Solutions and constructive journalism in the evolving media landscape of Central and Eastern Europe

Keyser Lough, “Solutions and constructive journalism in the evolving media landscape of Central and Eastern Europe,” accepted for presentation at the 14th CEECOM Conference, Brno, Czech Republic.

Overview: This paper explores the potential of solutions and constructive journalism in the evolving media systems of Central and Eastern Europe (CEE). These forms seek to provide a contextual and socially-responsible news report that includes critical analysis of responses to problems, rather than solely reporting on problems (McIntyre et al., 2018). The Prague-based Transitions Media has applied this model in CEE through training and mentoring programs for journalists (Solutions Journalism – Transitions, n.d.). This paper aims to do the same for journalism scholarship by showing how solutions and constructive journalism can be applied to media studies in CEE to examine media trust, media’s role during crisis, and more. The majority of research in this field exists outside a CEE-context (Lough & McIntyre, 2021), so this study will draw from the broader body of work as well as recent studies focused on CEE countries (Golasovská, 2020), to explore the possibilities of future scholarship.