New International Award for Media that Produces Constructive Journalism

The UNGSII has chosen the Constructive Institute to organize an award in support of the media entity most effectively implementing constructive journalism.

The UNGSII Foundation (www.ungsii.org) has chosen the Constructive Institute to organize an annual award in support of the media entity most effectively implementing the concept of constructive journalism. The announcement took place after the award ceremony held by the Constructive Institute, located at Aarhus University in Denmark,  to hand out the first Constructive Journalism Award. The 2017 award honored the Swedish Radio News Department, EKOT, for their report series “10 Million.”

“Today’s societies deserve the best journalism ever. Seeing the Ulrik Haagerup’s team gather 500 participants at the first Constructive Journalism Conference over the last two days convinced our foundation of the importance and success of his work. With the Constructive Institute we want to inspire global interest in this approach and encourage the world’s best media organizations to pursue the largest award for media work ever established. The package has a combined value of one million euros,” said Roland Schatz, founder of UNGSII at the first Global Constructive Journalism Conference.

With the intention of making sure all types of news organizations in the coming years are eligible for the award, the UNGSII Foundation will, together with Constructive Institute, in 2018 honor a weekly or monthly outlet in either the print, TV, radio, or digital format. The award will consist of:

• Two fellowships for two members of the winning news organization—one from the journalistic side of the newsroom and one for the business side—to run from September 2018 to June 2019
• Two Constructive Institute experts supporting the two fellows upon return to their news organization to further increase the value of implementing constructive news
• One year benchmark analysis, including KPIs, comparing the winning media organization to the other nine nominees
• Financial support to implement concepts creating during the fellowship year in Aarhus

The Research

“This award is not based on the individual judgements of a jury, but rooted in the ongoing service provided by these media around the world.  Each of their reports on political, business, and science will be analysed according to a transparent codebook of criteria based on Thomas Patterson’s Out of Order and Bob Eccles’s Value Reporting Revolution selected by the advisory board of the Constructive Institute,” Schatz explains.

“The analysis of the ten nominees is done by trained experts working in their native languages to guarantee the same quality of research on all continents. Each of these experts are evaluated by regular reliability tests.  The test results as well as the codebook are transparent. Qualitative content analysis of a minimum of three months of coverage would then build the database from which the winners in each category will be determined. Ultimately, nominated media will be analyzed story-by-story in the 16 submitted editions with the tools and analysis provided by the media research Institute Media Tenor International.”

Sponsor

The non profit UNGSII Foundation is sponsoring the CI Award for the first five years. Funding will come out of revenues from the UNGSII SCR300 pension fund management fees as well as the Global Youth Poll.

Excellence deserves Excellence

“The awards will be presented by former heads of state who have a clear understanding of why good media content empowers citizens, prestigious academics who know the importance of people understanding the relevance of their research, CEOs who understand the value of educated customers, and editors-in-chief who can serve as role models to other media outlets,” Schatz notes.

Quality Control

The whole process—from nomination through analysis through cost management—will be truly transparent.  No matter which procedure for the nomination process is ultimately chosen, everyone will be able to follow that process openly on the Web.

The Application Process

Details will be published soon.

For further information please contact:

• Ulrik Haagerup, Founder, Constructive Institute: uh@constructiveinstitute.org, phone: +45-60138600
• Roland Schatz, Founder, UNGSII Foundation: roland.schatz@ungsii.org, phone: +41-79-2553636