Solutions journalism training

“When people have low efficacy, anxiety-inducing messages lead to defensiveness, fear, helplessness, and a desire to tune out”.
David Bornstein, co-founder of the Solutions Journalism Network.

My first acquaintance with Solutions Journalism came through journalism training and I saw how the participants’ eyes lighted up by the idea of it. It was clear to me from the beginning that the constructive journalism method would not only be a solution to news fatigue among our audiences, but it would also benefit the practitioners of journalism, freelancers, reporters, editors, newsroom managers, and presenters.

Solutions Journalism is rigorous and compelling reporting about responses to social problems, which includes these key elements:

Response – focuses on a response to a social problem — and on how that response has worked, or why it hasn’t.
Insights – shows what can be learned from a response and why it matters to a newsroom’s audience.
Evidence – provides data or qualitative results that indicate effectiveness (or lack thereof).
Limitations – places responses in context; doesn’t shy away from revealing shortcomings.

Options

Solutions Journalism – introduction

An introduction to the four pillars of Solutions Journalism. After the introduction, you will have a clear understanding of what Solutions Journalism is and what it is not. With multiple examples from journalists and newsrooms from around the world who already apply the method.

Duration: 1 hour (online) | 1,5 hours (in-person)

Solutions journalism – workshop

For people who have been introduced to Solutions Journalism already, this workshop creates a deeper understanding by using several exercises and assignments. After completion, you will feel confident and enthusiastic to apply Solutions Journalism in your own work. Optional: mentoring.

Duration: 1 day (online) | 1-2 days (in-person)

Complicating the narratives

An introduction to the journalistic practice of Complicating (or Deepening) the Narrative that draws from the experience of experts in conflict mediation. The strategies and techniques help journalists tell richer and fuller stories about divisive issues – stories that illuminate and provide clarity and understanding, not further division.

Duration: 1,5 hours (online) | 2 hours in-person

Mentoring

If you or your newsroom already use Solutions Journalism in your work but you like an extra pair of eyes and honest, constructive feedback, you might want to consider mentoring. As a mentor, I guide you in the whole process of producing a Solutions Journalism story, from the initial idea to the social media strategy.

Duration: per 30 – 60 minutes, frequency up to the mentee.

Introduction to Solutions Journalism

In 50-60 slides with time for questions and discussions, the introduction to Solutions Journalism gave the newsroom of RTL in Hilversum, The Netherlands, a clear idea of what the method entails. In this case, the presentation was tailored towards climate change reporting in collaboration with Imagine2050. Is Solutions Journalism activism (no), and can it be done in a 3 minutes video (yes), were some of the questions asked.

Solutions journalism, well-being, and decoloniality

Working on a Solutions Journalism story often makes the journalist feel better about her or himself as well. Nobody wants to only focus on what is going wrong in this world. And by focusing on responses to problems, characters in the story go from being victims to being powerful actors. There are common threads between Solutions Journalism, well-being and inclusion/decoloniality. In the Solutions Journalism retreat, all these aspects come together.

Case Studies

Testimonials

“Sanne has been our mentor through the Solutions Journalism Accelerator by the European Journalism Centre and the Solutions Journalism Network. She’s been incredibly supportive and encouraging while providing useful challenges to help us develop and progress in our work. She also came up with some really great ideas that we implemented. Sanne’s advice on solutions journalism has been invaluable, and she’s really helped me think through how to write and commission articles giving really useful constructive feedback at every stage of the process. Sanne has gone out of her way to help connect us with people and ideas that have enriched our work.”
Amy Hall – co-editor at New Internationalist.

“The mentoring gave us a lot of valuable experience as we were guided on how to organise the data that we gathered from the interviews by making comparisons with other countries, exploring other angles of the features and analysing the statistics that we received from authorities.” – Rohani Ibrahim

“This mentoring process provided me with a good skill of applying solution journalism under the guidance of Sanne. Before this, I only subscribed to the newsletters from Solution Journalism Network and never thought that would be applying that to my stories. Thank you, Sanne for helping us produce a series of good stories, and applying Solution Journalism in our writings.” – Soon Li Wei

Rohani and Li Wei are Malaysian journalists who received mentoring as part of a Thomson Reuters Foundation training about modern slavery and human trafficking in 2023.