How to Build "Rapid Response" Solutions Journalism
Most journalism analyses explore what went wrong with coverage of an issue, situation or group. That’s not what Deborah Douglas did. Instead, she explored what went well and created “The Fire Next Time,” a look at how local journalists responded to ICE’s Operation Midway Blitz in Chicago and a blueprint for how to respond to such incidents.
Douglas, the director of the Medill Solutions Journalism Hub at Northwestern University, calls this a “solutions journalism rapid response kit,” and it is. It’s also a look at a media ecosystem springing into action in ways both healthy and helpful to deliver news that goes beyond just arrest totals and official quotes and into information people can act on.
Its primary achievement, though, might be this: It’s moving. The combination of organic community insights, reflection on best practices and the model of a path through incredibly difficult circumstances represents the best of what journalism can be. It was born of the U.S., but it is not only for the U.S. It is clear and encouraging, sober yet hopeful — qualities that are great companions during a walk along an uncertain path.
