Award ceremony in Munich: FOCUS online honors 6 media contributions with "Constructive World Award"

"one purpose, many faces" - under this motto, FOCUS online presented the Constructive World Award for the first time on Tuesday evening. With around 200 guests from the world of media, business and politics, seven outstanding critical-constructive media contributions were honored in Munich.

The evening was all about solutions - because: With the Constructive World Award, digital publisher BurdaForward wants to give visibility to those who constructively move our world forward through their social and journalistic work. To this end, not only journalists from major media companies gathered in Munich, but also those whose commitment and pioneering projects give rise to constructive and solution-oriented reporting in the first place.

For many of our problems, there is already a solution somewhere in the world. We just have to bring them to light. The first Constructive World Award is intended to contribute to this.“

From podcast to TV feature - these are the Konstruktiv winners

The new Konstruktiv Award was presented in a total of seven categories that are aligned with the UN's Sustainable Development Goals. The award was given to so-called "tandems": both the media creators themselves and those who stand behind the respective contribution with their innovative idea, project and commitment.

Almost 100 applications for the "Constructive World Award" have been received by the Burda subsidiary in recent weeks. These include submissions from public service media companies such as ARD, ZDF and Arte, as well as online publications from SZ.de, FOCUS.de and Welt.de. Audio formats from podcast producers and radio stations such as SWR, as well as YouTube contributions also qualified in the first selection round of the 15-member jury. The jury members include Martin Weiss (CEO Hubert Burda Media), Ana-Cristina Grohnert (Chairwoman of the Board Charta der Vielfalt), Prof. Dr. Maren Urner (Co-Founder Perspective Daily), Steffi Czerny (Founder and Managing Director DLD), Prof. Dr. Alexandra Borchardt (Journalist and Lecturer), Jörg Quoos (Funke Editor-in-Chief) and Katharina Hinze (Co-Managing Director Ashoka).

The final winners of the Constructive World Awards were announced yesterday at a ceremony in Munich's Werksviertel. Presenter Thomas Brinkmann guided the guests through the evening. Among others, the Munich media house welcomed musician Leslie Mandoki, Minister of State Michaela Kaniber and film producer Martin Krug. Burda owners Elisabeth Furtwängler and Jacob Burda also took the opportunity to attend the inaugural presentation of the Konstruktiv Award.

"The message behind this award is a very clear one: We all have only one planet, and we must all try to work together to save this world a little bit." The projects are exemplary of how we can better position ourselves as a society, said Minister of State Kaniber.

The following were honored and awarded prize money of 5,000 euros per tandem:

• Categorie „Better Planet“: Richard Fuchs (SWR) und Alexandra Werdes mit dem Podcast „Hecken – Unterschätzte Klimaretter und Biotope“
• Categorie „Fundamental Survival“: Jan Rübel (Welt am Sonntag), Sascha Montag und Andrea Hahnefeld mit der Print-Reportage „Kinder auf der Flucht“
• Categorie „Peaceful Guidance“: Stefan Apfl (Der Standard / Youtube) und Philippe Close mit dem Video-Beitrag „Neun Minuten – ein Jahr danach“
• Categorie „Innovative Infrastructure“: Susanne Schäfer (Brand Eins) und José Luis Sánchez Lizaso mit der Print-Reportage „Salzlos glücklich“
• Categorie „Universal Empowerment“: Tabea Hosche (ARD) und Florian Lintz mit dem TV-Beitrag „Von der Behindertenwerkstatt in den Hörsaal“
• Categorie „Economic Life“: Sandra Weiss, Florian Kopp (amazonian-future.de) und Ernstl Götsch mit der Online-Beitrag „Syntropie statt Monotonie“

In addition to the six winning tandems, an audience award, the "Constructive Hero" Award, was also presented. Constructive projects, which FOCUS online accompanied editorially, were voted for by users of the news portal in recent weeks. The "Constructive Hero" Award went to Nadine Wenigmann, who, together with a team of helpers, is rebuilding playgrounds and recreation areas in the Ahr Valley that were destroyed by the flood. With the award, she receives prize money of 2,000 euros.

250,000 people read our articles on the three nominees. Over 5,000 voted in our public poll.“

Living room talk before the Constructive World Awards ceremony

In a living room talk before the awards ceremony, experts discussed the topic: "The power of constructive initiatives: How companies, research and media work together to drive positive change". Moderated by BurdaForward CCO Daniel Steil, the panel included molecular biologist Francine Ntoumi, agricultural scientist Farah Baroudy, single father Dr. Axel Lankenau and Dr. Julia Adou, Director Sustainability at ALDI Süd. The discussants talked about the interaction of media and organizations or people being reported on. "Too often the focus is on negative aspects instead of highlighting solutions and opportunities. Open discussions like today are quite important," says Adou.