Norwegian journalist Vigdis Holmaas paved the ground with an introduction based on her book ”Konstruktiv Journalistikk – kritisk og løysingsorientert (2019)”. You can watch a recording of her introduction here (https://youtu.be/E7KSRYZ9GRM).
This Nordic Forum was founded to invite journalists to share their local experiences with constructive, inclusive, dialogic, solutions-oriented journalism. The Scandinavian tour of Forum Talks that now reached its fourth country, Norway (preceding Finland, Sweden and Denmark), has proved that the current discussion about the social responsibility of journalism follows similar lines across the region – also in that there is debate and hesitation about what to call these initiatives.
Vigdis Holmaas underlined that she sees constructive journalism as a strategy for developing traditional journalism: to create a better balance, provide a truer world view, and expand responsibility so that the focus on solutions becomes a natural part in the debate about society. The need for these developments rises from the unintended consequences of journalism’s current state, for example the fact that every fifth Norwegian is actively trying to avoid news because the news depicts such a negative picture of reality.
Holmaas provided examples of how constructive strategies have been used in practice in Norway. It doesn’t always take a lot, sometimes a simple change of the angle and a slightly different formulation of questions can bring forth the solutions and hope in a news story.
Holmaas also brought up that there are arguments both for and against the vague definition of the term ”constructive journalism”. On one hand, not having a strict definition leaves it open for people to implement in their own work and to develop the strategies further. On the other hand, as Holmaas pointed out referring to a Danish researcher Peter Bro, openness also runs the risk of not forming a solid and durable identity.
This incited a vivid discussion in the smaller breakout groups, bringing to view the great expertise of the forum participants. It is exciting to see how this forum is building up to become the resource that it was intended to be!
The next Forum Talk will take place on February 18th. Journalists Noora Kettunen and Matleena Ylikoski from The Finnish Association for Conciliatory Journalists (https://www.sopiva.org/english/) will present their work, with concrete examples from conciliatory journalism projects.