Challenges and Opportunities in Covering Poverty Focused Journalism
Poverty and economic poverty have always been a grave concern for inner cities across the world. The growing population of the economically underprivileged in inner cities have created major issues for not only the local government, but also the future development of the city. With the growing concern for underprivileged communities and how to go about fixing the issues they undergo, it becomes difficult to address the issues without offending the audience.
Solutions journalism’s main purpose is to address an issue but also provide readers with ways the presented issue can possibly be solved. Providing readers with a possible solution to a problem can be helpful and insightful for the intended audience. However, the topic of poverty can be touchy, to say the least. Aside from poverty-stricken areas being possibly offended by reading about them being a “problem”, it also depicts certain communities as problematic and troublesome. This being said, it is apparent that IF solutions journalists tackle this topic, they must approach the right audience, in the right way. Challenges about discussing this topic primarily stem from the way an audience digests the writing. Hence why a solutions journalism piece on poverty may or may not be the best idea.
Imagine a detailed journalistic piece intended to address the problem of poverty splattered on the front page of a paper that is commonly read by residents of areas that are not concerned with poverty. How would this be a solutions journalism piece? The answer: It wouldn’t be beneficial. This is because of the intended audience, and I am the not the only one who supports this. Jennifer Brandel writes “They make those decisions around editorial tables filled with people who don’t often resemble the demographics of the communities they’re hoping and trying to serve” in her article titled Give the audience, what they want or what they need? There’s an even better question. Jennifer makes a supportive and valid point addressing the issue of audience in regard to poverty based solutions journalism pieces. Giving the audience what they need and what they want can sometimes be different, but a good writer must know this and also provide the audience with both, especially when addressing tough topics such as poverty.
