vol. 4 issue 9
Greetings,
When I started this publication, it was partially informed by a burgeoning movement called “solutions journalism.” I’d first heard about it in 2016 after being invited to a National Press Foundation seminar. The featured speakers included a couple of journos who’d been using their reporting to frame issues so that it was clear how attempts to address things like recidivism weren’t working and why, and most importantly, what could be done instead.
A tipping point had been reached. The tension reporters so often feel when they are privy to real problems but bound by a professional “code” not to show partiality towards a solution had been overcome by the sense that it was pointless to continue feeling helpless after filing yet another story about corruption and societal ills while knowing that just telling people it was happening was not enough.
It was time for action. Not political action. Citizen’s action, which is not to be confused with Citizens United, a bogus name that has nothing to do with citizenship and everything to do with dark money laundering by many of the same people who directly profit from our government’s breakdown.
Let me put this another way: solutions journalism arose from the realization that because our government has largely failed us, and corporations, where the bulk of power in this country now resides, on the whole don’t give a damn, solving problems falls to the rest of us.
And no matter what you might think of journalists, they, we, are people too. We do care, and we often have far more connections and resources than the general public, the very public most affected by the failure surrounding us all. So, let’s put them to use in the most effective way called for by these times in which we live.
