Function and Efficacy of Solutions Journalism
Solutions journalism is an interesting change from the type of journalism many of us are used to. Andrea Wenzel, Daniela Gerson and Evelyn Moreno’s study Engaging Communities Through Solutions Journalism aims to explore the impacts of solutions journalism in local and stigmatized communities. Their findings illustrate how residents navigate and interpret mainstream coverage of local communities.
As Wenzel, Gerson and Moreno point out, “peace journalism” emerged in the 1960s and 1970s to many critics suggesting it subverted the fundamental tenets of objectivity and “places undue responsibility on journalists for correcting global ills.” However, proponents of peace journalism believed objectivity actually prevented journalism from playing a constructive role in public life.
Their study goes back to the mantra “if it bleeds, it leads” which I often heard from journalism professors and mentors. When studying traditional journalism many of us are taught to seek the truth and report it. We would often write about the different scandals and atrocities in our communities and when things were getting a little too heavy we would switch gears and highlight the local mom-and-pop bakery or community production. From personal experience any time I would try to talk about what was being done about an issue I would often be shut down. I was told those types of stories are for the op-ed section or that I was getting too involved in the story. Hearts would be poured into investigative pieces about political corruption and campus sexual assault that took months and multiple hands to create, only to watch the comments section fill up with statements that suggest nothing can be done about these issues or questions about what to do next.
Solutions journalism aims to examine instances where individuals, organizations and communities are working together toward solutions to social problems. Alexander Curry and Keith Hammonds state in The Power of Solutions Journalism that “solutions-based stories focus not just on what may be working, but how and why it appears to be working, or, alternatively, why it may be stumbling.”
When done well solutions-based stories can be highly informing and engaging. Their research outlined in The Power of Solutions Journalism aims to discover how citizens respond to this type of journalism. Their results indicate that solution-based journalism has promise in at least three areas: heightening audiences’ perceived knowledge and sense of efficacy, strengthening the connection between audiences and news organizations, and catalyzing potential engagement on an issue. They believed people who think they know more about an issue, share a story and feel more empowered to act are likely to attach greater value to the news and feel a stronger attachment to the respective news source. Curry and Hammonds outlined in their study that when citizens read solutions-based stories they felt more inclined to share these stories with family and friends, they believed they could contribute to a solution to the issue and that they could get involved in working toward a solution on the issue.
Solutions journalism is not without its own limitations. Authors of solutions-based stories should be sure to highlight the actions that are being taken and not the individual do-gooders as well as being objective in reporting said actions’ limitations. But overall solutions journalism gives citizens a place to start addressing issues instead of leaving them wondering what to do next.
