Strengths & Setbacks of Solutions Journalism
Solutions journalism opens the doors to community members ready and willing to become active within their community. “It delves into the how-to’s of problem solving, and investigating questions” (Bansal & Martin, 2015). Journalists have the ability to explore ideas, methods, and share data about challenges faced and what are the best practices done to take on those challenges. It is a call to action and a life line for those who lost interest in current mainstream dooms day media. Solutions journalists present the hard facts and also connect with the community they are talking about to challenge them.
I find few limitations to solutions journalism. It provides the opportunity to highlight models of best practices that have been used within a community that could be duplicated for another. It investigates the challenges and the successes. It also is ultimately balanced form a journalism, in the sense that it provides both the challenges and solutions to readers. Some of the limitations that are faced is the limited amount of news outlets sharing this information. It is a select few outlets that are actually creating solutions journalism pieces that are able to reach the community it is referring to. Additionally, the limited amount of readers is a challenge. Solutions journalism provides a great resource for community members that are and are not active in the community. However, it is not reaching as many members that are not active in the community.
Solutions journalism challenges traditional journalism, by upholding the watch dog mentality and taking it a step further to report solutions. It takes journalism to the next level, creating an opportunity for traditional journalism to look at what the system of journalism is and if there is a need for mainstream journalism to change. Solutions journalism challenges traditional journalism by investigating ideas, how people are trying to make them work, and their observable effects (Bansal & Martin, 2015). There is a significant lack of interest and need for something different within mainstream news and journalism. Solutions journalism provides that outlet to something different and more effective than extreme ends of the news.
Thus far solutions journalism has been a source to communicate and share best practices of community development. It has also tackled tough social justice issues such as recidivism and poverty. It continues to bring together a variety of journalists to create media that provides actionable steps to community members around the country and world. To date, research has shown that people who read solutions journalism compared to other forms of journalism feel more positive and wanting to become more involved in their own community (Wenzel, Gerson, & Moreno, 2016). The next steps that are needed to take in research is to study whether those that do read solutions journalism have increased their participation in community programming.
Bansal, S., & Martin, C. (2015). Solutions Journalism Toolkit.
Wenzel, A., Gerson, D., & Moreno, E. (2016). Engaging Communities Through Solutions Journalism. Tow Center for Digital Journalism, 33(3), i–iii. https://doi.org/10.1002/ejoc.201200111
