Constructive Journalism as an Adaptation to a Changing Media Environment

ABSTRACT

How can constructive journalism subscribe to established standards of journalism and still offer something new to the field? This paper explores the possibility that constructive journalism looks for better ways to implement the standards in a changing media environment. A case in point is the partial loss of the gatekeeper role in digital journalism. Here, journalism tries to show that it is still relevant by always finding something to criticize. But this may cause readers to turn away because, even though the news informs them about important points of disagreement, it does not outline how the debate might move on. Constructive journalism can be taken to suggest that journalists should evaluate the merits of the arguments involved so that readers can better assess the situation. This would not require journalists to give up on a negative focus in news, but to broaden their view: They should not confine their reporting to those in power but reflect the productive discourse which is often hidden in digital media.

KEYWORDS:

• Constructive journalism
• digital media
• network society
• gatekeeping
• audience engagement
• mini publics

Acknowledgements

The authors have profited from discussions within the Erasmus+ project “Enhancing constructive journalism on social media through dialogue-based storytelling” and remarks from the editor and two anonymous reviewers.

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).