Constructive Fellows 2020-2021

Today, Ellen is leading a cross-functional and agile team that is dedicated to trendscouting and knowledge transfer. Ellen has been promoting constructive journalism for years and has thus founded a multidisciplinary network within DW to exchange experiences and ideas. Ellen worked for print media and international aid organizations before joining DW as a journalist in 2001. Since then she was involved in setting up DW’s Academy for international media development and lead an innovation department for the 30 different language programs of Germany’s international broadcaster.

During her fellowship at Constructive institute Ellen will focus on how to foster constructive journalism at DW and to how to effectively create a constructive journalism network in Germany. Above all she is interested in finding out more about transforming newsrooms towards a constructive mindset.

Jesper Friis is a Danish journalist who during the last 30 years of his career has worked mostly as an editor. Especially at Politiken, where he was news editor, cultural editor, and Sunday editor. From 2015-2019 he was editor-in-chief at TV 2 Øst. Today he has his own communications and consulting business, and at the same time he writes interviews and articles for eg. Euroman magazine. Throughout his work, Jesper has been concerned with media ethics and development. In recent years he has studied and visited a variety of new digital media in most of Northern Europe, especially to study the impact of digital and social media on the behavior and consumption of younger audiences.

During his TrygFonden Fellowship at the Constructive Institute, he will investigate and analyze the media’s coverage of the corona crisis, with special focus on the way in which the media has taken responsibility for the safety and security of citizens and society during a serious health crisis.

Louise Ravn is a journalist currently with the regional Danish broadcaster TV 2/Fyn.
Here she has worked on several investigative projects. In January 2019 she was awarded the journalistic prize of “Kæphesten” for an investigative project revealing problems of nepotism within local authorities on the island of Funen.

Louise has had a long career in broadcast journalism. As a news reporter she has covered economic, financial and political affairs for TV 2/Finans, TV 2/News and TV 2/Nyhederne. She also holds a degree in political science from the University of Copenhagen.

She will during her fellowship at Constructive Intitute aim to broaden her understanding of investigative journalism and study how constructive elements can contribute in developing investigative journalism.

Sune is co-founder of the prizewinning cooperative Journalistbureauet TANK from where he has covered climate change and sustainability issues in developing countries for Danish and international news media. In recent years, Sune har been a driving force behind the learning-oriented youth media Koncentrat as co-founder, journalist and head of engagement. Koncentrat’s mission is to elevate the 7th to 10th graders democratic self-confidence through better news literacy.

In his fellowship, Sune will examine how constructive journalism in combination with educational practices can strengthen a young generation of news consumers news literacy, interest in journalism and democratic engagement.

Annette Holm is a lecturer at The Danish School of Media and Journalism in Aarhus. The recent years she has spent the majority of her time teaching an 11 week course in dialoguebased journalism and conducting development projects. Annette is also the project manager of a major Erasmus+ project about constructive journalism in cooperation with journalism educations in Windesheim and Stuttgart. The task is to develop new curriculums and programmes in constructive journalism. Before Annette began her carreer as a teacher, she worked as a radioreporter at Radio Denmark.

During her fellowship Annette will dive into marginalised residential areas and how the media can give recidents a voice by including them in the journalistic proces from initial idea to final outcome.

Uffe Alici Pedersen works as audience manager at the regional public service TV station TV2 ØSTJYLLAND with a focus on developing both content and distribution, so that the media house reaches more users and new target groups. Uffe has previously created content to TV2 ØSTJYLLAND’s social media platforms and was previously a digital advisor and project manager in the Danish Broadcast Corporation (DR) communications department for a number of years.

With the fellowship at the Constructive Institute, Uffe wants to investigate what techniques news stations can use on new platforms and the core platform to ensure that the public service task is lifted and that the entire diverse population is in fact better able to independently make decisions on an informed basis: Are news broadcasts still the answer to the public service task, and if so, how can they be supported by instruments from other platforms, so that they are still being consumed in a declining market where on-demand is reality, and so that they do not leave users discouraged, reluctant or indifferent?

Eva Dalgaard Andreasen is working as a host at P1 Morgen at DR – Danish Broadcasting Corporation. The morning radio show covers news and current topics within foreign affairs, politics, science and culture. Previously Eva was hosting Radioavisen, also at Danish Broadcasting Company where she has also worked as journalist and reporter. She studied Journalism and Social Science at Roskilde University.

During her studies at Constructive Institute she will mainly investigate the consequences of different prioritizations in the health system based on the various perceptions of the way society, politicians and public value human life.

For the past almost eight years, Hans-Christian Lauritzen has worked as a journalist and editor at TV2 Nord. He holds a BA in journalism from the University of Southern Denmark. Ever since his graduation in 2003, he has been working with television in combination with regional journalism. Before his time at TV2 Nord, Hans-Christian spent ten years at TV MIDTVEST. He has covered everything from major sporting events to numerous elections and even the first relocation of a lighthouse in Danish history. For several years Hans-Christian was an editor. Today he works as a journalist, live reporter, commentator and video journalist. His focus is on the daily news, but he has also produced documentaries and feature series. Hans-Christian has worked intensively in what some people call the outskirts of Denmark.

During his fellowship Hans-Christian will dive into how to use journalism to improve the understanding and communication between the sparsely populated area and the big cities in Denmark.

Rikke Mathiassen has been working as a news journalist at DR, the Danish Broadcasting Corporation for the past five years. Since 2017, she has been part of the team behind the Sunday evening news cast, 21Søndag. Rikke has also worked as a reporter at DR’s news desk in Aarhus producing stories for the national TV and radio news broadcasts. She is a graduate from the Danish School of Media and Journalism and has studied EU-reporting at the Hogeschool Utrecht in the Netherlands.

During her fellowship at Constructive Institute Rikke will examine the ethical challenges posed by the development of new medicines and treatments.

Petter Lindberg is a Swedish speaking Finn born in Helsinki in 1967. He has a Master’s degree in literature from the University of Helsinki. After his studies he has served the National Broadcasting Company YLE for 25 years, hosting literary shows and cultural programs on television and radio. At the moment he is busy doing radio documentaries and Podcasts with historical, political and cultural content.

During his stay at The Institute of Constructive Journalism he would like to examine the undergoing major changes in the cultural field. The hierarchical narrative model is disappearing and the cultural editors are among others looking for new ways to attract the audience. Instead of focusing on process, aesthetic values or reception he would like to broaden the traditional cultural coverage to topics like impact, value and relevance.

Søren Linding Jakobsen has worked as a business journalist for more than 25 years, among these 15 years as an editor first at Børsen and now at Jyllands-Posten/Finans. Additional to the editorial responsibility for the coverage of non-financial companies he is a columnist and a podcast anchor.

As a fellow Søren will examine how constructive journalism in the business media can contribute to a more cost-effective green transition of the Danish economy and promote more sustainable business models in Danish enterprises.

Sara Buhl is a video journalist at DR Ung, where she has been working with documentaries since 2016. She studied psychology and journalism at Roskilde University, and wrote her master on ethical challenges and the relationship in documentary making.

As a TrygFonden Fellow Sara will spend her year with a broad approach to mental health studying how we as documentarists and storytellers work with vulnerable people with a constructive mindset.