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May 24 2018

Realdania Constructive Journalism Fellowship


Realdania has established two fellowships in journalism in cooperation with the independent center for constructive journalism, Constructive Institute in Aarhus, Denmark.

The goal is to create a more nuanced media coverage of marginalized residential areas, and of housing conditions in remote areas in Denmark.

The two fellowships that start on September 1st2018 will give two experienced journalists the opportunity to examine how the media cover marginalized residential areas as well as the remote areas in Denmark. They will also examine what the media

coverage does to  the view upon and development of the two residential areas.

The two journalists will be fellows for 10 months at Constructive Institute, an independent center for constructive journalism, located at Aarhus University.

The fellowship is inspired by a model that is known from fellowships at the American Universities Stanford and Harvard.

The two journalists will become part of a team of 8 fellows who are all on leave from their jobs as journalists or editors, and they will all participate in the ongoing discussion on how to improve journalism through constructive journalism.

The two fellowships will be named “The Realdania Fellowship focused on marginalized residential areas” and “The Realdania Fellowship focused on remote areas in Denmark”.

During the fellowship the two journalists will get access to follow courses at Aarhus University while gaining an education in constructive journalism at Constructive Institute.

 

Improve life quality

At Realdania the head of philanthropy, Anne Skovbro, describes the granting of the two fellowships to Constructive Institute as a very natural part of Realdania’s goal to improve the life quality in the constructed environment. She says:

“Constructive Institute works to add more focus and facts to journalism as well as being more solution and inspirational oriented. In many ways this fits in with Realdania’s way of working, where we have focus on the good solutions that can spread to the single projects and further out to society. Both the marginalized residential areas and the Danish remote areas contain complex problems, where nothing is black and white, and where statistics not always illustrate a precise picture. It is therefore important that the subjects in the public debates deal with the existing nuances. We hope that the two fellows will contribute to this, “ says Anne Skovbro.

The director of the Constructive Institute, Ulrik Haagerup, welcomes the grants for the two fellowships from Realdania:

“We are proud to include Realdania in the group that shares the beliefs about constructive journalism being crucial for a well-functioning democracy. Realdania also contributes to the development of the press as they are giving these talents an opportunity to acquire the newest knowledge and educate themselves to become ambassadors for a more responsible and constructive role in the social debate”, says the founder and director of Constructive Institute, former Executive Director of News at the Danish Public Broadcasting Corporation, Ulrik Haagerup.

 

Media impacts everyone 

The background of the corporation regarding the two new fellowships is that the two subjects have a great impact on society, and at the moment they have an intense media coverage due to different political initiatives.

How the media cover the areas have an impact on both the people that live in those areas and for the society’s view of both the areas and their residents. Because of that it is important with a nuanced coverage that also has focus on solutions. For the two fellows the goal is to contribute to this.

The new fellows will be pointed out before June 1st  from a number of applications that have already been handed in to Constructive Institute.

Contact:

Head of Press Relations at Realdania, Pia Møller Munksgaard: 29 69 52 49

Head of the Fellowship program at Constructive Institute, Orla Borg: 40 10 46 89

You can read the press release in Danish in the column to the right.

In Danish

Realdania etablerer sammen med Constructive Institute to fellowships i konstruktiv journalistik.

Målet er at bidrage til en mere nuanceret mediedækning af udsatte boligområder og af boligforhold i yderområderne i Danmark.

De to fellowships vil fra 1. september 2018 give to erfarne journalister mulighed i at undersøge, hvordan mediernes dækker udsatte boligområder og yderområderne i Danmark, og hvad dækningen betyder for synet på og udviklingen i de to boligområder.

De to journalister bliver i 10 måneder fellows ved Constructive Institute, et uafhængigt center placeret på Aarhus Universitet, efter en model, der kendes fra journalistiske fellowships ved amerikanske universiteter som Stanford og Harvard. De to bliver dermed en del af et hold på 8 redaktionelle medarbejdere eller redaktører, der uddannes som fremtidens rollemodeller for løsningsorienteret journalistik på Constructive Institute.

 

Forbedre livskvalitet

De to fellowships vil blive betegnet som ”Realdania Fellowship om Udsatte Boligområder” og ”Realdania Fellowship om Yderområderne i Danmark”. Under fellowshippet vil de to journalister få adgang til at følge undervisning på Aarhus Universitet samtidig med, at de på Constructive Institute får en uddannelse i konstruktiv journalistik.Hos Realdania betegner filantropichef Anne Skovbro tildelingen af de to fellowships til Constructive Institute som en naturlig del af Realdanias mål om at forbedre livskvaliteten i det byggede miljø. Hun siger:

”Constructive Institute arbejder for at tilføre journalistikken mere fokus på fakta, løsninger og inspiration. Det passer på mange måder rigtig fint ind i Realdanias måde at arbejde på, hvor vi har fokus på at de gode løsninger kan sprede sig videre fra de enkelte projekter og videre ud i samfundet. Både de udsatte boligområder og de danske yderområder rummer komplekse problemstillinger, hvor intet er sort/hvidt, og hvor statistikken ikke altid viser et entydigt billede. Derfor er det vigtigt, at emnerne i den offentlige debat bliver behandlet nuanceret. Det håber vi, at de to fellowships kan bidrage til,” siger Realdanias filantropidirektør Anne Skovbro.

Direktør for Constructive Institute, Ulrik Haagerup, hilser bevillingen af de to fellowships fra Realdania meget velkommen:

”Vi er stolte over at inkludere Realdania i den kreds, der deler troen på, at journalistik er afgørende for et velfungerende demokrati, og vil bidrage til, at pressens dygtigste får mulighed for at tilegne sig den nyeste viden og uddanne sig til ambassadører for en mere ansvarlig og konstruktiv rolle i samfundsdebatten,” siger stifter og direktør for Constructive Institute, tidligere nyhedsdirektør i DR, Ulrik Haagerup.

 

Nuanceret dækning

Baggrunden for samarbejdet om de to nye fellowships er, at det er to områder med stor samfundsbetydning, og som i øjeblikket har stor mediebevågenhed bl.a. pga. forskellige politiske udspil.  Hvordan medierne dækker områderne har betydning for både de, der bor der, og for det øvrige samfunds syn på både områderne og beboerne. Derfor er det vigtigt med en nuanceret dækning, der også har fokus på de gode løsninger. Målet er, at de to fellowships skal bidrage til dette.

Udpegningen af de nye fellows sker 1. juni ud fra ansøgninger, der allerede er indgivet til Constructive Institute.

Kontakt:

Pressechef i Realdania, Pia Møller Munksgaard: 29 69 52 49

Leder af Fellowship-programmet på Constructive Institute, Orla Borg: 40 10 46 89

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