Tina Rosenberg (above) co-founder of the Solutions Journalism Network and columnist for New York Times
Credit: Casey MollonThis month, the Solutions Journalism Network (SJN) turns 10.
SJN grew out of the Fixes column in the New York Times, which ran between 2010 and 2021. My co-founder David Bornstein and I wrote a weekly article on what works to solve social problems, ranging from universal health insurance in Rwanda to effective mentoring in Baltimore. The point of Fixes was not to celebrate these innovations, but to report on them with rigor.
David argued from the beginning that we should not keep this kind of reporting to ourselves. Journalists want to write about what works, but were afraid to try it, lest it come out like advocacy, cheerleading, picking winners, fluff or public relations. David thought it would be good for journalism and for society to show people they can be serious reporters about responses to problems.
Ten years later, we have some 45 SJN colleagues. Solutions journalism is valued and practiced around the world. Nigeria, Ukraine, and El Salvador have publications dedicated to solutions reporting. Solutions stories are everyday fare at the BBC, New York Times, Le Monde, and many other leading newsrooms. Journalism training organisations teach or have taught solutions reporting in Abuja, Nairobi, Prague, Toronto, Bonn, Amsterdam, Colombia, and soon, Sydney, Kyiv and Ulaanbaatar.
SJN's Solutions Story Tracker has collected more than 15,000 published pieces — and that is only a tiny fraction of what is out there. Are you interested in what Pakistani women are doing to help other women in violent relationships? Or which American city has cut homelessness by 60 per cent? Or how a theatre in Gdansk is employing people with Down Syndrome? It is all in the Story Tracker.
We did not invent solutions journalism. Lots of people have done it (and do it today) without putting a label on it. But SJN has tried to create a system to practice it, ways to teach it, and, most importantly, a network.
We thought when we started that the idea would give a lot of journalists pause — we are so accustomed to defining news as "what’s wrong." Indeed, there is often initial resistance, but after journalists learn that it is just reporting, they do get it and see the need. It is interesting, though, that civilians get this instantly: of course, journalists should report on solutions as well as problems.
Attitude change, then, has been much easier than we expected. What has been hard is sustaining newsroom behaviour change. Newsrooms that work with SJN have done fantastic solutions-focused projects with big impact but many do not continue the practice.
We journalists must file on multiple platforms around the clock, with a tiny fraction of the staff and resources we used to have. We are exhausted and strapped, barely able to get through today's quota of stories. And the pull of business-as-usual is too strong.
This has been SJN’s biggest failure — we have not helped enough newsrooms sustain the practice of solutions journalism.
So a few years ago, SJN changed its focus. Our main goal now is to support passionate, (mostly) young journalism entrepreneurs around the world — freelancers, and those who work in newsrooms — impatient to transform their profession. And not just their profession.
They want to repair the false, stereotypical and toxic narratives journalism has constructed about rural communities or communities of colour. They want to provide a fuller, truer picture of society and its challenges, one that empowers people instead of depresses them. They want to give their people a voice. They want to earn the trust of their communities. They are eager to transform their world — through journalism.
There is one other change in our strategy: for most of our ten years, SJN has been the centre of the solutions journalism web. We have done the training and produced the resources. But that is a recipe for linear growth. What has become a real movement, by contrast, is growing exponentially. We must keep up.
We must step back and let the network take the lead.
Our role is to train our network through intensive, virtual workshops, giving these journalists the skills to train others. We can provide story examples and case studies and pedagogical materials. We can help knit them into a community. But these passionate entrepreneurs are the ones who must go teach and spread and innovate.
On 26 October, we are asking newsrooms and journalists we have worked with — past and present — to publish a solutions story, or look back on an earlier story or series and explore its impact. We have also asked them to write a few sentences about why they do solutions journalism and add the hashtag #SolutionsJournalismDay. We will be collecting and highlighting these pieces on our website and on social media.
Read more:
- How to use solutions journalism to report on responses to social problems
- How to integrate a solutions mindset in your newsroom
- How to speed up solutions journalism
Any journalist or newsroom can join in this look at the progress of the last 10 years. More importantly, any journalist or newsroom can join us. Let us help you transform the world through journalism.
Tina Rosenberg is Solutions Journalism Network's co-founder, where she forges partnerships with people who want to spread solutions journalism to their own networks or create new SoJo products and projects.
Prior to SJN, she co-wrote the "Fixes" column in The New York Times with David Bornstein. She has also been an editorial and Sunday magazine writer at The Times. Before that, she wrote magazine articles and books. She has won the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award.
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