I think the world needs better news more
than ever I’m here today to tell you how
and why I have to change my colleagues
and the news industry has to change and
how we can reinstall journalism and
earth or as an authority in societies
where there none left it’s not easy but
we need to do it sometimes you need to
step in front of the mirror and take the
consequence of what you see of you what
you see normally in the news industry we
just break the glass but maybe we need
to shape up a little bit and I went into
journalism 30 years ago because I wanted
to tell important stories to people
about their life and the world in order
for them to make up their own lives and
then my career went on and suddenly I
realized maybe I spent most of the time
doing stories that were good for my
career that my editors liked that
created good headlines that were being
quoted one me prices and was part of the
news culture that I had become part of
and that part of doing good for society
maybe I forgotten that a little bit not
that I was telling stories that were
untruthful but my ambition about doing
something what that was right maybe I’d
forgotten that a little bit and that’s
the problem have you ever thought about
journalism saying why are you so
negative have you ever thought about
that if you do you’re not alone millions
of people around the world have left for
additional news because they think news
is too depressing
it is disengaging especially women
especially young people turn their backs
on traditional news because now they
have alternatives they just go on
Facebook and be reassured about that
picture of the world from the 255
closest friends is that good for
democracy maybe not maybe we need to do
something but each time somebody has
criticized me or my colleagues for being
knit to- doing something wrong we just
don’t want them and we say to
politicians you just want to avoid our
critical questions CEOs criticizing us
we say you just want free airtime
professors in journalism whatever
academia comes and say you do something
wrong we say you are sitting in your
tower you don’t know anything about
journalism and you’re not journalists we
don’t want to listen to you and our
neighbors they just plain stupid so
we’re just all the time people are
accusing us of something we say we’re
just journalists and we do what
journalists have always done so shut up
we know best I’m here today to tell you
maybe not this is this is the fact if we
when we go to you know you know you know
editors day it is we in Denmark we have
editors day you know the day of the cat
the day of the dog the day of Mother’s
and whatever Mother’s Day we have
editors day where editors are good to
editors because that’s the only time of
year anyone is good to editors so we do
great speeches again for each others
telling us we under trust business and
everybody applause but look at this this
will go in your country as well but this
is Danish figures who do people believe
with which professions do they trust and
we go up here and we see nurses down and
down here where we real estate agents
journalists and car dealers politicians
if that put prostitutes they would have
been somewhere up here people don’t
trust us
even though we say when the trust
business we are in trouble and if we
keep on doing what we normally do
we’ll probably end up getting the same
results that we always gotten we need to
change something I was lucky enough to
talk through Helmut Schmidt the former
Chancellor of West Germany two years ago
he was at that time 95 years old he got
just got a new girlfriend she was 80 so
I thought there’s hope for everyone and
this man you are knowing about democracy
politics and being a publisher of
deadside also about media he said
something very important he said we live
in media democracies now when media have
become more
and politicians because in media
democracies politicians care more about
their own re-election that about solving
problems of people five years from now
so they spend all their efforts talking
into the news criterium media and if the
media’s news criteria are conflict
crooks drama and victims which are the
tabloid news criteria being adopted by
even serious TV stations and CB serious
newspapers all over the Western world
then journalism and politics become
tabloid and then Helmut Schmidt said
news media no longer help democracy it’s
so full of negativity and media
democracy produce populates not leaders
and then he mentioned one person they
was Berlusconi as one example of a
populist I was wondering if Helmut
Schmidt didn’t die one year ago who do
you think he would have mentioned and
the question is did we create Donald
Trump in the media we were part of it
Donald Trump got free airtime in news
media in 2015 at a time when he was not
big for one point nine billion US
dollars
he didn’t even though he was a billion
billionaire he didn’t spend any of his
own money because he got free airtime
and as he said meteor loves me because
why because he creates conflict
he creates drama and he divides
everybody into crooks and victims crooks
that’s the Mexicans and the Muslims and
the victims are all you but you are
losers I’ll make your winners wait vote
for me that was what happened we have to
ask ourselves important questions one is
what is actually journalism and count
Bernstein of the Watergate coverage once
told me which I’ve never forgotten I
think it’s the best definition of
journalism journalism is not stenography
journalism is the best obtainable
version of the truth so my moment of
truth came one Friday night one year
after got my present job as news
director Dr so I was in charge of all
newse also on TV and I was coming home
late Friday evening you know Friday
evening come home late huh finally
weekend and you’re sitting there the
wife is beautiful and the kids are clean
and there’s red wine in the glass and
there’s jelly in the jar and there’s a
movie later and who knows what will
happen later would be a fantastic
weekend but first we have to watch the
news because that’s what grown-up people
do in order to get the best obtainable
version of the truth right so here it
came welcome to TV a reason there’s a
terror threat against Denmark shooting
incident in Copenhagen new regional
trains not delivered on time they from
Italy what did they expect so I feel
cancer is now a dangerous for young
girls strike among bus drivers continues
woman act up abducted and abused in a
cottage in Sweden we have the pictures
of the courage the crisis and a social
democratic party and the old man runs
for president in u.s. in a crisis called
case bound about an airplane accident
with a few hundred that people begins
and suppress North Koreans works out a
giant mechanical spiders creates fear in
Liverpool and finally the well forecast
the rain continues have a nice evening I
know if I was watching this I was saying
what is this none of these stories are
not traditional good stories fitting in
sound news for cheer but is that an
accurate picture of the world and
Denmark that day or is it just what we
call news problem that I started reading
newspapers watching satellite television
all over the world and I saw global
illness all over the world we think a
good story is a bad story the rest is
not I went to the BBC to have a talk for
them I was very proud and I took a
screenshot of that morning’s bbc.com
page from BBC News to see because we all
look at BBC because what they do is the
right journalism so we went there and I
just said just see the world the best
obtainable version of the world that day
and you can go today and you will
probably see the same thing but just see
the words they’re using in the headlines
it’s all about misery walls being peeled
people being killed bad weather whatever
this is good news bad news who wins the
prices this every photographer in the
world wants to win this price the world
press photo competition so they point
their cameras to what they think is the
the right filtering of the world right
so look at the category news pictures in
2015 fantastic pictures but it’s the
only kind of pictures that we think a
good journalism Pulitzer Prize winners
2015 great journalism but just look at
the words there it’s none of the stories
are bad it’s great journalism but it’s
the only kind of journalism that is the
right kind of journalism in our culture
we have to understand that journalism is
a filter a filter between reality and
the public perception of reality so if
we now look at the public perception of
reality what do we find
asking people in this country or in my
country are you now more secure or less
secure than you were 10 years ago people
say I’m less secure it’s a very scary
world and we ask them why and say
because of all the murders because of
all the crime the terrorism the wars and
we say we’re in your city say no in
television and on headlines and online
it’s everywhere and we say the facts of
the world is the rate the murder rate
has never been lower in Denmark the
crime rate has never been lower the
amount of traffic accident has been as
low as since they invented the car in
history of mankind we have never had so
few people killed in wars as right now
despite of Syria but do people know that
no because we don’t report it we haven’t
had so few death due to terrorism in
Europe since 1954 do people know that no
they don’t because we don’t report it
not because we are telling lies but we
don’t we forget to tell the perspective
people have started looking into this
professors test people it do it does
something to your mind
negativity controls news flow and their
fall so politics in the public debate
apathy or fear is the result the risk is
that people not only deselect media
sources for news but also that they
disengage in the public debate and if I
do the head as a journalist as an editor
news director I do a shitty job I have
to do something different this guy do
content analysis all over the world what
is printed as news what it goes into TV
and online and he concludes this
negativity is an illness caught by even
serious newspapers magazine that not at
least TV news broadcasters all over the
world the problem is not that the
numbers are wrong the problem is that
the picture gets wrong look at this
asking people asking people in different
countries about important issues what
are the facts and compare that to the
facts look at France for instance how
many people are Muslims in France the
right number in 2014 when this was done
is 8 percent let’s say it’s 8 point
something today but the average French
voter think that almost 1/3 of all
Frenchmen today are Muslim if you have
in your mind that one-third of your
country have become Muslim who do you
vote for look at the United States 1%
Muslim population but the average
American voters think that the number is
15% and look at this how big is
unemployment look at Italy they have a
big unemployment rate at 12% which is
high but the Italians think that almost
half of a pop of the population are
unemployed where does that come from
look at the United States they had an
unemployment rate of 6% during the
American election it was down to 4.5 but
the Americans think that the
unemployment rate is 32% who do you vote
for then our news culture is still the
good stories a bad story and if nobody
gets mad its advertising we say it comes
from America if it bleeds it leads
that’s the idea not anymore it’s not
true anymore things are going down so we
need to change
Einstein said without changing our
pattern of thought
will not be able to solve the problems
we created with our current pattern of
thought introducing constructive news
what is that is that some kind of North
Korean version of journalism where you
ignore all problems and paint the sky
blue no it’s not it’s not happy news
it’s not the cute little story before
the weather about cats coming down from
trees and other cats on YouTube on
skateboards so we can help people kill
time no it’s about serious matters it’s
a supplement there’s a need to
supplement our news criteria people need
inspiration to solutions stories that
focus on ways out and hope and
constructive news is about possibilities
and people who do something the rest of
us might learn from it’s about seeing
the world with both eyes not only the
eye that will confirm the angle we had
when we start researching that will be
new look at this news breaking news more
and more news organization are focused
on speed we think we can beat Twitter we
can’t the focus on breaking news is now
the goal is speed the questions are what
and when the style is dramatic we play
the role of police dramatic and conflict
and investigative reporting is something
different and I think that’s too little
investigative reporting it’s expensive
it’s difficult but it’s all about
yesterday it’s about placing blame to
find the guilty we asked the question
who and why we’re being critical we play
the role of prosecutor sometimes judge
and we look for crooks and victims and
constructive journalism is adding to
this it’s about tomorrow it’s about
inspiration we ask the questions about
now what and how and we are curious and
we are facilitated of a public debate
about a better tomorrow we focus on
solutions and best practice when we do
stories about lack of doctors and rural
districts in Denmark we do all kind of
stories the consequences people die
because there are no doctor and we ask
the minister and they don’t know and
they say it’s not my fault it’s my
predecessor or the regions or whatever
we do all kind of stories the
constructive angle is looking at other
countries have they had the same problem
and what did they do
look at Norway how do you get people to
move from Oslo and 2,400 kilometers up
there as a doctor and we turn out they
had a problem people didn’t want to live
there because it was dangerous because
there were no doctors so they had to do
something and we did a story about what
did they do lower interest rate for
studio loans or whatever and that
enhanced the quality of the public
debate journalism is a filter it’s a
feedback mechanism to help society self
correct and we have to remember that
does it work
yes ninety-three percent of all people
in Denmark now use news for dr they
didn’t before we’re now the most trusted
news brand both on radio TV and online
and we are now also the biggest news
show on Danish TV and we weren’t before
I can assure you that this is a mega
trend people are trying to experiment do
this all over the world not being very
successful because it’s difficult to
change culture constructive journalism
answers the question of why public media
quality journalism matters to society it
gives someone user clear purpose people
relates the constructive stories are
more engaged in them in tradition than
traditional news say people at wasn’t at
the Huffington Post which is by becoming
the biggest news provider and the world
even the BBC has now one month ago
decided that they will implement
constructive journalism because they
could see they have a problem they call
it solution focused journalism there’s a
book out is even in German now on
Chinese and rendering soon very nice and
has this changed and this is I just took
a running rundown of our news the other
day eight years ago since we started
this mindset change the culture change
in our newsroom and just to see the
words and there won’t go through them
but just look at the weather forecast at
the end even the weather is better so
nothing is more powerful than an idea
whose time has come and you know what
Bob the Builder has a slogan which Obama
stole from him and I think that’s a need
for us to
change and we need to do it more now
than ever we need to remember what
journalism should do in society we need
to be a trusted source for news if we
want to be meaningful
not because of journalism to save
journalism not because to save the news
industry but to help democracy and the
societies we serve it’s about time and
can we fix it yes we can thank you very
much [Applause]