The power and pitfalls of constructive journalism: The effects of hopeful narratives in the news on attitudes, engagement and knowledge

Oren Livio; Rebecca Tukachinsky Forster; Liran Peretz; Yael Ella-Hay; Yariv Tsfati; Nurit Tal-Or

doi:10.1177/14648849261459540

The power and pitfalls of constructive journalism: The effects of hopeful narratives in the news on attitudes, engagement and knowledge

Oren Livio
, Rebecca Tukachinsky Forster
, Liran Peretz
, Yael Ella-Hay
, Yariv Tsfati
, Nurit Tal-Or

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

Abstract

Recent research has argued that constructive journalism, which presents negative news by focusing on positive values and solutions, may reduce audiences’ tendency to avoid news without sacrificing perceived news credibility. This study uses a between-subjects experimental design (N = 1011) to examine in greater nuance the psychological outcomes of constructive narratives highlighting the protagonist’s hope in face of adversity. Our respondents reported more positive emotions in the hopeful protagonist condition (compared with the despairing protagonist), but they also perceived the government as less responsible for the situation and reported lower levels of support for necessary policy changes. They also gained less information from the story. We consider the implications of these findings for the watchdog role of journalism.

Original language	English
Journal	Journalism
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1177/14648849261459540
State	Published - 12 Jun 2026
Externally published	Yes

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© The Author(s) 2026. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/) which permits non-commercial use, reproduction and distribution of the work without further permission provided the original work is attributed as specified on the SAGE and Open Access page (https://us.sagepub.com/en-us/nam/open-access-at-sage).

Keywords

accountability
constructive journalism
experimental research
hope
negative news

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10.1177/14648849261459540

Cite this

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abstract = "Recent research has argued that constructive journalism, which presents negative news by focusing on positive values and solutions, may reduce audiences{\textquoteright} tendency to avoid news without sacrificing perceived news credibility. This study uses a between-subjects experimental design (N = 1011) to examine in greater nuance the psychological outcomes of constructive narratives highlighting the protagonist{\textquoteright}s hope in face of adversity. Our respondents reported more positive emotions in the hopeful protagonist condition (compared with the despairing protagonist), but they also perceived the government as less responsible for the situation and reported lower levels of support for necessary policy changes. They also gained less information from the story. We consider the implications of these findings for the watchdog role of journalism.",

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AU - Tal-Or, Nurit

N1 - Publisher Copyright: © The Author(s) 2026. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/) which permits non-commercial use, reproduction and distribution of the work without further permission provided the original work is attributed as specified on the SAGE and Open Access page (https://us.sagepub.com/en-us/nam/open-access-at-sage).

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The power and pitfalls of constructive journalism: The effects of hopeful narratives in the news on attitudes, engagement and knowledge

Abstract

Bibliographical note

Keywords

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