Ever wondered what happens when you swap a daily dose of despair for journalism that seeks solutions? The results may surprise you.
Opting for a two-day break from crisis-focused news, I decided to immerse myself exclusively in constructive journalism. I thought it would be simple. I don’t own a television, don’t use TikTok, rarely visit YouTube, and quit using X, so evading the bad news seemed like it would be easy. How wrong I was.
It turns out, I consumed far more negative news than I first realized. I selected a weekend for my news detox, assuming there would be less breaking news and I could focus on other activities. But the reality was quite different.
Initially, it was liberating. Waking up without immediately listening to the radio felt refreshing, even rebellious. The silence gave me a moment to breathe, plan my day, and understand my mood before the news had a chance to influence it. However, after a few hours, I started to feel anxious. The feeling of the world moving forward without me was uncomfortable, and I felt the urge to reach for the news apps on my phone.
After my experiment, I spoke with An Nguyen, a visiting professor at Bournemouth University’s Media School and an expert in digital journalism. He explained that humans possess an evolutionary ‘awareness instinct,’ a desire to understand potential threats around us. Once, this might have meant spotting a predator approaching our cave. Today, it may mean worrying about rogue AI wiping out humanity.
In search of constructive news, my first stop was Positive News. Reading a variety of articles on topics, from proposals to ban social media for under-13s in the EU to the eradication of dog-transmitted rabies in Chile, I began to feel more hopeful.
Constructive journalism, as I discovered, doesn’t shy away from problems, but it does ask a different question: what is being done about the problem and what seems to be working? This approach gave me a new perspective on the issues and a sense of what people are actively trying to do to solve them.
My search for solution-focused journalism led me to some surprising realizations. Firstly, finding genuinely constructive news was a lot harder than I expected. Secondly, the human element in these stories was critical. Lastly, there was a huge variety of topics covered by constructive journalism. From issues relevant to my own life, like youth unemployment and education, to stories about oil executives turning into business-accountability campaigners, constructive journalism offered a wide range of engaging content.
By the end of the weekend, I felt lighter. Not because I was avoiding bad news, but because the type of questions I was asking had shifted. Instead of ‘How bad is this?’, I was asking ‘What are people doing about it?’ and ‘What can we learn?’. While I’ll still reach for the radio news in the morning, I’m now more deliberate about the type of news I consume afterwards. So, yes, replacing doomscrolling with constructive journalism actually made a difference.
The world needs constructive journalism – journalism that focuses on the individuals and ideas propelling progress. Positive News believes that giving attention to solutions helps them spread. Our journalism is independent and powered by our readers. There are no media moguls or shareholders extracting profits: your contribution funds our work to investigate what’s working, understand why, and disseminate those stories to a broader audience. We invite you to join us in this endeavor.
