Solutions Journalism: Covering the Philly Version of Poverty
What aspects of poverty can solutions journalism cover? How do you even define poverty and approach it, knowing that the concept has multiple causes and connotations? These are questions that are worth asking. They may help assess whether poverty and economic inequality can be covered from a solutions journalism perspective.
In a context like the region of Philadelphia, poverty has various features and a changing rate over years. The Pew Charitable Trusts’ report of November 2017 has mentioned some elements that explain why poverty is concentrated in specific places of the region of Philadelphia. These include transportation, housing cost and land-use regulation. This shows that such causes have systemic origins. The same report reveals many limits in the federal government’s official poverty measure. It also establishes a difference between poverty in general and what the U.S. Census Bureau calls “deep poverty.”
With these considerations, it’s important to agree on the type and level of poverty and economic inequality at stake in Philadelphia. And here is where audiences have to be involved in the process of defining the kind of stories that should receive attention. This can be done by asking the people what they want and investigating responses to the problem both in and out of the region.
Hearken’s Jennifer Brandel did a brilliant job of exploring the two questions that have been “causing severe moral dilemmas in news rooms and destabilizing the industry” in this respect. The questions concern whether journalists should give their audiences what they want or what they need. The solution that she advocates for is to reframe these questions into what the communities are unaware of, that only journalists have the ability to help find out and understand. She suggests a new mindset that would make newsrooms “take a public-powered approach and listen to their audience.” And the key element here resides in listening and engaging the people through specific strategies.
