THE JOURNALIST MANIFESTO

THE HEADLINE

New research from the fields of advertising, positive psychology, and neuroscience shows that abandoning the current model of news coverage and adopting Transformative Journalism is better for advertisers, better for the bottom line, better for the public’s health, and better for society.

TRANSFORMATIVE JOURNALISM

Some who have not thought deeply about the media mistakenly create a false binary: You can either have “true” negative news or saccharine positive news. But those are not the only two options. There exists a third path that will usher in a new era of how marketing dollars are spent and news is communicated to the public. Transformative Journalism is an activating, engaging, solution-focused approach to covering news. It seeks to inform the public while providing the necessary tools to create forward progress. Transformative Journalism does not ignore serious issues facing our world; it covers them in depth in a way that activates the belief that our behavior matters, enables social engagement from readers and viewers, and provides actionable solutions to the issues covered.

Fluffy, saccharin, positive stories are not effective in creating positive transformation as they quickly lose viewers’ attention and fail to motivate people to cocreate a more positive world. Transformative Journalism moves away from the current extreme focus on negative news to one that more accurately reflects the world, in particular by highlighting stories of successful action people or organizations have taken in the face of challenges that have led to success. Transformative Journalism fosters an optimistic international conversation based on the belief that change is possible, thereby empowering people to take action. By leveraging emerging technologies, journalists not only inform the public but also engage with them through discussions and calls to action.

The most common challenge to changing the status quo of news coverage is based upon flawed logic: If most news is focused on negative or sensational stories, it must be because this approach makes good business sense and because most people are attracted to this kind of news. However, the duration of unhelpful models is not an indication of their validity. Brutal dictatorships and slavery can exist for decades despite their cancerous effect upon society. And antiquated practices like leaving lead in gasoline or asbestos in buildings are changed once scientists do the research and people see the long-term effects of those practices. We finally are there with media, and in this document I reveal some of the research that shows that adopting Transformative Journalism is better for advertisers, better for the bottom line, better for the public’s health, and better for society.

But first, media is a business. It will not change unless there is a clear business case for why Transformative Journalism increases the value of advertising dollars and therefore revenue. The current state of media is based upon the belief that negative and/or sensational stories attract viewers, which in turn is attractive to advertisers intent on reaching the highest number of people. But as research has emerged, every part of that formula is scientifically broken. Real-world case studies show that Transformative Journalism raises ratings, sharing, and most importantly intent to purchase, and this is more attractive to advertisers who are now demanding quality over quantity, preferring sales to number of impressions.

Media is in its awkward adolescence, prone to teenage gloominess, caught in an obsession with the salacious, and hungry for fake popularity. But the third age of media will be marked by a grown-up, significantly more efficient business model in which stories will be shared in activating, engaging, and solution-focused ways. The work I am doing at the Institute for Applied Positive Research in partnership with Arianna Huffington and the Huffington Post’s What’s Working team—as well as with journalism schools like USC and thought leaders from media outlets including CBS, FOX, and MSNBC—shows a compelling case for investing in this new brand of journalism. Not only will Transformative Journalism generate real value to advertisers, it will be better for society at large.

THE BUSINESS CASE

Groundbreaking research across the globe reveals that our current media and advertising model is inefficient. Advertisers wishing to reach the biggest audiences in the demographics with highest likelihood to purchase the product or service have been focusing resources on showcasing brands during news programs, in newspapers, and on news sites with the highest ratings/views. But the current formula for ad placement is failing to take into account one key element: the psychological state induced by the preceding or surrounding content.

While advertising researchers have long studied the influence ad placement can have on how people perceive the subsequently advertised product, it is only now that an incredibly convincing research case has emerged that shows that for media planning efficiency not only does context matter but, for the vast majority of products, context should be positive and engaging.¹

In brief, research shows that a positive, engaged mental state directly impacts key measures of advertising effectiveness, including memory recall, feelings toward the brand, and likelihood to purchase. Studies show that engaging content people feel positive about results in more shares, attracts a bigger and better audience, and for the brand linked to this content, it leads to greater advertising effectiveness. Therefore, no longer should the coveted spot for an advertisement be the front page or the first commercial break simply because ratings are often the highest, because this is also often the place where content is most negative. A better use of resources would be to place the spot next to engaging content people feel positive about.

The following four major conclusions have emerged from the research and real-world examples from leading news outlets. Let’s take a look at some of the research and case studies that together provide a compelling case for rethinking the formula for the business of news coverage.

CONCLUSION #1: Engaging content people feel positive about increases advertising effectiveness.

Positive, engaging content increases brand appreciation and likelihood to purchase. Studies show the context in which consumers are exposed to the advertisement matters greatly because it influences advertising effectiveness.²

In a study conducted at Stanford University and published in the Journal of Advertising, researchers found that print ad placement greatly influenced buying decisions. Consumers’ attitude toward the brand was more positive and their intent to purchase was higher when the tone of the article next to it was positive, as opposed to when it was negative. Specifically, people exposed to positive content before the advertisement had a 24 percent higher intention of purchasing the advertised product.³

Fifty years of research shows the exact same pattern holds for television.⁴ If someone feels good after watching a program, that person is more likely to believe the subsequently advertised product will make him or her feel good too. In a study conducted at McGill University, consumers who viewed a Heinz commercial during a positive show (as compared to those who viewed the same commercial during a sad show) were more likely to pay attention to the commercial while it was on and later remembered significantly more about the ad.⁵

Researchers from Cornell University and the University of Michigan found that when people process an ad in a positive mood as opposed to neutral, they experience higher brand attitudes, which are consumers’ opinions of a brand. In other words, a positive mood favorably influences people’s feelings about a brand.⁶

A study conducted at Ghent University in Belgium found that in general, consumers rated positive ads embedded within positive contexts as opposed to negative contexts as more likeable and more informative. On television, when the ads were placed within positively appreciated content, brand recall increased.⁷

Researchers from the University of Amsterdam in conjunction with Unilever found that programs that people watch closely and highly value carry over these characteristics to the attention for, and the attitude toward, the advertisement. Respondents were called after watching recent programming and asked to recall advertising. Viewers in the highest category of attention were 67 percent more likely to recall the advertisements than those in the lowest category.⁸

Herbert Krugman, longtime manager of corporate public opinion research at the General Electric Company, found that exposing viewers to ads was best done in the midst of engaging programming that they felt positive about. Ads placed in interrupting commercial blocks when viewers were very engaged and had good feelings toward the program perform better than the ones before or after the show.⁹

CONCLUSION #2: News can induce good or bad moods in minutes, thereby influencing how the brain processes the brand.

During a study I conducted with researchers Dr. Martin Seligman, Dr. Margret Kern, and Lizbeth Benson from the University of Pennsylvania, we found that it takes just minutes to dramatically shift someone’s mood from neutral to negative or positive simply with news reports.¹⁰

Similarly, a study conducted at Kansas State University found that people exposed to broadcasts containing good news reported feeling greater positive feelings. Exposure to bad news left people in a more negative mood.¹¹ Meryl Gardner, Associate Professor of Marketing at New York University, says that the research reviewed by her indicates an “advantage to placing advertisements in contexts which induce positive moods.”¹²

CONCLUSION #3: Positive, emotional content is more likely to be shared, thereby increasing the audience size and reach of associated advertisements.

A seminal study conducted at the Wharton School of Business found that while people do share negative stories, they are significantly more likely to share positive, emotional stories. Researchers Jonah Berger and Katherine Milkman from the Wharton School of Business at my alma mater, the University of Pennsylvania, looked at what makes content go viral.¹³ They analyzed the most shared stories on the New York Times website over a three-month period and found that viral content follows three rules: Positive content is more viral than negative content, emotional content reaches more people, and people prefer sharing practical, useful content. Of the three dimensions, a news story’s positivity was most predictive of sharing behavior. Highly positive, emotional content was most likely to be shared and go viral.

CONCLUSION #4: The public is choosing positive news content both in traditional mediums and to rebroadcast to their networks on social media, as evidenced by real-world examples from major news outlets and my own experience at CBS News and PBS.

As an executive producer of the national PBS program The Happiness Advantage with Shawn Achor, I watched as our lecture program on how to use the science of positive psychology became not only one of the most popular programs of the year, airing in 88 percent of US households with more than 2,500 telecasts, but also raised millions of dollars for PBS.

“Happy Week,” the interview series I anchored and produced at CBS News in 2009 at the height of the recession, focusing on fostering happiness in the midst of financial stresses, was a huge success. We aimed to take an accurate picture of the psychological fallout of the economic downturn, while giving viewers the tools needed to overcome stress and anxiety. We got more messages from viewers as a result of that week of programming alone than we had from the entire year prior combined.

Longtime, well-respected journalist Ernie Anastos and his team at New York’s FOX 5 WNYW began broadcasting a show centered on transformative news during the 6 P.M. timeslot and saw from inception to the time of this writing an increase in ratings, especially in key demos. The station has also received calls from other local FOX stations about replicating the model.

MSNBC host Krystal Ball’s “Krystal’s Kudos,” videos that highlight individuals and businesses doing good for the world, get more likes and shares by far than any of the other content posted on her social media accounts.

Taken together, the body of research and real-world examples makes a compelling case for advertisers to place ads with positive content and for news outlets to charge more for coveted ad spots that are connected with positive content, and for producing the content in the first place. For many news outlets, Transformative Journalism is the answer to shrinking audiences and dwindling profits, and will be what turns this industry around.

THE JOURNALIST’S WAY FORWARD

Change can start with anyone at any level of a news organization. You have the power to influence others by speaking to the world through your reporting. What you choose to say, the stories you choose to focus on, and the discussion you foster with the public can transform the trajectory of communities and the world at large. It starts by shaking off some of the long-held beliefs about what journalism is supposed to be and finding your new true north.

First, let’s go back to the core purpose of journalism. “The purpose of journalism is . . . to provide citizens with the information they need to make the best possible decisions about their lives, their communities, their societies, and their governments,” write Bill Kovach and Tom Rosenstiel in The Elements of Journalism¹⁴ The American Press Institute considers news a “part of communication that keeps us informed of the changing events, issues, and characters in the world outside. Though it may be interesting or even entertaining, the foremost value of news is as a utility to empower the informed.”¹⁵ News is supposed to inform people and help them make good decisions. Transformative Journalism builds on traditional journalism by activating the public and helping them see positive change is possible.

There are three tools you can start implementing right now to produce stories that are transformative: 1) choose optimistic, emotional stories, 2) tell the whole story, and 3) engage the public. I have included the latest research showing why, from a psychological or neurological perspective, applying these methods changes the way people think or behave. Just one word of warning: Studies show that reporting positive content raises the chances that your audience will view you more favorably. So, watch out for the positive effects this could have not only on your community but your career as well!

TOOL #1: Choose Significant, Optimistic Stories with Emotion

An optimistic story is one that might start with a tragedy or challenge but goes somewhere positive from there. When something bad (or good) happens, that does not automatically make it newsworthy. It is up to the journalist to explain why this story is significant and what people are doing about it or what can be done. Choose stories with an optimistic story arc that show behavior matters. Show indications of forward progress. If there is no progress in one place or with one group, show how that has been accomplished somewhere else or with another group. Optimism is the belief that negative events are temporary and local (affecting only one domain of life) and that our behavior matters. Optimistic thinkers expect good things to happen and take action to help bring that vision to fruition. Optimism is an activated approach to life, especially when it comes to tackling life’s biggest challenges.

As an example, pension plans have earned a failing reputation, and in Illinois alone, reporters could do a new story each week about how these funds are mismanaged or falling short. Instead of simply featuring all the issues, the Better Government Association, a progressive organization, took a look at one program that was outperforming all others. “A Public Pension Plan that Works” is an in-depth piece on The Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund, which has $28 billion in assets and is 86 percent funded, much better than the next closest state fund at 47 percent. By explaining exactly how the fund is managed, lawmakers, fund managers, and pension program participants can learn how to transform their funds into a high performer so thousands of citizens can breathe a sigh of relief when it comes time to retire. This story offers context, significance, hope for success, and a potential path forward.

TOOL #2: Tell the Full Story

In the current news climate where a high story count matters, newspapers and newscasts are often short on space. While reporting, I remember fighting for an extra ten seconds for a lead story so we could include important information. Transformative stories include more information than what we have become accustomed to lately. Don’t be a surface reporter. Find such compelling information that there is no way your producer or managing editor couldn’t include it. For instance, don’t stop at the tragedy; tell us why it is significant to the community, laws, or the justice system. Include smart data. Tell us the whole story arc. Revisit the story.

Haiti’s earthquake back in 2010 offered the chance for the full range of potential coverage of a very serious situation. The earthquake measured 7.0 on the Richter scale, and when it was over more than 230,000 people had died. A number of news outlets covered the devastation by featuring heart-wrenching stories of the victims, one after another after another. What some of them missed, or took a long time to get around to talking about, were the stories of hope and action: the thousands of people who left their jobs here in the United States to volunteer, local fundraising drives in small communities that smashed expectations, and the Haitians who were able to return to some semblance of normalcy. The situation today is still very serious, and reporters can revisit the story. When they do, while showcasing all the work left to be done is important, even more so is including information on how much has been done to date. If all these years and billions of dollars later we feel that little progress has been made, there is no point in doing anything more because the evidence seems to be showing us it won’t help. Simply reporting about the problems or focusing on how far we have left to go creates a psychological state of “learned helplessness,” which acts as a demotivator and slows down forward progress.

TOOL #3: Engage the News Consumer

Technology has changed how journalists and news organizations interact with the public, and tech tools are the key to your positive ripple effect. Citizen journalists are becoming more common, even if people don’t consider themselves one. People are reporters: The Pew Research Center for the People and the Press finds that 50 percent of social network users share or repost news stories. People are videographers: As many as 12 percent of people shared videos they shot themselves of news events. And people are pundits: 46 percent weigh in on news issues online.¹⁶

Engage the public in reporting and discussion in a way that fosters the spread of positive ideas and provides calls to action. Ask questions such as:

       •     “In your experience, what are the best ideas you’ve seen that can help remedy the business challenges featured in this article?”

       •     “Have you seen any schools that have effectively dealt with low attendance?”

       •     “What is one key idea you’re taking away from this story?”

       •     “What do you do to get yourself back into a positive, empowered mindset when facing a setback? Please share your wisdom.”

This is best done with users who are not anonymous. Asking these kinds of questions fosters a community of people interested in learning and growing. This approach gives people the opportunity to learn about new ideas from around the world and potentially put them into practice.

Technology also allows journalists to easily share resources with the public. Give people options of what they can do with this information: Donate to a cause, write someone a letter, share on social media to raise awareness, or import it into their work environment or home life. The possibilities are endless. While journalists need to be careful not to push for specific outcomes where controversy might exist, providing potential action steps communicates to the viewers that they are not spectators but participants. They have the ability to take part in making their world a better place to live.

A story done by NBC News’ franchise “Making a Difference” on a young girl on a mission to feed the hungry is a perfect example of going beyond reporting to provide information to viewers so they had action steps to join the movement. The story centers on a ten-year-old who grew a cabbage in her backyard that ended up becoming forty pounds. She donated it to the local soup kitchen and fed nearly three hundred people in her community in South Carolina. Seeing those results, she worked with her classmates to create a garden at their school. The community supported her efforts by donating time and plants. And all the food grown there has been given to local soup kitchens. NBC News featured Katie’s Krops, and families across the nation saw not only how a young person has the ability to do big things, but also exactly how to get involved by donating or starting your own garden. Young aspiring farmers could get detailed instructions on how to start their own garden. Five years later, Katie’s Krops runs five gardens in her town, and other young gardeners have started seventy-five gardens in twenty-seven states. Viewers have donated more than $200,000 via Amazon.com’s giving site. And in 2012, Katie was given the Clinton Global Citizen Award for working to end hunger.

“If a ten-year-old can think of an idea like this, imagine what other people much older than me can think of,” she said in a follow-up story, and she is right, the possibilities are endless. The story of Katie’s Krops is a fantastic example of Transformative Journalism in action and how to leverage technology to disseminate tools to people to ignite positive change.

CONCLUSION

A well-respected, forty-year TV news veteran recently posed a brilliant question to me: “As journalists, are we leaders or reflectors?”

To me, the answer is clearly both. We are both reflectors and leaders, but for too long we have been reflecting society’s stories with faux leadership. Simply through story selection, fact selection, writing, tone of voice, and placement of the story, we have been making important leadership decisions that change what is reflected. We are leading people to see the world in a particular way. If we constantly focus on the negative, it is no surprise that what results is a public that is paralyzed and does not believe behavior matters when it comes to creating positive change.

In this tweny-four-hour, nonstop, churn-and-burn world of news, it can seem as if easy-to-cover, sensational stories are the best way to get your job done, please your boss, and garner ratings, but there is a new picture emerging. Technology is changing news consumption, and research is showing us the value of moving beyond simply covering negative stories or drippy sweet positive ones and instead forging a new, activating third path. What remains to be seen is which news organizations are going to be at the forefront of this transformative revolution in media.

Whether you’re a journalist, producer, news executive, or news consumer, if you have questions about Transformative Journalism or want to join this movement, I would love to hear from you. I have set up resources and a contact form at transformativejournalism.com and invite you to connect.

The world is ready for Transformative Journalism, and you are the change agents. With the words you broadcast, may you find your true power as a transformative leader. Within you is the power to transform your reporting and with it, transform thinking and the world.