• Ode, Vol. 4, Issue 7, September 2006, Rotterdam (in Dutch) and Tiburon, California (in English)

It’s a mantra recited by everyone from Michael Moore to Jon Stewart. Major media outlets would rather scare their readers than inform them. Whether it’s a local news broadcast warning parents of dangerous nannies, or a newsweekly magazine (Time, in this case) whose cover line on climate change commands readers to “Be Worried. Be Very Worried,” the message is clear: It’s a dangerous world out there. Better to stay home and watch TV.

It’s this dim view of the planet—and the media—that Ode magazine seeks to counter. It was founded nearly 12 years ago in Rotterdam by Dutch journalist Jurriaan Kamp, who had worked for a decade at one of the Netherlands’ largest newspapers, NRC Handelsblad, and as a radio and television journalist. Kamp ultimately decided that the mainstream media he grew up with “represents the wrong world to the people” by focusing disproportionately on negative stories of war, crime, and disappointment. So Kamp decided to create his own independent publication that would advocate an alternative, optimistic outlook about the people and ideas that are changing the world. The magazine bills itself as a tool to help readers “see how every one of us can contribute to a more just and sustainable world.” According to Kamp, Ode is not simply a magazine; it’s a way of life.

Perusing pages of clean design filled with upbeat language, it would be easy to think the editors of Ode live in a completely different world than the one depicted by the rest of the newsstand. Packed with...