Abstract
It is important to investigate strategies to inform young people in an appropriate way. Young people indicate that they want to be informed, but news can be rather terrifying and depressing to them. This study investigates if constructive journalism can contribute to young teens' (10-15 years) emotional well-being and information processing. An explorative experimental design was used to investigate effects of watching constructive or non-constructive audio-visual news (N = 174). Results showed that the type of news had an effect on emotions; watching constructive news caused a smaller decrease of positive emotion. Furthermore, there was a difference in both groups in what was perceived as the most important message and how much participants remembered, but the type of news did not influence recognition. This study shows that a constructive approach can contribute to counteracting unintended negative effects of watching the news.
