WHY
WHY
"The 2021 Nobel Peace Prize to Maria Ressa and Dmitry Muratov highlighted the link between press freedom, democracy, and peace. Independent, fact-based journalism is our best defense against disinformation and propaganda. To save our democracy, we must restore trust in journalism, and here, Constructive Journalism has an important role to play",
Kjersti Fløgstad, Executive Director,
Nobel Peace Centre, 2022.
As many surveys show, such as the Annual Report on Internet Information (Digital News Report) of ‘The Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism at the University of Oxford, public trust in the media is at its lowest of all time. Media cynicism and the distorting negativity that dominates "information" have a large share of responsibility in creating an out-of-balance, manipulative, and misleading view of the world, which creates a gap between what is actually happening and what people think is happening.
Too much focus on "bad" news creates a false impression of our world that twists reality, makes us feel helpless, and impedes our ability to respond effectively to the challenges we face.
In HICOJO we strive to practically present news, even negative ones, but in a constructive fashion. We seek to redefine and modernize what it means to be informed and aim to establish a field of journalism that does not reinforce negativity, emphasizes problems, conflicts, and atrocities, but impartially explores, proposes solutions, and inspires creative actions instead.
A common theme in recent studies has been that: “The news that is solution-oriented can empower people.”
Constructive Journalism raises the question: WHAT NOW?
What are the solutions that may exist?
What could today's world look like tomorrow?
How could we help improve the way things are done?
The challenge of Constructive Journalism: Telling the whole story!
Concentrating on the overall picture of the world, on what works and leads humanity to a better reality, and not on the well-known slogan "If it bleeds, it leads".
The omnipresence of catastrophes makes more and more people avoid the news altogether. But what if the media adopted a new approach to information that would inspire people, as it would not stop at identifying problems but would also investigate and highlight possible solutions?
News avoidance, lack of trust, and fake news all point to… Need for Change!
Constructive Journalism is important not only for the news industry but for democracy and for us all. More than any other profession, journalism is a filter between reality and the public's perception of it. Editorial choices about which news to feature, what journalists ask, how their stories are, what to post, and what not to say, all have a huge impact on how others see themselves, each other, and the world they live in.
Please take a look at the following data retrieved from many global organizations that further confirm the need to rethink journalism:
- In recent years the Annual Research reports of the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism at the University of Oxford (Digital News Report), record, among other things, the ways in which the relationship between journalism and the public is wearing away, including a drop in trust, a decline in news interest, and an increase in the avoidance of news and the polarization of the public. [Journalism, media, and technology trends and predictions 2023]
- Edelman Trust Barometer: Edelman is a global communications company. For the past 22 years, it's been publishing the "Trust Barometer", an annual global survey of more than 36,000 respondents in 28 countries. The results are published each January covering a range of current and important social indicators of trust between business, media, government, and NGOs. For 2022 they predicted a world trapped in a vicious cycle of mistrust, fuelled by a growing lack of trust in the news media and the government. Through disinformation and division, as they point out, these two institutions continue the cycle and exploit it for commercial and political benefits. "Distrust is now the established characteristic of society",as they phrase it, ranking it first among their 10 most important findings .
- Knight Foundation: They have been tracking the decline of trust in the news media since 2017. The long-term trend on this measure hit a record low in 2020 when the share of Americans with no confidence in the news media surpassed that of people with at least some confidence for the first time in 40 years. Furthermore, findings from the American Views 2020 report showed that Americans were “very concerned” about increasing political bias in news coverage and the perception that news organizations “push an agenda.” American Views 2022: Trust Media and Democracy
- Additionally, the annual study called “Perils of Perception” explores the gap between people's perceptions and reality in more than 40 countries and 200,000 interviews. This unique analysis of misperceptions looks at why people around the world are so wrong about things like causes of death, climate change, the sex lives of young people, the number of migrants, overpopulation and more. As they indicate: "Perceptions are not reality: Things aren't as bad as they seem".
- Gapminder Institute: “Hardly anyone knows the basic global data!” they argue. Gapminder is an independent Swedish Foundation, free of political and religious affiliations, that fights devastating misconceptions about global progress by promoting a fact-based worldview. They identify systematic misconceptions about important global trends and use reliable data to develop understandable teaching materials to rid people of destructive ignorance.
"What we are asking for is rigorous journalism in terms of progress, reporting on actual problems without ignoring successes. It may sound idealistic sure, but let me assure you it is not an ignorant plea. Research says that it's obvious and to ignore it... that would be absurd!"
Constantine Alexopoulos, Founder of the HICOJO
«Το ζητούμενο είναι αυστηρή δημοσιογραφία όσον αφορά την πρόοδο, αναφορά στα προβλήματα, χωρίς όμως να αγνοούμε τις επιτυχίες. Μπορεί να ακούγεται ιδεαλιστικό, αλλά επιτρέψτε μου να σας διαβεβαιώσω ότι δεν είναι μια αδαής έκκληση. Οι έρευνες λένε ότι είναι προφανές και το να το αγνοήσουμε…αυτό είναι το παράλογο!»
Κων/νος Αλεξόπουλος, ιδρυτής Ε.Ι.Ε.Δ. και εκδότης του Ορθού Λόγου.