions asked in live news interviews in UK media and U.S. media - from NPR’s Morning Edition to NBC’s weekly political debate program ‘Meet the Press’ to televised election debates between Obama and Romney from the 2012 U.S. election, ending with Sky News and Channel 4’s joint grilling of candidates for Prime Minister in the UK 2015 election.

I was looking for live interviews over a broad range of topics, but within top news stories. Anchors needed to be politically balanced in their questioning, and sources interviewed needed to be not fellow correspondents or pundits, but ‘real sources’ like individuals who have something on the line, people in positions usually held to account, like politicians, business leaders and influencers.

My investigation began in my own backyard. A while back, the Danish PM, who at the time was the leader of the opposition, faced harsh critique from the media for what was deemed to be misuse of funds while being chairman of an international foundation. The story led to a three hour and forty three minutes long press conference where the top politician faced the press corps. I decided to monitor their questions. Where did they direct their flashlight? Towards the past or the future?

As you already might have guessed, the majority of questions were asked in the role of the Detective and were all directed at the past.

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From Mirrors to Movers One hundred and fifty seven questions were posed during the almost four hour long press conference. One hundred and forty eight were directed at the past, and only nine of them towards the future.

The future-oriented questions were about what kind of action he, the politician, would take to change things. How would he behave differently? What could be altered in the foundation oversight to prevent similar situations from happening in the future?

Danish politician and current Prime Minister Lars Loekke Rasmussen (far right) getting grilled by the political press.

At the press conference he stated that he would stay until there were no more questions. It lasted three hours and forty three minutes.

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Element Five: Move The World Colleagues have argued the obviousness in this - that the sole premise of the press conference was to try to clarify what precisely had been going on. However, I would argue that we, the press, missed the opportunity to investigate what could be changed in the future and what kind of reflections the politician might have on how he could alter things going forward. Again, this is not to say that we should only have one focus. But to garner more future-oriented questions, we should stop looking only at the past. I am arguing that journalism can, and should, do both.

I then moved on to look at news and political interviews in English-speaking countries like the UK and USA. National Public Radio in the U.S. has a morning news show called ‘Morning Edition’ with news interviews of a longer format. I monitored the whole month of March, 2015, which meant four different anchors and a wide range of topics, from unrest in the Gaza Strip to ISIS terror and Iran nuclear talks.

I only monitored the opening top news interviews during one month, which amounted to twenty-one interviews, in which one hundred and one questions were asked. Again, the love of journalists for the past and present was apparent: More than half of the questions were focused on the present, sixty five percent to be exact. Twenty one percent of the questions were aimed at the past, and fourteen percent aimed at the future.

I moved on to CBS’s weekly political interview program ‘Meet the Press’, curious to see what the pattern would be when interviewing politicians, again looking at a whole month (March, 2015) with the same anchor, Chuck Todd. I focused on the top news interviews on homeland security, to Hillary Clinton’s emails and ISIS. The pattern was similar: one hundred and sixty six questions were asked. The distribution between past, present and future was twenty four, fifty five and twenty one percent. Again, the emphasis was on the present, followed by a

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From Mirrors to Movers focus on past events. Future-oriented questions again claimed the lowest ranking.

Top: Danish Press Conference Middle: NPR Morning Edition Bottom: CBS Meet the Press In this book I am arguing that a new potential in journalism is to facilitate a more future-oriented debate on societal issues, climate change being the most serious of them all. I also argue that we have a part to play when it comes to influencing the way of thinking by our decision makers and power holders. If they are being asked about broken promises and errors, then this is what they get skilled at answering.

Many European political elections have been criticized for lack of visions, my own country’s latest election included. But, what is the media’s own responsibility for this? Do we play a role?

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Element Five: Move The World I decided to take a look at a debate in which I could understand the language and chose one debate from the British Parliamentary election in 2015. Sky News and Channel 4 hosted the program ‘The Battle for Number 10’, a Q&A session with the two candidates running for Prime Minister, David Cameron and Ed Miliband.

For twenty minutes, and one at a time, they faced questions from the journalist Jeremy Paxman. Their session was followed by questions from a live studio audience of voters. What I found, looking at this program, was truly eye-opening.

Again, the majority of the questions posed by the professional journalist were oriented towards the present and the past. Many questions focused on broken political promises and on what was earlier said by the candidate. However, when the public had the chance to ask questions, the focus changed dramatically.

The public were much more interested in the future.

Anchor Jeremy Paxman confronts candidate for prime minister, Ed Miliband as part of the 2015 UK Parliamentary Election.

When the voters, the live audience, got the chance to ask questions, a majority of the questions were future-oriented.

Screengrab from Sky News/Channel 4's debate 'The Battle for Number 10'

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Examples of questions were: How will you be different from the current Prime Minister? Would you consider appointing a Cabinet Minister for older people? How will you achieve a better balance of the budget? Would you like to see more NHS (Health Services) provided by private companies? For the first time in my work monitoring the style of questions in news interviews, the weight shifted. Future-orientation takes a first place when voters, the public, get to ask questions.

All in all, the numbers were quite striking. Thirty seven percent of the anchor’s questions were aimed the past, compared to only four percent when it was the voters asking the questions. Both were interested in the present, with Paxman’s forty five percent compared to voters’ forty four percent. The voters’ interest in politicians’ future plans were prominent. Over half of their questions were future-oriented, fifty two percent, to be exact.

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Top: Anchor Jeremy Paxman’s questions to Miliband and Cameron Bottom: Voters questions to Miliband and Cameron From Sky News/Channel 4’s debate ‘The Battle for Number 10’, part of the 2015 UK Parliamentary Election.

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Here is an example of a future-oriented question asked by a voter.

Prime Minister David Cameron in Sky News/Channel 4's debate 'The Battle for Number 10', part of the 2015 UK Parliamentary Election.

During my meeting with Scott Barry Kaufman, I mentioned what I had found by monitoring news interviews, and how journalism is lacking in facilitating a future-oriented debate. It was clear to Kaufman and me that applying techniques and knowledge from this research area has a huge beneficial potential for journalism. Again, we can do this without losing the ability to be detectives and uncover what has happened, or the ability to be present and report on what is happening right now.

But, if we lack a future-oriented approach, we risk slowing down or even counteracting visionary decision making on beneficial societal development, in which the most serious topic of them all is how to tackle climate change.

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Element Five: Move The World Around Christmas 2014, retiring editor-in-chief of The Guardian, Alan Rusbridger, expressed similar thoughts. He spoke about this process in a series of The Guardian podcasts, telling the story behind what became an intense journalistic campaign covering climate change.

On Christmas Eve he distributed an email to around twenty colleagues. Rusbridger wanted to do a last important project before stepping down as editor-in-chief. In the email he wrote that he had caught ‘climatitis’ during a visit to the Swedish capital of Stockholm where he was to be awarded a prize. In Stockholm, when people asked about The Guardians coverage of climate change, Rusbridger felt guilty. It kept slipping off the agenda, despite being the most important topic of them all. Rusbridger talks about how climate change is the biggest story in the world, measured on relevance, scope and urgency. It is no longer a story about science, but a story about politics and economics. Rising sea levels threaten to destroy the world’s great cities, key infrastructure, agriculture and living conditions in the world’s poorer regions, to name just a few. Journalism has failed to cover it in a satisfactory way because it is so complex. The narrative has been on catastrophe and disaster, droughts and floods. Rusbridger states the need for a new outlook covering climate change. It is like flogging dead horses. It does not work, so we have to reinvent our storytelling capacity, suggests Rusbridger, and poses a question to his journalistic staff: ‘What can we do that lifts this to a new generation, beyond something they are bored to read about or cannot bear to read about?

What can we do to force them to sit up and pay attention – and maybe even act?’

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The Guardian's campaign on climate change gets pushback from some media. Journalism should not turn into advocacy.

Rusbridger argues: 'The threat to our species is so severe that this is one of those rare subjects where you can move from reporting to campaigning. Just be transparent about it.'

Screengrab from Australian Broadcasting Corporation

The email from Rusbridger was a ‘call to action’ to his journalists and editors. Did they want to be part of a team launching an intensive and innovative coverage of climate change at The Guardian? A majority said yes, and the ‘Keep it in the ground’ campaign launched shortly thereafter.

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Element Five: Move The World What I noticed about the campaign was that it used both the stick and the carrot. The stick, when the journalists report on how divestment from fossil fuel industries to green tech companies needs to become policy of businesses, institutions and pension funds. The carrot, when they report on promising new green tech solutions with a potential to create new jobs, both in richer and poorer nations. The carrot, when a majority of the reporting has future oriented inquiry at the heart of it.

The carrot, when The Guardian alters their focus on China as the big culprit when it comes to not acting on climate change. Instead, ‘Keep it in the ground’ produced a short video titled ‘Can China fix the world’s climate?’ and an opener stating, ‘Imagine if China saved us from climate change.’

The video emphasizes the progress made by China when it comes to cutting carbon emissions. According to this video, clean energy investments in 2014 jumped from $60 billion to $90 billion, and emissions from carbon dropped for the first time in years. The video still states the problem, namely that China is the world’s biggest emitter of carbon, but it emphasizes the positive progress made and asks the provocative and inspirational question whether China could become the savior.

I am one of those believing this could happen, for business reasons and societal reasons. I showed the video to my ten Chinese journalist colleagues and they reacted very strongly. But not negatively.

They laughed out loud and started to discuss loudly in Chinese. When I got someone to translate, my colleagues, I was told, were caught by surprise by this other view on China.

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Screengrab from The Guardian's video 'Can China fix the world's climate?'

For the original video please visit The Guardian's 'Keep it in the ground': www.theguardian.com/environment/series/keep-it-in-theground

Rather than the usual carpet bombing of negative critique from the foreign press, this view opened up whole new perspectives. One of the group said something that I found quite thought-provoking: ‘If the press praises something which China’s government is doing, like investing in clean energy, then I am quite sure that the government would go on and increase their investments, just to get more praise.’

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Screengrab from The Guardian’s video 'Can China fix the world's climate?'

For the original video please visit The Guardian's 'Keep it in the ground': www.theguardian.com/environment/series/keep-it-in-theground

Thus, he had put words to what are the unacknowledged powers of the press. We influence thought processes and decision making.

We influence how people, voters, politicians think and act.

We do not mirror the world. We move it.

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CHAPTER 14

SOUTH AFRICAN MEDIA AND THE MANDELA LEGACY I could see that he was not comfortable. The way he moved around in his seat gave him away: ‘How on earth should we ask other questions to our politicians?

It’s hard enough to get them to answer anything as it is!’

The young reporter at South Africa’s Sunday Times seemed confused and frustrated. We were in the middle of a three-day workshop in constructive journalism, and I was explaining how we should ask more constructive questions to decision makers. I wanted them to start exploring solutions, visions and collaborations instead of always focusing on conflict and dissent, to not always be oriented towards the past and begin working on interviews more focused on the future. I wanted them to go from being faultfinders to becoming pathfinders.

The young journalist had a valid point. How can you build more constructive formats into journalism when you are dealing with calculating politicians who often choose to say ‘No comment’ every time they are met by critical questions from the press?

I had travelled all the way from Scandinavia to South Africa. An interesting email exchange went prior. The email exchange was initiated

by Paddi Clay, Head of Editorial Training and Development at South Africa’s Times Media Group/TMG. TMG runs several online media, plus a range of national newspapers like Sunday Times, The Times, Sowetan and Business Day. Now I was in South Africa to do training in constructive journalism for Times Media Group. Three cities and newsrooms, approximately 80 journalists and news editors were enrolled, all be171

From Mirrors to Movers cause Clay has a bold vision. She wants her reporters and news-editors to take on a new responsibility for how South Africa is doing as a society.

In the emails Clay wrote: ‘We are a highly politicized, young democracy where people need information. They need to be made aware of what they can do or what can be done to make their lives better. Our newspaper group has given lots of space to exposing corruption, revealing mismanagement and bad governance. We do feel we need to continue to do this, but we also feel that we need to engage our readers and entice new users/audiences by opening debate. By seeking solutions to the problems in their lives.’

I could tell that she saw South Africa at a crossroads: ‘With the outlook not good in the economy and politics here, we need to prevent our audiences from simply giving up on news out of despair and a sense of hopelessness,’ Clay wrote.

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Paddi Clay, Head of Editorial Training and Development, Times Media Group, South Africa 'Our newspaper group has given lots of space to exposing corruption, revealing mismanagement and bad governance. We do feel we need to continue to do this, but we also feel that we need to engage our readers and entice new users/audiences by opening debate and seeking solutions to the problems in their lives.'

It’s a fact that there have been more challenges than immediate wins for South Africa. Of course it’s an historical win when you are able to steer your nation to democracy instead of civil war that could have erupted after the official abolition of Apartheid in 1991. Yet, it is also clear how much work is still to be done in order to achieve an inclusive society.

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From Mirrors to Movers South Africa’s economy grew only 1.5 percent last year, and this had a negative influence on jobs. One out of four South Africans is unemployed, which means that South Africa has an unemployment rate among the highest of the G-20 countries. Despite reduction of poverty since 1994, South Africa’s income inequality remains among the world’s highest. Growing disaffection with local government, increasing poverty levels, and unemployment contribute to a resurgence of violence such as Xenophobic attacks on property belonging to refugees, asylumseekers, and migrants.

This was also on Clay’s mind: ‘Coming from an apartheid past we tend to see things, literally, in black and white and fail to deal with the nuances and the complexities that are in our complex multi-racial society with its many cultures, and its tenuous grasp of what democracy entails.’

When Nelson Mandela died in December, 2013 an era ended.

When an era ends, you can rightly be concerned about what follows.

What fills up the empty space? The connectedness between what constructive journalism adds and Mandela’s life work struck me.

Mandela believed that human beings are basically good and that evil is not innate. If you regard people as benevolent, this will, more likely, bring out the best in them.

Constructive journalism works on approaching power holders differently. It adds nuances. We add questions of a constructive nature.

We focus on documenting how well power holders collaborate with others to solve societal challenges. We facilitate a debate about future visions. How will they collaborate with others to achieve these? When will they take action? And how? What will it take to succeed? Will they do it? When?

Mandela chose not to become a victim, even though he had every reason to be. Constructive journalists ask other questions to so-called victims. We ask them about their own resourcefulness. We look for ex174

Element Five: Move The World amples of meaning and personal growth. What constructive actions will they take, going forward? We stop being victimologists and pathologizers.

What is Evil? Does pure Evil exist in Humans?

Social psychologist Roy Baumeister posed these questions in his book 'Evil. Inside Human Violence and Cruelty' While studying the understanding of evil Baumeister noticed that people perpetrating evil acts, never think they are doing anything wrong. They instead have a narrative which begins with their harmful act. Then they move on to explain that they had good reasons for doing it, or they were just reacting to the situation like any other normal person would have. They had a perfect right to do what they did. It’s unfair to pass blame. That is their reality.

Baumeister concludes in his book that both perpetrators and victims tend to distort their stories. Both omit or embellish details in a way which makes their actions or character look more reasonable and the opponents less reasonable. Being aware of this deeper layer of human psyche offers you a framework, in which to approach perpetrators differently. If you want to report the whole story and acquire deeper insights on why so-called bad guys act as they do - keep the above mentioned in mind. Ask questions that capture their narrative, their reasons for their acts, of course supported or rejected by relevant facts.

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Mandela did not forget his past but chose reconciliation and collaboration. He looked to the future. Same with constructive journalism.

We know that it’s important to document past events, but we work systematically with orienting our questions more even towards the future.

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From Mirrors to Movers But, can journalists walk in Mandela’s shoes? It seems to me that in South Africa, they do. Paddi Clay from Times Media Group knows that she is challenging set beliefs in her profession but has made her mind up: ‘Frankly, the blame game, the ‘he says’, ‘she says’ style is also getting very boring as a news staple.’

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CHAPTER 15

THE SIXTH W: WHAT NOW? One journalism school in the Netherlands is currently working on adding constructive journalistic methods to its curriculum. The school’s dean is Bas Mesters, and it was his years as a correspondent covering one of Europe’s most controversial leaders and his country which laid the foundations to a more constructive journalistic outlook for Mesters.

Silvio Berlusconi, Italy’s former Prime Minister, has caused many a raised eyebrow and disapproving reaction from his counterparts in Western countries. The same goes for the country he represented for so many years. Italy is often seen as a nation with a ridiculous relationship to political office, where beauty queens become MPs and the Mafia rules everything - a gorgeous country, but with unattractive institutions and government.

Mesters was well aware of his countrymen’s perception of the country he was about to cover as NRC Handelsblad’s correspondent based in Rome, and it worried him. How could he make his readers interested and engaged in a country which they had already deemed flawed? The way Mesters decided to alter his coverage of Italy was to have a profound impact on his journalistic career. It would also influence his current vision on journalism for the Department of Journalism at Windesheim University of Applied Sciences in The Netherlands, where he currently serves as Dean.

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Bas Mesters, Dean, Windesheim University of Applied Sciences, Journalism School, The Netherlands

'We intend to innovate journalism not only by focusing on technological platforms and applications, but also by innovating the content itself.

Here constructive journalism is a tool that adds some missing elements to journalism.'

It all began back in Italy: ‘After some years of reporting on Italy, I decided to do an experiment, breaking out from the stereotypical stories on Berlusconi, the mafia and corruption. In journalistic stories you quote people who fight abuse, corruption and the mafia to document how bad the situation is.

As a reporter you often stop there, forgetting to ask more from those who criticize the system. For example: How do they fight the problems?

What does it cost them in the form of threats, danger and pushback?

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Element Five: Move The World What are the barriers? And why do they keep on fighting? I decided to publish their struggle for solutions to a larger audience, always from a critical angle. In this way, I wanted to challenge the stereotypes, which I knew my countrymen held on Italy. I wanted to cover not only the mafia, but also the individuals who are taking action to fight the mafia, individuals who fight corruption and fight the state of dysfunction in the Italian system. I wanted to give a more interesting and newsworthy portrayal of Italy, rather than only stories about what does not work. Those were the stories my Dutch readers already knew so well. I hoped that it would raise a renewed interest in Italy. I think it worked.’

Mesters highlights one story in particular which became an eyeopener for him. He was doing a story about Lorella Zanardo, an Italian female rights activist and blogger. Zanardo passionately fought stereotyping and humiliation of Italian women and girls, who were portrayed as sex objects in Italian media and public life. The story was published and it paved the way for establishing Mesters’ online journalistic charter: the website One11.nl. Before it could become reality, Mesters needed more journalists on his team, writing stories for the site. He, therefore, wrote a letter to a broad array of his Dutch correspondent colleagues all around the world. In the letter he outlined a new journalistic vision: ‘It’s quite simple. We will choose to look at the flow of current events from a different angle. We will look through the eyes of people who build instead of disrupt. These are people who take on problems, occasionally putting their lives at risk, often without rewards and always against the grain.’

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A section of One/11 the online webpage launched by Bas Mesters.

Mesters added a sixth W - 'What Now?' to the existing five W's in journalism: Who, What, Where, When and Why.

Mesters emphasized that in a world full of crisis it is the duty of the journalist not only to focus on problems but also on solutions, and to report on these in a critical and thorough fashion. If you don’t, you miss half of the story, writes Mesters. More than a hundred Dutch correspondents from all over the world - even from competing media outlets - agreed to participate, pro bono. Mesters recalls their responses as overwhelming: ‘All over the world colleagues wanted to help me build One11, and we were working against a tight deadline. We needed to get it done before the start of 2011 to present it as a New Year’s gift to the Dutch public. We succeeded. Within three months we had it done. Many participants wrote me back, saying that they, for a long time, had wanted 182

Element Five: Move The World to write stories like these. But their news editors and newsrooms were not particularly interested. It was overwhelming to realize that this idea resonated with so many of my colleagues, no matter where they were based and for whom they worked.’

The participating journalists needed assurance that their work would not be fluff or uncritical hero-worshipping. Mesters, therefore, emphasized that the reporting should portray reality, the setbacks, the challenges and the journey. He also emphasized the importance of using critical, professional, journalistic questioning like the five Ws: who, what, where, why and when. But he added a sixth and new W: What now?

This in an effort to consciously push the reporter to identify a path forward instead of leaving readers with a dead-end street narrative. The initiative stirred things up, and reactions were immediate. National and international news outlets interviewed Mesters on his initiative. Readers’ reactions were positive and numerous. Colleagues pitched more stories. The manifest One11.nl was expected to exist only for a few weeks, but the site continued to publish new stories for another six months. By then, Mesters decided that his goal was achieved.

He emphasizes that the aim was not to produce a permanent media site. It was meant to be a charter, a statement: ‘We aimed for the editors-in-chief and the journalists to reflect on the fact that audiences wanted to read these kinds of stories, and that journalists indeed wanted to produce them.’

When Mesters returned home from Italy after ten years, creating One11 had changed his outlook and career path: ‘Working this way, breaking the stereotypes in journalism, gave me the freedom to be the journalist I had always wanted to be. I wanted to be someone able to point forward, someone who could also report on human potential and the struggle for progress. I continue to do

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From Mirrors to Movers so, most recently in my book ‘Italiaanse Streken’ about Italian society, its soul, its problems and the trailblazers that work on solutions.’

Today Mesters manages one of the big journalism schools in The Netherlands, Windesheim University of Applied Sciences in the city of Zwolle. There he is actively working on implementing constructive journalism as a part of the school’s journalism curriculum. If he succeeds, Windesheim will be the first journalism school in the world to do so: ‘I am trying to adapt these ideas into the school, hoping they will become part of mainstream journalism in the future. The journalism school in Zwolle has a background in civic journalism where media not only informs the public, but also work towards interacting with and engaging citizens, with the aim of creating public debate. Now I am trying to synthesize these roots with constructive journalism. Our teachers have already shown interest and feel engaged in this effort. They realize that ‘valuable journalism’ has to be both economically and ethically sustainable.

‘We want our journalistic stories to be read and shared, so they reach the greatest audience while still being solid reporting. We intend to innovate journalism, not only by focusing on technological platforms and applications, but also by innovating the content itself. Here constructive journalism is a tool which adds some missing elements to journalism. It can help us connect better with our public. We need to realize that a story is not just a ‘story’, but that it reflects a part of reality in which we live, and for which we all are responsible.’

At Windesheim University, lecturers are well aware that they are breaking out of the mould of what journalism schools typically focus on today: social media, new technological platforms, engaging audiences in a twenty-four-seven news cacophony. Of course this gets a lot of attention at the school. Mesters says: ‘It begins with changing and broadening journalists’ outlook.

Then, I believe, the research phase and ideas for stories will also widen.

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Element Five: Move The World A new and broader outlook will change journalists’ scope. I think that our students should be made aware of the important role they have when it comes to helping shape the mind-sets of citizens. We live in a world with a lot of far-reaching and complex problems and crises. Journalism should reflect that but also facilitate the discussion on possible solutions, challenges and visions. This is what I want to convey to our students. Muckrake, find the problems, but focus also on the sixth W: What now. Facilitate the debate on solutions. We have incorporated this into the mission statement of our department and are currently working on implementing it. If we want to help future journalists to become the best version of themselves, we should also provide them with an awareness of how their work is affecting and influencing society.’

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EPILOGUE Journalistic newsrooms are fantastic and also dreadful places to work. They are fantastic because involvement permeates everything.

They get you to use every waking hour in the hunt for a good story. The cheer when you finally get your hands on the right documents, the celebration with your colleagues when the important interview has been done are exhilarating. They are dreadful because they can take on a life of their own with their own values, ethics and rules that you begin to live by: ‘If it bleeds, it leads. News is information that some people want to keep hidden – anything else is advertising.’

In the glorious desire to be a ‘real’ journalist, we distort the image of the world. We mainly describe faults and deficiencies, conflicts and victims. We sometimes play an active role in escalating conflicts and hence problems.

It’s my hope that this book has provided you with research and a framework for conducting constructive journalism, all with the potential of making you a more comprehensive journalist.

One-sided critical journalism is not trustworthy in the eyes of the public and has an adverse effect on their involvement and drive.

Fact.

Constructive coverage of stories increases the users’ desire to read about the topic - to comment and share, to react actively to what they read, listened to or watched. This is also a fact.

I believe that the desensitization we see in our audience could be mended if our reporting became more balanced. The investigative and critical story still needs to be told, and with an audience no longer desensitized from an overly-negative everyday coverage, we might see more action and societal impact from investigative reporting. This is where constructive journalism has great potential for conquering new territory.

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From Mirrors to Movers Apart from the beneficial effect to society of having informed citizens, to have consumers of journalism who are engaged in what they read, it is of course also appealing to be able to attract an audience. If journalism is still to play an important role in the future, it is high time to improve the journalistic content, instead of mainly focusing on technology, payment methods and platforms. A tablet or a smartphone is an impressive small piece of technology, but perhaps the media industry has been too busy understanding the new technical opportunities instead of focusing on how we can innovate and develop content.

Standing idly by while growing numbers deselect news is an unintelligent approach. We, the news media, risk becoming obsolete because we did not manage to innovate our own profession from within a puzzling situation, when so many other professions have understood the necessity and value of doing this. Psychology managed to do it by founding positive psychology, therefore challenging a habitual focus on pathology.

The creation of positive psychology happened without psychology losing its validity. On the contrary, it has complemented, strengthened and balanced the field. Journalism is ripe for the same development. Nothing in journalism’s ethics code prevents us from uncovering and reporting on constructive elements. The task is to create an engaging and factually correct narrative. Even more fundamentally, I believe I am not alone when I say that I’ve just grown incredibly tired of the same-old headlines, story angles and coverage of events. We have heard it all before. Nothing is really new. If you begin working on asking other kinds of questions, then you start on a journey that will disclose new thinking, reflections, insights and action. That is real news.

Moreover, it is of key importance to promote and fund research regarding the influence of constructive coverage on societal decisionmaking. An ambitious research effort is essential to optimize constructive journalism.

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Element Five: Move The World Because constructive journalism is based on a continually evolving scientific field, its methodology and practice will also grow and change. So, it is not a static domain, but will evolve as the research, underpinning method and applications evolve.

I regard moral foundations research, led by Jonathan Haidt, and prospective psychology research as two major domains having enormous potential for the continued constructive innovation of journalism and news coverage. 25 Haidt’s research into moral foundations will facilitate a continued development of novel debate formats for covering politics, elections and candidate debates on TV. The research of Haidt and others shows that while people are nearly incapable of seeking out evidence which might contradict their beliefs, they are wizards at finding evidence justifying their beliefs and actions. Haidt has described five moral foundations, based on his years of research into the moral preferences of more than 126,000 individuals across multiple countries. This explains why liberals, conservatives and libertarians have fundamentally different intuitions about right and wrong. It provides a roadmap for journalists on how to better steer and facilitate a political debate. Thus, political opponents might be able to collaborate better.

As I have suggested in this book, journalism is mainly focused on the past, and to a lesser degree on the present, but very little on the future, carrying a potentially dire consequence for society. If we do not facilitate an exchange of ideas and viewpoints which looks to the future, having societal positive visions at its heart, then decision makers risk becoming lazy thinkers with a detrimental consequence to society.

What we focus on, we get more of.

I invite you, dear reader, to be part of this journey. http://www.goldensted.com

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