Conciliatory journalism mitigates polarization
In Conciliatory Journalism, journalists co-operate with researchers in seeking means to better deal with topics that are prone to polarization. This is relevant to democracy, because polarization makes it difficult to have a constructive public debate about important issues in society.
Goals
The goal is to find journalistic practices that make it possible to discuss controversial topics in ways that increase shared understanding of those topics, and avoid fueling conflict and aggression in public discussion.
The project seeks to clarify the challenges that journalism is faced with in relation to polarisation. Journalistic routines and practices (e.g. news criteria, focus on online reader traffic, the allocation of newsroom resources) play a part in how social polarisation develops. Conciliatory Journalism pays attention to these links between journalism and polarisation and offers means for journalists to tackle these challenges.
Contribution to democracy
Public discussion that allows different opinions to interact in a constructive and equal manner is the basis of democracy. However, when discussed publicly in journalism, certain topics bring forward strong emotions and even aggression between the parties whose opinions on these topics differ. Therefore the public discussion gets polarised to the point that constructive interaction between the parties is no longer possible. The algorithms of social media add to this separation into like-minded ”bubbles” that no longer respect and listen to each other.
Conciliatory Journalism seeks to reinforce people’s trust in journalism’s ability to run a shared public domain where democratic interaction of different views is not only possible, but also meaningful and fruitful.
Process
The Conciliatory Journalism project involves co-operation between researchers and journalists and media companies. These co-operative development projects help journalists to deal with topics that are prone to polarisation, and to produce constructive public discussions around these topics. Biases and bubbles in the society are recognised, taken under public discussion and critically discussed – in ways that people from different sides of these social divides can find fair and justifiable.
The participating journalists decide which topics they regard relevant from the point of view of polarisation. Therefore the Conciliatory Journalism experiments carried out as part of the Democracy Accelerator can get different shape and form depending on the local interests of the media partners. Relevant topics include e.g. differences between different residential areas, between rural and urban areas and between Northern and Southern Finland. The experiments can also focus on different aspects of journalistic work, such as increasing diversity, facilitating audience participation and development of online discussions.
The experiments also produce a strong scientific contribution. They provide empirical material for research that links the Conciliatory Journalism experiments with the international academic discussion about the social role of journalism and, in particular, the trend of constructive journalism. By supporting the self-critical reflection of journalists regarding the role of journalism in the development of social divides and polarisation, the project contributes to the develoment of the journalistic profession. The project co-operates widely with several universities and research institutes in Finland and abroad.
The project is carried out by researcher Mikko Hautakangas from Tampere University. Important partners include The Finnish Association for Conciliatory Journalists and several national and local media companies.
Lessons learned
As the experiments take form, the most important contributions that Conciliatory Journalism can offer to journalists become clearer and clearer. Co-operation with journalists and media who are interested in the depolarisation aspect expands the network of actors who can make use of the project’s ideas. Especially the construction and moderation of conciliatory online discussions has proven to be an area of special interest for media companies.
Challenges and solutions
In co-operation with journalists, finding the right timing for carrying out the journalistic experiments has proven to be challenging. Newsrooms are busy with their scheduled plans and fitting in more experimental approaches depends a great deal on finding active and motivated partners.
Another important challenge is to fit together different ideals within the journalistic professional culture. The talk about depolarisation may raise objection in journalists who fear that such approach would compromise their assumed neutrality and make them a party in the disputes that they report on. In fact, the objective is to enable a more accurate and critical description of the social tensions and conflicting interests that the simple conflict frame would allow.
Additional materials
Mikko Hautakangas & Laura Ahva: Introducing a New Form of Socially Responsible Journalism: Experiences from the Conciliatory Journalism Project
Contact
Mikko Hautakangas, researcher (Tampere University)
email: mikko.hautakangas@tuni.fi