Impact Stories

As a social justice journalist with over 25 years in the news industry, Liza Ramrayka was an early adopter of solutions journalism (at The Guardian UK) and has built a career focused on applying this reporting approach. As part of her reporting as an SJN 2023-24 HEAL Fellow, she organized a town hall meeting on teen mental health that was hosted by KALW, a Bay Area-based public radio station. She recently produced a solutions-based series on Asian American, Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander seniors and mental health in the Bay Area for KALW, supported by the USC Annenberg Center for Health Journalism. Liza has delivered solutions journalism training based on her experience to a wide range of organizations, including San Francisco State University, Bay Area high schools and KALW. Liza said: “My social justice reporting has always been about what is working and how these solutions can be scaled up or replicated for greater impact, whether that’s across a state, a nation or globally. As news outlets and media consumption evolve, evidence-based solutions stories represent empowering and hopeful journalism that we desperately need right now.”

Stony Brook University launched a Master’s in Journalism program with a strong emphasis on solutions and community-driven journalism in the fall of 2022. Solutions journalism is a required course as part of the program, during which students learn the practice’s framework, analyze story examples, review existing toolkits and produce a long-form piece of reporting. Course conveners added multimedia stories and iterated on the curriculum based on students’ requests and needs. Students have also contributed to developing materials to teach SoJo modules in the undergraduate journalism program. Within a year of graduating, three of the program’s graduates were hired in newsrooms to aid in solutions-focused reporting. Educators from journalism schools across the country came to learn about adopting solutions journalism curricula during the 2024 Solutions Journalism Educators Academy hosted by Stony Brook.

Sentient, a nonprofit news outlet covering issues and solutions around factory farms, encouraged staff reporter Grace Hussain to apply for SJN’s 2024 Climate Fellowship. Through Grace’s training, Sentient aimed to bring more solutions journalism to its newsroom. After reporting some strong solutions stories, Grace enjoyed the approach to storytelling so much, she pitched a solutions position to the editor of Sentient. The editor approved, recognizing that a full-time solutions reporting role aligned with both Sentient’s needs and Grace’s values. Grace said, “I'm thrilled to have been awarded the fellowship and built new skills in solutions reporting — especially in regard to complicating the narrative and leveraging the framework to highlight the work being done by frontline communities.”

An article on local air conditioning mandates by Climate Solutions Fellow Ysabelle Kempe became one of the most-read stories of 2024 for Smart Cities Dive (SCD), with a few thousand page views. SCD shared the article in its Daily Dive newsletter and posted it on the website, as well as on LinkedIn and Facebook pages. Kempe says, “Our audience is local government leaders in the U.S., and I believe one of the reasons for this story’s popularity is that local leaders want to know what is working in other communities so they can apply the learnings to their jurisdictions.” The story was republished by the Public News Service and shared on X by NGOs and by DMV Climate Partners, which is a group of government partners (in the District of Columbia, Maryland and Northern Virginia). The local leaders in the story reached out to Kempe, commending her for the accurate reporting on the policies.

LiCAS News, the Archdiocese of Bangkok’s English-language news outlet, where Peter Monthienvichienchai, Ph.D. serves as editorial director, has adopted solutions journalism to break down the distance between reporters and subjects. Monthienvichienchai learned about the solutions journalism approach from a 2021 journalism workshop hosted by SIGNIS, the World Catholic Association for Communication, and led by accredited trainer Kavita Chandran. LiCAS' practice was reinforced through the Catholic Media Conference in Baltimore in 2023, which had a session on faith-based solutions journalism. At the 2024 National Catholic Social Communications Convention in the Philippines, Monthienvichienchai, serving as the secretary general of SIGNIS, called for improved “communion” with people through genuine human connection. He identified solutions journalism as an important storytelling tool to meet this goal. Monthienvichienchai says solutions journalism “allows us to tell stories of sacrifice and dedication by missionaries around Asia without ‘preaching’ or writing PR releases.” He adds, “Most importantly, it makes the story useful beyond Catholic readership.” LiCAS News is featured in the Solutions Story Tracker, and distributes solutions reporting through its Spotlight series.

Ethan Brown, founder and host of the award-winning climate comedy podcast “The Sweaty Penguin,” has been hired as the journalism program consultant at the University of Rhode Island’s Metcalf Institute. Ethan says: “My motivation to join Metcalf came in part from my experience co-facilitating the Train-the-Trainers sessions through SJN’s Climate Cohort in April 2024, and subsequently training The Deerfield Scroll on SoJo. I really enjoyed being able to have a larger impact than just my own work, helping other journalists cover climate solutions.” At Metcalf, he is leading the new Climate and Environmental Science Fellowship for Local Journalism, which includes a training in science-supported solutions journalism, drawing on insights he learned as a solutions journalism writer and SJN trainer.