Changing the readers view: Solutions Journalism
Everyday people tune into the news to find out what is happening around the world. Newspapers are read, televisions are tuned to news channels, and radios are turned up in vehicles of citizens traveling to work. Journalists tend to focus on negative issues happening around the world. However, solutions journalism is changing this view. By challenging traditional ideas of news, solutions journalists focus on how to fix issues rather than just informing their readers of the issues with no positive spin. This change of direction has helped many readers engage in news platforms regarding worldly issues with a positive outlook. Providing an audience with an issue does not help that issue become solved. This is why solutions journalists intend to provide the audience with the issue and follow up with a possible solution.
Although it may seem easy, some critiques of solutions journalism say that this style of journalism can easily sound too “feel-good” or be compared to story-telling instead of active investigation into the issue.National solutions journalism groups have worked to change this view. “Good news is good business, but not a cure-all for journalism” written by Lene Bech from the Columbia Journalism Review. Bech mentions companies such as Huffington Post Good News and Positive News as highly respected journalism outlets that provide their audience with solutions journalism. Bech explains how recently these outlets have actually brought in more business because of their new-found focus on positive occurrences in the world versus news that only highlights violence and negative aspects of our future. Audiences want to see the world in a positive way yet also be informed about the ongoing struggles of our everyday lives, which is why solutions journalism is a great way to successfully provide readers with both aspects.
Professionals such as David Bornstein, co-founder of the Solutions Journalism Network have shed new light on the idea of solutions journalism as well, stating “The solution is not to produce more positive news but to create more knowledge, to truly understand how the world works, what forces are at work in terms of trying to address problems”. Traditional journalists may see solutions based work as advocacy or promotion, which can be a big limitation for the new field of writing. However, one strength of solutions journalism is that it not only focuses on what is the issue it gives the reader a chance to learn how we can fix it. As more problems arise every day in this world, it is imperative that journalists who focus on solutions based writing are able to provide readers with positive view on worldwide issues.
