What’s the point of reporting on an unsolvable problem? Instead, identify solutions people can act on.
News Decoder’s Program & Communications Manager Cathal O’Luanaigh gives a workshop on podcasting. Credit: News Decoder
Journalism can be a powerful tool for change. But a story won’t spur change if it puts people to sleep or leaves them more confused or discouraged than before they read, heard or saw it. To help you tell stories that are engaging and insightful, News Decoder is launching Top Tips. Each week we will share advice from reporters, editors, writers and master storytellers.
In this Top Tip, News Decoder Educational News Director Marcy Burstiner explains how a discussion about solutions should be an essential part of every news story.
Top Tips are part of our open access learning resources. You can find more of our learning resources here. And learn how you can incorporate our resources and services into your classroom or educational program or by forming a News Decoder Club in your school.
A key role of journalism is to shine a spotlight on problems people face. But stories that explore big problems like climate change or hunger or homelessness without delving into possible solutions can end up discouraging people rather than inspiring and motivating them to action.
Journalists sometimes ignore reporting on possible solutions because those solutions seem out of reach or financially or politically impractical.
But think about it. Many of the actions being taken now to combat climate change — millions of homeowners adopting solar energy and corporations and organizations going zero emission — seemed unlikely, if not impossible, a decade ago.
Political impossibilities become realities when voters decide something is important and financial impossibilities become feasible when enough demand creates a market so the products can be produced economically.
But voters won’t become motivated to call for implementation of solutions if they don’t know that such solutions exist.
Identify solutions.
At News Decoder, we see solutions as an essential part of all stories. Consider some articles we published recently. An article from 18 June by Earyel Bowleg looked at why young people don’t vote in greater numbers. Experts pointed to two solutions that could be implemented if people really wanted more young people to vote: Politicians and parties should focus on issues that young people care about and schools should build civics into their curriculum.
Might it be that the reason these things aren’t done is that for all the complaining people do about young people not voting, there is actually a disincentive for the powerful to have young people vote?
To take another example, correspondent Tiziana Barghini explored a crisis of homelessness in the U.S. state of California. In that story, experts pointed to a number of possible solutions: changes in zoning laws that made it difficult to construct new housing; easing up restrictions placed on homeless people to get housing; and financial incentives for landlords to rent to homeless people.
Here we see a connection to the story about poor election turnout among young people. This demographic is most hurt by out of control rents and home prices. If they knew that there are policies governments could implement or laws that could be changed to increase the housing supply and lower rents and sale prices, young renters and first-time home buyers might be motivated to vote and to lobby their representatives.
Solutions must be practical.
Note that readers and listeners will reject solutions that are superficial or impossible. So it is important when discussing solutions to put them into context, contrasting short-term solutions with those that are long-term and small, targeted solutions — micro solutions — in contrast to system-wide or macro solutions.
For example, a program to encourage people to switch from petrol cars to electric is a short-term solution. It encourages changes in individual behavior. Investment in public transport and reshaping our cities to pedestrian and cycle-based, in contrast, is a long-term solution.
A micro solution is one that individuals or small communities can adopt. Macro is something brought about by large organizations or central governments. It is one thing for a village to put up a wind turbine. It is another thing for the government of Ireland, where I live, to mandate a changeover from oil-based home heating to heat pumps and wind-produced electricity.
Both micro and macro solutions are important, particularly as a micro solution can become popular and scale up to a macro solution.
A New York news organization years ago did an investigative story on the deaths of elderly residents of assisted living centers. It turned out that at night some people with dementia would wander out of their care centers into the freezing cold.
A micro solution the reporters found was installation of alarms on the doors of care centers so that if someone opened the outside doors at night, security would be alerted.
A macro solution was passage of comprehensive state laws on safety and security at assisted living facilities, which happened as a result of the publication of the story.
Call readers to action.
A journalist should offer up solutions without self-censorship based on skepticism that people will accept the solution. Decades ago, many people thought that auto drivers could not be forced into wearing seatbelts when driving a car. Taking on the tobacco industry in the United States was seen as a lost cause.
Now seatbelts are seen as a basic part of driving and riding in a car and the tobacco industry has been largely stopped from many of the deceptive practices that enticed young people into smoking.
It isn’t enough to point out both micro and macro solutions. Can you take your readers or listeners through steps that would turn a micro solution into a macro solution? How could a small-scale project become a regional, nationwide or international enterprise?
It is also important to be honest about the obstacles to the solutions. Is the problem lack of money? Are there vested interests that have powerful ties to the government? Are there alternative solutions out there? What is the basis of the opposition? Asking and answering these questions give a story depth.
Change happens when individuals and governments decide they need to make the changes. But lecturing to people won’t produce that result.
Three questions to consider:
- Why should all news stories offer solutions to problems they spotlight?
- What is the difference between a micro and macro solution?
- Think of a big problem in your community. Can you think of a solution that would alleviate that problem?
Marcy Burstiner is the educational news director for News Decoder. She is a graduate of the Columbia Journalism School and professor emeritus of journalism and mass communication at the California Polytechnic University, Humboldt in California. She is the author of the book Investigative Reporting: From premise to publication.