Jean Friedman-Rudovsky, the project editor for the recently changed Reentry Project, came to our class Tuesday afternoon to talk about the ins and outs of solutions journalism reporting. We learned about the correct ways to report solutions stories with examples of what to do and what not to do.

One of the most interesting things Jean talked about was the idea of objectivity in reporting and how really the entire process of journalism is filled with subjective decisions from start to finish. That’s an aspect of reporting and editing that I hadn’t really thought about, despite writing and editing stories on a weekly basis. She also talked about community engagement, which is something not many people in journalism think about. By stressing that reporting on a story and engagement doesn’t finish once you’ve written a story, newsroom can work to dispel the stereotype that journalists parachute into communities, write about problems and leave for the next community.

What is a solution? What is evidence?

When it comes to solutions journalism, a solution isn’t necessarily something that’s working to solve a problem. There’s no such thing as a complete fix to societal issues because of how complicated and nuanced they are. Instead, solutions journalism focuses on any systematic response to a problem. This means individuals aren’t really the story — but groups of people and policy makers are.

In order for journalists to seriously consider writing about a solution, there needs to be evidence. That rules out anything that’s still in the idea stage of development, because there’s no evidence to back up its success or failure. Evidence is the most important thing you can look for in solutions journalism because it provides those hard facts for readers to identify that the story we’ve produced isn’t PR or a fluff piece. It’s real journalism that examines every side to the story — the good and the bad.

What’s an example of an evidence-based solution to an addiction-related issue?

When it comes to addiction-related issues, there are a lot of failed or problematic solutions. But there are also successful ones, like safe injection sites. Vox reported on how this solution could work — because the research behind it provided evidence.