Appreciative Inquiry approach could transform journalism
Strengths-based media has potential for ‘resurgence of hope’
Thursday August 28, 2008 -- Jennifer Higgs
If journalism adopted an Appreciative Inquiry (AI) approach to its reporting, society would be transformed to have more energy to make a difference in the world, says Corporation for Positive Change principal Amanda Trosten-Bloom.

For example, when thinking of a movement like Habitat for Humanity part of how it became well-known and successful is Jimmy Carter was its proponent. There are a lot of people doing good work but are not getting their message out because they are not famous, says Trosten-Bloom.

If the mainstream media were to move to a strengths-based approach, the public would have more opportunity to get their word out and more innovative ideas would be shared.

“There would be an opportunity for people like Jimmy Carter who are not famous to really make a difference in the world if journalists were helping to undercover those things and disseminating (that) information,” she says.

This transformed journalism would connect people with each other and create community, says Trosten-Bloom.

“In truth, most social innovations that have taken place through the years are not the efforts of an individual, they generally are a community effort,” she says.

An Appreciative Inquiry approach narrates strengths and successes with a focus on what’s going right instead of what’s wrong. Those engaged in appreciative interviews are asked to tell stories about what enabled a success to happen.

Journalists who focus on strengths-based reporting must approach their stories with rigour and think clearly about the power of the question, says Trosten-Bloom.  

“I hope that journalists would use the same kind of rigour that they use in good investigative reporting to really dig underneath the happy stories,” she says.

Otherwise, she says, “it’s a big hug — it doesn’t have the rigour to it.”

If the media used an Appreciative Inquiry (AI) approach it would be different than the deficit-based or problem-centred approach, but the AI take is just as relevant and meaningful, says Trosten-Bloom.

“I think that traditional journalism right now fosters fear, which fosters a tendency to isolate,” says Trosten-Bloom. “I believe that what happens is we get scared and we get overwhelmed and we feel that we have to protect ourselves.”

When the media reports this way there is a sense of hopelessness, which diminishes energy, she says. Energy is best summoned when people believe they can make a difference, they are inspired to act and motivated to fix problems.

With a strengths-based approach in the mainstream media there would be a resurgence of hope, which would create energy and create something different, says Trosten-Bloom.

“The world would be a more hopeful place, and people would have more energy to do things in service of the planet,” she says. “That sense of hope would energize people, and give them the capacity, the energy and the inclination to work for goodness.”

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