Impact Stories

Prism [2022]: 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.

KXAN (2022): 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.

Northeast Ohio Solutions Journalism Collaborative and Cleveland Documenters (February 2022): 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.”

Northeast Ohio Solutions Journalism Collaborative (February 2022): A spokeswoman for a sewer district in northeast Ohio credited a solutions journalism story (https://www.ideastream.org/news/relief-for-northeast-ohio-renters-sewer-bills-is-here-but-will-they-take-advantage-of-it) 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.

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel [January 2022]: After the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel published a story that explained how Baby Bonds and 529 accounts were helping people in other states save money for college, a home and/or retirement, a group of Wisconsin lawmakers proposed a bill that would bring a similar investment savings program to their state.

United Nations [January 2022]: Melissa Fleming, the U.N.’s undersecretary-general for global communications, announced that the U.N. will take a cue from the Solutions Journalism Network and highlight solutions as well as problems in its communications. “My job at the U.N. is to communicate the state of the world,” she wrote. “To do so I could tell any number of terrifying and attention-grabbing stories. But in the long run, I’d begin to lose people. I’m increasingly working on the premise that gloom doesn’t keep people gripped. Hope does.” The U.N.’s infusion of solutions will start at the top, she added. “When U.N. Secretary General António Guterres speaks, he highlights solutions while explaining problems, and then appeals to the world to join the response.”