Impact Stories

BBC Media Action, the BBC’s international development charity, contracted Corinne Podger, a certified solutions journalism trainer, to co-write a new 'Reporting Effectively for Climate Action' online course, which included a module on solutions journalism. Originally created for journalists in East Africa, the course was adapted in 2022 for global distribution in a mobile-first, micro-learning format.

A solutions-focused package produced by six news organizations won second place in the education category in the National Headliner Awards, one of the nation’s oldest and largest journalism contests. The winning entry included a series of stories that explored where and how schools are making progress in boosting students’ reading skills, which suffered during the pandemic. These six news organizations, plus The Fresno Bee, are now working on the fifth package of solutions-focused stories they’ve jointly produced since March 2021.

Solutions coverage of democracy helped Prism raise $100,000 for additional politics and democracy reporting. Shirley Vilca, Prism’s development director, said the newsroom’s solutions journalism approach helped attract a major donor who she said was drawn to this editorial approach. Prism also highlights its solutions work in its impact report, which staff members use in fundraising efforts.

At KXAN, a TV station in Austin, Texas, solutions journalism is at the core of training for staff. Solutions journalism sessions are typically part of regular events like editorial meetings, with reporters, managers, producers and photographers in attendance. A poster highlighting the basics of the solutions approach is on display in the newsroom, and stories adopting the framework are discussed weekly. KXAN’s website has a dedicated vertical for solutions content, and major solutions projects include explainers that highlight and describe the solutions approach to the station’s audience.

Close to 600 people have completed a seven-day course on public records sponsored by the Northeast Ohio Solutions Journalism Collaborative with help from Cleveland Documenters. The course offered a daily, bite-size “micro-lesson” via text message along with
exercises to help users apply what they had learned. One group in Cleveland — parents whose children were victims of gun violence — has used the course to request local homicide data, and they hope to present a map of every homicide in their county to the City of Cleveland’s safety committee. “There’s this notion that people are apathetic,” said Rachel Dissell, a Cleveland-based journalist who designed the course with editor and educator Linda Austin. “But the more we work with people, it’s more like people are frustrated. ... Really, people want to solve problems — they don’t know how.”

A spokeswoman for a sewer district in northeast Ohio credited a solutions journalism story with helping double the number of low-income renters who signed up for a program aimed at helping them pay their sewer bills. The story was part of the Northeast Ohio Solutions Journalism Collaborative’s “Making Ends Meet” project (https://www.neosojo.com/), and was published by Ideastream Public Media, which represents local television and radio stations.