Engagement
The Solutions Journalism Network allies with journalism support organizations around the globe to anchor the spread of solutions journalism. These partners can be found in Nigeria, Kenya, Colombia (serving all of Latin America), Canada, Germany, the Netherlands (supporting newsrooms in France, Germany and the U.K.) and the Czech Republic (serving all of Central and Eastern Europe).
Journalist and founder of Egab Dina Aboughazala covers how solutions journalism helps change the global narrative of countries often only defined by their problems. Aboughazala was a SJN LEDE fellow.
Network Spread
The Bonn Institute, designed as a hub for making journalism “more solutions-oriented, richer in perspective and increasingly dialogue-based,” was launched in Germany in April 2022, led by Ellen Heinrichs, a solutions journalism supporter who formerly worked at Deutsche Welle. Lisa Urlbauer, a former SJN staff member, is training coordinator.
Accredited Trainers
SJN has accredited 64 solutions journalism trainers around the world through our popular Train-the-Trainers program. Eighteen trainers were accredited in 2022. Together, the trainers provided more than 154 training sessions to newsrooms and journalism training organizations in their communities.
Raoul Junior Lorfils of Loop Haiti explains how solutions reporting can help journalists even in countries facing tremendous struggle seek out what's working. Lorfils participated in the SJN's Solutions Journalism Summit.
Jodie Jackson, a longtime champion of solutions journalism and author of “You Are What You Read: Why Changing Your Media Diet Can Change the World,” launched the News Literacy Network in August 2022. A significant part of the organization’s work will be dedicated to solutions journalism, including “in-depth resources about what solutions journalism is and how to find it, with an aim to go into newsrooms in the future to talk about how to create it.”
Radio Rahma, a local station in coastal Kenya broadcasting in Swahili that took part in SJN’s Africa Initiative, reported on a training program that was started at the Mvita sub-county level to fight crime. The success of the program, which teaches technical skills to young people in need of opportunities, and the broad distribution of the solutions-focused story about it, spurred demand throughout Mombasa County. As a result, the county government resolved to roll out the job skills program countywide. Neighboring counties, including Kwale and Kilifi, have now sent delegations to learn more about the project with a view to initiating it in their counties.
This solutions approach has even been shown to rebuild audience trust. That’s because it isn’t about putting a positive spin on stories or omitting the negative parts. It’s about redressing the positive-negative balance and seeking to tell the whole truth, warts and all.
Reuters reporting
The Thomson Reuters Foundation now regularly includes solutions journalism modules in its courses designed for reporters and for NGO chief sustainability officers interested in improving their media skills. Corinne Podger, a trainer for the foundation, said, “We have found that a solutions journalism module helps NGOs improve their understanding of the rigor that journalists need, and helps journalists use NGOs more effectively to inform reporting.”
Solutions Story Tracker®
Our curated, searchable database relaunched as a multilingual global product, featuring solutions journalism in 14 languages. Stories in languages other than English grew by 42 percent, with 124 multilingual stories added, produced by 104 journalists from 60 news outlets in 17 countries.
The Whole Story Blog, Newsletters & Social Media
