AI-rewritten: This is a summary of an article from Positive News, rewritten by AI (Qwen, running locally) to make it easier to read. The facts come from the original article – read it for the full story.

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Oliver Balch stopped reading bad news for 48 hours to try constructive journalism, which focuses on solutions rather than problems. He chose a weekend detox because he rarely watches TV or uses social media like TikTok and X. His editor told him there would be no crisis-focused stories, only those highlighting what is working.

On Monday, Balch spoke with An Nguyen, a visiting professor at Bournemouth University’s Media School. Nguyen explains that humans have an evolutionary "awareness instinct," a drive to know about potential threats like sabre-toothed tigers or rogue AI. While Balch admits constant news checking can be distracting and titillating, he agrees we need to know about problems like record temperatures and inequality spikes. However, he found that constructive journalism asks different questions: "What are people doing about it?" and "What can we learn?"

Balch discovered three surprising things during his experiment. First, finding genuinely constructive news is difficult because much of it feels like paid advertising or so caveated that it leaves readers deflated. Second, some stories are dry or technical rather than people-centred, though podcasts like BBC’s People Fixing the World get this balance right by focusing on individuals. Third, there is an astonishing variety of subjects in constructive journalism, ranging from silent retreats to oil executives becoming campaigner.