What Solutions Journalism Isn’t (the “Impostors”)

This is an important section to lead with, because students (and even professionals) have misconceptions about what solutions journalism is. Addressing the issue early in the semester (or module) can help clear up confusion sooner rather than later, and provides a shared vocabulary for distinguishing solutions journalism from other stories. Also, knowing what solutions journalism isn’t helps clarify what it is. 

These are the seven most frequent types of impostors: 

• Hero worship: Stories that celebrate or glorify individuals for what they did, rather than explaining how something was achieved. 
• Silver bullet: Stories that often revolve around innovation and money, claiming that something has been a “lifesaver.”
• Favor for a friend: Thinly veiled PR stories in which the sole or predominant voice is that of the organization being profiled. 
• Punditry: Proposes solutions that don’t exist or are untested (as opposed to opinion journalism, which can explore solutions if it contains real reporting).
• Instant activist: Advocacy stories that make a case for a response to a problem and ask audiences to donate to support it. 
• Heartwarmer: Feel-good stories about generous acts.
• Afterthought: Problem-focused stories that briefly mention efforts to address the issue toward the end, but without going into any detail. 
   

How to teach this: It can be helpful to share a slide deck of side-by-side comparisons of impostors and solutions stories, like this one, and then look at some real examples of impostor stories.

Tip: Ask your students to identify missing pillars in impostor stories and suggest ways the stories could be revised to become solutions stories. What additional reporting and interviews could provide the missing pillars and raise the stories to the level of solutions journalism?

How to steer clear of creating impostor stories

Students often get overexcited and invested in the response they are covering, leading them to overhype the evidence or underplay the limitations. They can also lapse into a profile of the individual or organization implementing a response instead of telling the story of the response itself. Here are some suggestions for helping them keep their stories solutions-focused and not letting them verge on becoming impostors.

• Watch your words. Beware of terms like “game-changer,” “miracle,” “lifesaver” and even, in many cases, “solution.”
• Stick to the evidence. Document what is happening or happened. Don’t try to predict the future. 
• Focus on the work. The specific group or organization that’s carrying it out is simply the narrative focus through which you can tell the story. 
• Provide context. If there are other, similar responses, mention those, even if you mostly focus on the one this story is about.  
• Report on what’s not working, too. Every response has limitations — things it can’t achieve, or hasn’t yet. Document those, too. 
   

How to teach this: Have a class discussion about the line between journalism (reporting on something) and advocacy (celebrating something). Then divide students into groups to write a paragraph about a response that advocates for it, using as many hype words as they can. Swap paragraphs between groups and have each group fix another’s paragraph to make it journalistic.

Tip: Students are sometimes reluctant to ask sources about limitations. Sometimes they just need a friendly way to ask, such as “What do you wish to achieve that you haven’t yet been able to?” and following up with, “Why?” Practice asking questions in class that get at all the pillars.