Instructions vs. Panic: What is the Solutions Journalism for?

The solutions journalism may take various forms and genres. However, all materials have one common approach to coverage – focusing on searching for responses to social issues, as well as focusing on such issues.

These are stories that seek various solutions to social or other issues based on reliable evidence. Authors of such stories explain how and why these solutions work or do not work.

The purpose of such journalistic approach is to give people more truthful and full representation to shape a more efficient civic-mindedness.

The notion of ‘constructive journalism’ or ‘solutions journalism’ is not new: the Columbia Journalism Review described it back in 1998.

Some critics noted that traditional journalism based on the belief that reporter’s work is to raise awareness and disclose violations cannot be the universal approach. It seemed that a simple message about issues may not remedy all social disasters in the world.

Other forms of journalism similarly reacted to the alleged abundance of negative information available in the media. Thus, the citizen journalism that received some impetus in the United States in the 1990s aimed at involving readers into public discourse to encourage their active participation in democratic processes and to expedite the changes.

The solutions journalism is also related to similar journalistic styles that were practised beyond the USA, including ‘constructive journalism’ that emerged in Denmark.

The solutions journalism was actively developing in the early 2000s. Journalistic organisation working in this area such as Solutions Journalism Network or Sparknews were created around the world.

The followers of the solutions journalism think it ensures the important feedback system that allows the society see all opportunities and respond more successfully to emerging issues. According to them, the convincing message about responses to social issues may strengthen the society by spreading knowledge that is needed to make citizens take an active part in solving issues in their communities. While leaders, innovators and philanthropists must make relevant, informed decisions on them.

The stories containing solutions are focused on what really works and therefore they can redefine issues in a new way and make politicians, practitioners and community members rethink them.

• Such materials often draw public attention to more effective strategies;
• They help delegitimise justified inactivity;
• They suggest new ideas to organisations that help strengthen their influence;
• They change the dialogue in the society and lead to taking political measures;
• They help rethink the status quo.

The digital educational platform Learninglab calls five indicative signs of materials prepared in the form of the solutions journalism:

1. These stories analyse deeply not only the issue, but also reaction to it.
2. Materials cover all the details related to the feedback.
3. Authors focus on the efficiency instead of good intentions and provide available evidences of results based on real conditions, useful details that affect the effective solution. Such materials often contain lessons, instructions, guides to solve problems.
4. The articles not only inspire, but also suggest useful knowledge in the form of a story about how to progress in solution based on certain cases. However, there is no need to show only good things. The solutions journalism is not the same as positive news, PR or propaganda.
5. Authors tell the reader the weak sides of the approach. The article does not contain the perfect solution to a problem, yet it contains information about shortcomings, restrictions and risks. Theoretically, the material should give a full picture of the event, provide exhaustive information, including negative things, for example, by means of the independent expert opinions.

In fact, some articles may seem as the solutions journalism, but they are not.  These are:

• Materials that praise one person as a personification of a certain idea.
• Articles about ‘magic wands’. For example, they may describe new gadgets or some organisation by means of complimentary epithets.
• Analytical articles about solutions that are being implemented or have been implemented.
• Materials in support of good deeds with crowd funding. They can be detected by emotional calls to support a certain initiative.
• The stories about good people who do good things. Usually, they do not contain the description of structural problems.
• If information about attempts to solve a problem is given in brief at the end of the material, it means that the solution is of marginal importance for the author.

According to the ‘Greenhouse of Social Technologies’ project, the following steps can help you create such story:

• Firstly, you should designate the topic or the question of the study (for example, environment, education, security, but with a focus on a certain problem).
• Then, you should find the hero of the story who has the solution to the problem. You should ask the following questions: who is coping with the problem best of all, who has already succeeded in solving the problem, who has not and why. You should remember that it is not necessary to ‘succeed’.
• When describing the solution, you should ask the following questions: how does it work, where the idea came from, can the solution be scaled? You should also think how to measure the success and what estimations were given by the experts.