Constructive journalism. Empirical analyses of the potential effects of a new form of journalism

政治媒体的报道集中在问题和冲突上，因此语气非常负面。这种以问题为中心的报道给公众带来的后果从恐惧和愤怒等负面情绪到对政治的负面和两极分化的判断，以及不愿参与解决社会问题。因此，作为传统的注重问题的新闻的替代办法，建设性新闻已经讨论了几年，其目的不仅是讨论政治和社会问题，而且是讨论社会问题的成功和可能的解决办法，这样不仅应该促进社会参与，同时还应该促进对新闻业的信任。然而，如果回顾以往关于建设性新闻的研究，就会发现：1)建设性新闻没有系统地定义，2)建设性新闻可能产生的影响几乎没有在理论上得到反映，3)关于建设性新闻的效果及其前提和边界条件几乎没有进行任何系统的研究。根据对建设性新闻的工作定义，建设性新闻是以平衡和事实的方式报道与社会相关的问题和解决这些问题的方法的新闻，本申请项目的目的是：a)从理论上模拟建设性新闻对接受者的情绪、认知和行为(意图)的影响；b)从经验上检验这些影响及其先决条件(建设性新闻的内容和使用)和边界条件(问题和接受者的特征)。这项工作将分三个单元进行：模块A(内容)使用手动定量内容分析，以审查将自己归类为建设性新闻的媒体如何报道与社会相关的主题，以及这与现有新闻媒体的报道有何不同。在模块B(潜在用途)中，一项实验性调查被用来确定在具体的决策情况下，比起以问题为中心的媒体报道，更喜欢建设性新闻的受众规模，以及这取决于哪些边界条件。该项目的核心是模块C(效果)，其中将借助2x2x2x2因素实验设计来考察建设性新闻的各个方面(平衡、实事求是、提出解决方案)对不同问题和不同倾向的人的具体影响。第四个单元D(出版和转让)用于在科学、新闻和社会领域传播项目成果。

Political media coverage focuses on problems and conflicts and is therefore strongly negative in tone. The consequences of this problem-focused reporting for the public range from negative emotions such as fear and anger to negative and polarized judgments about politics and a reluctance to participate in solving social problems. As an alternative to established, problem-focused journalism, constructive journalism has therefore been discussed for several years, which aims to discuss not only political and social problems but also successes and possible solutions to social problems and in this way should not only promote social engagement, but at the same time promote trust in journalism. However, if one looks at the previous research on constructive journalism, it becomes clear that 1) there is no systematically developed definition of constructive journalism, 2) the possible effects of constructive journalism have hardly been theoretically reflected and 3) hardly any systematic research on the effects of constructive journalism and its prerequisites and boundary conditions was carried out. Based on a working definition of constructive journalism as journalism that reports in a balanced and factual manner on socially relevant problems and ways to solve them, the aim of the project applied for here is a) to theoretically model the effects of constructive journalism on the emotions, cognitions and behavior (intents) of the recipients and b) to empirically examine these effects as well as their prerequisites (content and use of constructive journalism) and boundary conditions (characteristics of issues and recipients). This is to be done in three modules: Module A (content) uses a manual quantitative content analysis to examine how media that classify themselves as constructive journalism report on socially relevant topics and how this differs from the reporting of established news media. In Module B (potential use), an experimental survey is used to determine the size of the audience that prefers constructive journalism to problem-centric media reporting in a concrete decision-making situation and on which boundary conditions this depends. The core of the project is Module C (effects), in which the specific effects of the various dimensions of constructive journalism (balance, matter-of-factness, presenting solutions) on different issues and on people with different predispositions are to be examined with the help of a 2x2x2x2-factorial experimental design. The fourth module D (publications and transfer) serves to communicate the project results in science, journalism and society.