Climate change is one of the biggest threats the world is currently facing and it seems that people are able to significantly influence this threat. In order for people to understand the urgency of fighting climate change it is important that they are well informed and that they understand how their actions can matter. In this research, a quantitative content analysis with a discourse analytical approach is used to analyze a selection of articles by the BBC online covering the annual United Nations climate summits between 2008 and 2018 with a focus on their usage of constructive elements. The amount of negative statements in the articles is as big as the positive and hopeful statements together and in most cases the articles lack background information. Although the BBC uses many different perspectives in their articles, there is a lot of room to improve their articles by including more constructive elements. They could provide more background information to issues, quotes, and statements used in their articles and rather than only stating existing and possible problems they could include more solutions and focus more on the future.

The COVID-19 pandemic is a global crisis with every country being affected. It is one of the widely reported crisis over the past few months. Crisis of such degree and range of influence demands a well-informed reporting with an understanding of the possible impact. As the media coverage is largely influenced by journalistic frames and their interpretations, it is highly important and relevant to study this crisis from a framing perspective. Therefore, this research aims to explore the construction of frames, to what extent they exist in the text in comparison to each other, and how they appear across different time periods by studying the online editorial coverage of the COVID-19 crisis published by New York Times. Eight constructive and seven negative frames have been deductively coded to conduct the research through qualitative content analysis with quantitative elements of the editorials published during three specific periods in January, February, and March of 2020. Constructive frames have been coded with the help of constructive journalism which is used as an analytical concept in this research, while negative frames have been retrieved from literature on the framing of previous crises. The analysis suggests that the editorial coverage of the COVID-19 crisis by New York Times is overall constructive but with focus on few dominant constructive and negative frames. Among constructive frames the most dominant frames are ‘solution-oriented’ and ‘mathematical’. Among negative frames the most dominant frames are ‘blame attribution’, frame of ‘consequences’ and ‘conflict’. Findings revealed that blame attribution is dominant as compared to the frame of solidarity and denial is dominant as compared to the frame of concern. Furthermore, the analysis reveals that the construction and appearance of frames change over different time periods with changed intensity level of crisis. This change requires versatile coverage and shift in attention towards newly emerging challenges.

Solutions journalism, rigorous reporting on responses to social problems, has gained great traction in the last decade. Using positive psychology theory, also known as the theory of well-being, this qualitative study examines the impact of reporting while using solutions journalism techniques. Applying the five pillars of positive psychology theory: positive emotion, engagement, positive relationships, meaning and accomplishment (PERMA), this study used interviews and content analysis to investigate how journalists are applying the tools of solutions journalism as well as what they hope to accomplish in the process. Findings revealed that the application of solutions journalism techniques produces hope and community engagement resulting in flourishing and positive change for individuals, communities and all involved in the reporting process.

Constructive journalism aims to cover stories about progress and collaboration as well as stories about devastation and conflict. This qualitative interviewstudy explores how local journalists working at Sveriges Television and Sveriges Radio experience the impact of constructive journalism on their journalistic role. What has the constructive perspective, which is now quite implemented in the two media organizations, meant for the conceptions of the journalistic role considering norms, ideals and journalistic mission? By interviewing five journalists about their experiences, we received results that provide an understanding of constructive journalism as it pertains to journalist role conceptions. The results show that the constructive perspective has come with a great sense of change for these journalists, considering how they experience their journalistic role.

To fight climate change, people need to change their behaviours towards emitting fewer greenhouse gases and build a system that is resilient towards the future shocks that climate change will create. Education can be seen as a key factor in behaviour change. Climate change education, in particular, provides people with the knowledge they need to transition towards a more sustainable state. Education does not only involve giving people information on natural and social systems, though: Since climate change can potentially threaten life on earth, it evokes strong emotional responses, such as depression and helplessness. When students feel that they cannot do anything about climate change, when they feel hopeless and pessimistic, they are less likely to engage in pro-environmental behaviour. Even if they have adequate knowledge of what to do. This constitutes the gap between cognitive and emotional learning where I enter with my study. With an online survey addressed to German grammar school pupils and university students (N = 438), I examine how the design of content on climate change can influence the perception of content. I used techniques of presenting content from Constructive Journalism to write five short texts on climate change for half of the participants. The other half represented a control group that read texts using the opposite of these constructive techniques of presenting. The participants answered questions regarding the two dimensions of learning: cognitive, and emotional. Within the emotional dimension, I asked students about their feelings of engagement, hope, depression, self-efficacy, and collective efficacy toward climate change. Constructive techniques of presenting content influence mainly the emotional dimension of learning, not the cognitive dimension and not the feeling of cognitive engagement either. The study showed, however, that if students understand the challenges of climate change well, they showed to be more prone toward feelings of depression. Teachers can engage with these negative feelings by including such framings as solutions-orientation, community-orientation, or long-term trends. While keeping cognitive learning and engagement at the same level, teachers can increase the positive emotions students have towards the content by designing it constructively. This study provides a way to encourage behavioural change in young people that is easier than transforming the entire global educational system. The insights can also be used for the broader public. Empowering people through information can inspire them to take action for mitigation and adaptation.

The thesis examines whether the media content that won the Award for Solutions Journalism meets the basic criteria of this particular journalistic approach. The qualitative content analysis is complemented by a multi-case study, which was prepared on the basis of interviews with the winners of the Journalism Award for Solutions Journalism and popularizers of this journalistic method in the Czech Republic. A multi-case study examined whether journalists deliberately developed award-winning media content using this method. The work also provides information on the conditions under which the approach has established itself in the Czech Republic while it outlines its future. The theoretical part contains the definition of Solutions Journalism, describes its classification among other journalistic approaches and its development. It briefly introduces non-profit organizations that seek to create awareness of Solutions Journalism in the Czech Republic. The main goal of the research is to confirm that in the Czech Republic the media content has been created within the framework of this journalistic approach, but it was not named as Solutions Journalism. The awarding of the Journalist Award for Solutions Journalism serves primarily as a way to raise awareness of this method.

Nous lisons, voyons et entendons des nouvelles provenant de diverses sources médiatiques quotidiennement. Des études ont montré que la majorité de ces nouvelles étaient négatives et pouvaient avoir des conséquences néfastes sur la santé. Le journalisme constructif est né en réaction à la surabondance de nouvelles négatives et vise à créer des nouvelles plus positives et engageantes. Basé sur une étude de notre laboratoire ayant montré que les nouvelles négatives augmentaient la réactivité au stress et la mémoire, le présent projet de recherche a évalué de façon expérimentale les effets de nouvelles positives sur la réactivité au stress, la mémoire et les affects. De jeunes adultes ont été exposés à des nouvelles positives ou neutres, puis à un stresseur psychosocial en laboratoire. Nous avons mesuré leurs affects à trois reprises et avons collecté des échantillons de salive (intervalles de 10 minutes) pour mesurer le cortisol, une hormone de stress. Vingt-quatre heures plus tard, nous avons testé leur rappel des nouvelles. Les résultats n’ont révélé aucun effet des nouvelles positives ou neutres sur les hormones de stress, la mémoire ou les affects des participants. Ainsi, contrairement aux effets des nouvelles négatives rapportés dans les études précédentes, les nouvelles positives et neutres ne semblent pas associées à une augmentation de la réactivité au stress, de la mémoire et des affects négatifs. Des mécanismes potentiels sont abordés dans l’article scientifique et élaborés plus en détail dans ce mémoire, dans le but de générer de nouvelles hypothèses pour de futures études. / We read, see and hear news from various media sources on a daily basis. Studies have shown that a majority of the news is negative and can have adverse effects on physiological and psychological health. Constructive journalism was born as a reaction to the overabundance of negative news. This form of journalism aims to create more positive and engaging news. Based on a study from our laboratory that showed that exposure to negative news increased stress reactivity and memory in women, this project experimentally evaluated the effects of positive news on stress reactivity, memory, and affect. Young adults were exposed to positive or neutral news and then to a psychosocial stressor in the laboratory. We measured their affect three times and collected saliva samples (at 10-minute intervals) to measure their stress hormones. Twenty-four hours later, we tested their news recall. The results revealed no effect of positive or neutral news on participants' stress hormones, memory, or affect. Thus, in contrast to the effects of negative news reported in previous studies, positive and neutral news were not associated with increased stress reactivity, memory and negative affect. The mechanisms that might explain why positive news does not affect young adults are discussed in the scientific article and elaborated further in this thesis, with the goal of generating new hypotheses that can be tested in future studies.

Advanced Technology drives the increasing anti-censorship, decentralised social media networks, and publishing platforms that are based on blockchain, where no single party can control these platforms, which results in safeguarding information circulation, freedom to publish, and independence of journalism. Furthermore, cryptoeconomics associated with blockchain creates an easy economic model to find sustainable financing for independent journalism by Initial Coin Offering. Meanwhile, adopting a reward system by these publishing platforms has generated sustainable income sources for content creators, allowing them to be independent and motivated to create high-quality constructive content, which contributes to developing communities through disbursing knowledge in forms of constructive journalism.  This study presents the potential of blockchain and cryptoeconomics in developing independent and constructive journalism, especially in developing countries. Through analysing the structure of Steem Blockchain, and empirical analysis of journalistic content on Steemit network in terms of the amount of payout that content creators and curators receive, based on the system of reward according to the content value that is determined by community member voting. Besides selected sample interviews with journalists, writers, and publishers in the Arab World which is undergoing turmoil and transition and needs constructive journalism, asking for their opinions about the potential that blockchain and cryptoeconomics have to support independent and constructive journalism.  The results of the study demonstrated that journalistic posts classified under constructive journalism could achieve a high payout according to the reward system based on community voting for the content value. Meanwhile, journalists and writers have expected that this new economic model can enhance the financial independence of journalists and develop independent and constructive journalism in developing countries.

No description available.