Children’s cognitive responses to constructive television news

Kleemans, Mariska; Dohmen, Roos; Schlindwein, Luise F.; Tamboer, Sanne L.; Leeuw, Rebecca N. H. de; Buijzen, Moniek

doi:10.1177/1464884918770540

Cited by 15 publications

(13 citation statements)

References 28 publications

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“…Therefore, this study empirically supports the theoretical notion that including constructive elements of hope and inspiration, and solution-based information in news can improve emotional responses. Moreover, our research shows this is not only the case for children (Kleemans et al, 2017a, 2017b, 2019) and adults (McIntyre, 2015, 2019; McIntyre and Gibson, 2016; McIntyre and Sobel, 2017; Meier, 2018), but also for a group known to be critical towards news and news content: Millennials.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 67%

“…When the change in emotions before and after exposure to the news item is calculated, a smaller decrease of positive emotions and a smaller increase of negative emotions in the constructive than nonconstructive group is found. These results are found for adults between 18 and 72 years old (McIntyre, 2019;McIntyre and Gibson, 2016;McIntyre and Sobel, 2017) as well as for children between 8 and 13 years old (Kleemans et al, 2017a(Kleemans et al, , 2017bKleemans et al, 2019).…”

Section: Constructive Journalism: Effects Emotionsmentioning

confidence: 86%

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Interest matters: The effects of constructive news reporting on Millennials’ emotions and engagement

Hermans

Prins

2020

Journalism

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News media seem to have insufficient knowledge on how to reach Millennials. An important question is how professional journalism can prevent the disillusion that a growing number of Millennials experience when consuming news. Constructive journalism is often propagated as a way to improve the well-being and engagement of readers. To test this, the current study investigated the effects of constructive news on emotions and online engagement. In an experiment, 20–40-year-old participants ( n = 341) read a story containing constructive elements or not. Findings showed constructive news elicited lower levels of negative and higher levels of positive and inspirational emotional responses. Furthermore, reading constructive news partly affected readers’ actual online behaviour: Millennials who read the constructive news ‘liked’ this news more often. These results suggest that constructive journalism might be a viable strategy to attract younger news users, especially when the news topic is relevant to their lives.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 67%

Section: Constructive Journalism: Effects Emotionsmentioning

confidence: 86%

Interest matters: The effects of constructive news reporting on Millennials’ emotions and engagement

Hermans

Prins

2020

Journalism

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“…And Kogen (2019) interviewed journalists covering hunger crises in Africa regarding their complex feelings about including solution information in their stories. For experiments, Kleemans et al (2019) tested how constructive (vs non-constructive) television news affected children’s emotions and recall. And in her thesis, Trottier-Le Bosse (2020) tested the impact of solution-focussed news (vs problem-focussed news), as well as story relevance as a possible moderator, on participants’ feelings of helplessness after reading COVID-19 news.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

A systematic review of constructive and solutions journalism research

Lough

McIntyre

2021

Journalism

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Academic activity surrounding constructive and solutions journalism has surged in recent years; thus, it is important to pause and reflect on this growing body of work in order to understand where the field can and should go in the future. We conducted a systematic review of existing literature on solutions and constructive journalism ( N = 94), in an effort to (1) describe the state of this field by identifying the patterns and trends in the methodological and conceptual approaches, topics, institutions, countries and practices involved in this research, and (2) illuminate potentially important gaps in the field and suggest recommendations for future research.

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“…Constructive approaches may increase engagement with news and thus informativeness, as indicated by survey research finding audiences valued constructive elements, particularly young, lowerand middle-educated people with low interest in news (Hermans and Gyldensted 2019). Experimental and longitudinal research also finds constructive journalism increases positive and reduces negative emotion, potentially encouraging engagement as intentional news avoidance is primarily attributed to negative mood, along with bias and sensationalism (Skovsgaard and Andersen 2020;McIntyre 2020;Kleemans et al 2018). While Fisher et al (2020) investigated audience solutions to low trust in news, the present work investigates perspectives of journalism professionals on their relationship with audiences and the potential for constructive journalism to increase trust and engagement in news media, and reduce misperceptions facilitated by news.…”

Section: Constructive Journalism and Misinformationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Perspectives from Journalism Professionals on the Application and Benefits of Constructive Reporting for Addressing Misinformation

Antwerpen

Turnbull

Searston

2022

The International Journal of Press/Politics

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The proliferation of misinformation in contemporary information environments contributes to increasing polarization and decreasing trust in institutions and experts, both of which encourage further proliferation of misinformation. Increasing attention has been brought to the role of news media in the spread and uptake of misinformation, and to the role of journalists and news organizations in combatting this spread. Constructive journalism is a relatively new approach to reporting which, among other aims, looks to increase audience engagement, reduce polarization, and provide a more accurate view of events. In early 2020, we interviewed 16 journalism professionals from Europe (UK inclusive), Australia, Africa, and North America across a range formats to explore their perceptions of the use ‘constructive’ reporting strategies to address the spread of misinformation. We used thematic analysis to produce three themes and six subthemes in journalists’ responses, ‘apathy against the machine’, with subthemes ‘journalism as a moderator’, and ‘news and mental health’; ‘standards as shared reality’, with subthemes, ‘pluralism not postmodernism’, and ‘this means information war’; and ‘truth, trust, and the turn to transparency’, with subthemes, ‘facts necessary but not sufficient’, and ‘principles not particulars’. Constructive journalism was thought to address misinformation by increasing engagement with news and institutions, reducing polarization, providing a sense of shared reality amidst increasingly diverse perspectives, increasing trust, and reducing misperceptions encouraged by selection and reporting strategies. Constructive journalism may be a promising approach to addressing the spread and consequences of misinformation, however, empirical work is needed to evaluate the efficacy of the approach.

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Children’s cognitive responses to constructive television news

Cited by 15 publications

References 28 publications

Interest matters: The effects of constructive news reporting on Millennials’ emotions and engagement

Interest matters: The effects of constructive news reporting on Millennials’ emotions and engagement

A systematic review of constructive and solutions journalism research

Perspectives from Journalism Professionals on the Application and Benefits of Constructive Reporting for Addressing Misinformation

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