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JOS28 NewApproaches to Journalism
PP 663 Towards Mediative Journalism – Understanding Constructive Forms of Journalism Through Action Research
M. Hautakangas1, L. Ahva1, R. Pöyhtäri1
1 University of Tampere, School of Communication- Media and Theatre, University of Tampere, Finland
Recently, several international and social conflicts have made public discussion all across Europe increasingly polarized and conflict-ridden. This is the case
also in Finland, where numerous social topics, ranging from immigration and austerity politics to nutrition recommendations and wolf hunting, repeatedly
lead to aggressive public debates and even hate speech. What is common to these debates is the critical attitude towards the established media. Journalists
are accused of being biased and they are even attacked online through different kinds of smearing campaigns. In this atmosphere, it has become increasingly
difficult for media professionals and institutions to do their work and provide common public arenas for constructive discussion. What can be done? Should
journalism strive to be the agent that listens to different views – and makes them listen to each other (O’Donnell 2009)? Can journalism act as a mediator
in social conflicts? Can the aim to relieve social tensions be taken as a guiding principle in journalistic work? If so, which concrete practices and processes
would make this possible? Internationally, there are several lines of study that are already asking these questions. For instance “peace journalism”, which
has its roots in peace and conflict studies (Galtung 2002), has addressed the role of journalism in releasing violent tensions.“Public journalism”(Rosen 1999)
proposed citizen deliberation as a way forward. In addition, a line of more practice-based projects also aim at positive social impact through foregrounding
positive possibilities and reporting on feasible responses to social problems, rather than just reporting the problems; for instance“constructive journalism”
or “solutions journalism” ; ). The growing demand for more constructive journalism may
be understood as a response to the increasing social tensions described above, but the various conceptualizations of constructive forms of journalism have
so far been rather separate from each other. In this paper, we will compare and contrast these journalisms and discuss to what extent“mediation”could be
an overarching concept to analyze this development. The possibilities of “mediative journalism” have already been studied especially in relation to severe
political conflicts, as part of the diplomatic mediation processes (Wetzstein 2010).We believe that similar approaches can be developed to deal with a wider
range of controversial issues. This paper draws from an ongoing research project“Mediative journalism: An action research on creating public discussion on
controversial issues”, taking place at University of Tampere, Finland in 2016–2017. The project seeks to develop methods for journalists to approach contro‑
versial issues. The aim is not to resolve conflicts, but rather to reinforce trust in journalism and its ability to facilitate meaningful public discussion. As action
research, the project has a strong empirical focus in field work: journalists and online moderators are invited to participate in workshops across Finland.
However, conceptual mapping of constructive forms of journalism needs to be done hand in hand with workshops. In this paper, we will clarify the relations
between these concepts, and relate them to our empiria from the workshops and the journalistic experiments conducted as result of these workshops.
PP 664 Towards a Research Agenda for Sustainable Journalism
U. Olausson1, P. Berglez1
1 Jönköping University, School of Education and Communication, Jönköping, Sweden
The aim of this paper is to outline a research agenda for ”Sustainable Journalism,”i.e. to investigate journalism in relation to sustainable development in its
economic, social, and ecological sense. Its analytical focus includes traditional journalism as well as emerging forms of journalism in both traditional and
digital media, and deals with a sustainable future for society in general and for journalism as a practice and business in particular. In this sense, Sustainable
Journalism addresses two intrinsically intertwined challenges of our time that are of great theoretical relevance and in urgent need of empirical research:
a) The sustainability crisis of society, e.g. environmental crises, democratic crises, poverty, financial crises, armed conflicts etc., and, b) the sustainability
crisis of journalism, which stems from lower advertising, falls in consumption, more unemployment, and the fierce competition from online information
brokers. The research agenda for Sustainable Journalism is premised on the theoretical assumption that there is a mutual dependency between these two
current challenges; journalism has a pivotal role in the overall sustainable development of society, since it contributes greatly to the understanding, and
hence the handling, of challenges such as environmental problems, social inequality, armed conflicts, and financial crises. In turn, addressing the new
conditions of journalism – by seriously responding to the sustainability challenges with high-quality, in-depth coverage as well as robust business models,
technology, education and organizations that take these challenges into account – is a prerequisite for the future sustainability of journalism itself. The pro‑
posed research agenda revolves around this double significance inherent in the concept of Sustainable Journalism. Additionally, the paper argues in favor
of integral approaches for research on Sustainable Journalism. Previous research has extensively focused on the economic, social, and ecological aspects
and implications of journalism respectively, but integral approaches, which interlink these dimensions, are rare. However, we suggest that approaches that
interlink the sustainability dimensions are pivotal for the identification of opportunities for as well as barriers to sustainable development. For instance,
what implications do economic measures (e.g. staff reduction) in media organizations have for the quantity and quality of environmental news? Howmight
value be generated from new advertising formats that do not jeopardize the integrity and trust of citizens? How might new participatory practices and
contents, such as citizen journalism be included in future business models?What might journalistic content that reflects the economic aspects of an increas‑
ingly globalizing reality without compromising the other sustainability dimensions look like? To sum up, the contribution of this paper is strongly linked
to the current debate about the future of journalism, and forms one way of “rethinking” it, which is a frequent request among journalism scholars today.
It fills a void within this multifaceted and somewhat free-floating debate in that it suggests partly new avenues for journalism research by situating it in
the context of sustainability.