Impact Stories

The 7th Trilateral Journalist Exchange Program organized by the Trilateral Cooperation Secretariat (TCS), an intergovernmental foreign relations organization in East Asia, focused on solutions journalism as a means to cope with problem-centered reporting in the region. Twelve journalists from large news organizations in South Korea, China and Japan attended the event, for which SJN was a consultant.

Executives from Graham Media Group say their new digital solutions journalism program, called Solutionaries, has already attracted more than a million views on YouTube. The program was inspired by solutions journalism training that SJN provided to Graham’s seven TV stations and its national desk. Solutionaries features reports from each of Graham’s newsrooms. In November 2022, station WKMG serving Olrlando, Florida, started including a full half hour broadcast of “Solutionaries” every Tuesday.

After the Foundation for Investigative Journalism published a solutions journalism article titled “Soilless Farming to the Rescue. How to Boost Agriculture Without Hurting Forests,” one of the people featured in the story, Adebowale Onafowora, saw a surge in inquiries about hydroponic growing techniques. People seeking more information cited the story as the reason they reached out, according to Abdullah Tijani, who wrote the article.

Nicole Dahmen, a professor at the University of Oregon’s School of Journalism and Communication, was named the Scripps Howard 2021 Teacher of the Year. This national award recognizes a full-time faculty member teaching in a journalism and mass communication program. Dahmen is one of the leaders of the Catalyst Project, which created the first solutions journalism academy for educators in 2018. She also teaches a stand-alone course in solutions journalism.

Mpindi Abaas, a 2020 Solutions Journalism Network LEDE Fellow and longtime proponent of solutions journalism, launched Solutions Now Africa, a solutions-focused newsroom based in Uganda, run by seven alumni of the Media Challenge Fellowship Program. The newsroom is Africa’s first solutions journalism newsroom, producing stories on innovations, models and systems that are working around the continent. The newsroom also is using solutions stories to challenge negative narratives about Africa.

A solutions story about how Houston moved an unprecedented number of people experiencing homelessness into their own homes was the most-read story of the day in The Times, and is now one of the most read ever. It generated more than 3,000 responses to an associated callout, and also has been shared from The Times’ Instagram account more than any other story. The story is part of The Times’ Headway project, and Headway staff members say that city leaders across the country also responded positively to the coverage.