Journalists often write their reports in a negative or even in a partly dramatic tone. This goes along with the well-known journalistic rule: “Only bad news is good news!” According to current studies, many users develop a negative attitude about important social and political topics and feel helpless to make a change. The approach of Constructive Journalism tries to overcome this tendency by not only showing the negative sides of a problem, but commenting on positive aspects and solutions for the issue. By doing this, the media could portray a more objective and not one-sided picture of the reality. Furthermore, a positive tone in reporting helps to raise the interest and understanding of the readers, viewers and listeners as well as their willingness for change.

Hendrik Sittig, Head of the KAS Media Programme South East Europe, opened the workshop. He emphasised that it is important not only to report on news, but when there is time and place in the media, also on solutions for social problems. He is convinced that Constructive Journalism will gain further attention in the future – also in South East Europe – and is very pleased that KAS is discussing this topic for the first time in the region.

In an introductory session, the participants – experienced journalists from Albania, Bulgaria, Kosovo, Croatia, North Macedonia, Moldova, Montenegro, Serbia and Romania – explained how they understand the term Constructive Journalism and what problems they see in its implementation. They also talked about the challenges for the media in South East Europe, such as political pressure and attacks on journalists.




Cynara Vetch, Coordinator for international projects at the “Constructive Institute”, introduced her organisation. She explained that Constructive Journalism is future-oriented quality journalism which reports on important socio-political topics in an objective tone, based on facts and solutions. "When we are under constant stress, we have no room for new creative ways of thinking," she said. This also applies to the media. "If reporting is only negative, then citizens do not want to read and see news anymore," Vetch added.

The participants continued the discussion by giving many examples from their experience in political reporting. In their point of view, politicians are often not constructive enough, but stay in the focus of the coverage. Media should therefore engage more in dialogue with decision-makers with constructive policy ideas. The journalists agreed that Constructive Journalism is not about positive or negative aspects of the news, but about the context and the mapping of all sides of a topic, in order to make the issues better understandable for the recipients. Vetch concluded that healthy media also means a healthy society and new approaches of quality journalism can support democracy.




More in the event report.