Is Journalism About Finding Solutions?

Is Journalism About Finding Solutions?

Ashutosh Mishra

Last fortnight I attended a workshop where one of the sessions focussed on solutions journalism. The concept is not entirely new but in the past it did not receive the kind of attention it is getting now. Simply put solutions journalism is about offering or suggesting solutions to problems instead of just flagging them which is generally the case with conventional reporting.

Even investigative reports and issue-based features most of the time fail to highlight possible solutions. This is basically because of two reasons—one the general belief among journalists that their job is to identify and explain problems, not to solve them, and the other that newspapers or other media platforms, given their limitations, cannot don the role of crusaders. With few exceptions, it is this perception which informs the approach of media-persons to the issues they take up.

There is also another view, to which I also subscribe, that can effectively limit the role of the media in solving problems. Having been a print medium journalist for the best part of my career I am of firm belief that newspapers, except when they go into the campaign mode, can never tell the whole truth about anything.

They are circumscribed by their inherent limitations. Newspapers are not research journals and even when writing features or leaders on the editorial pages one has to keep the world limit in mind. Under normal circumstances the maximum that a newspaper can do to highlight an important issue is to run a series but even that may not suffice to give the reader a holistic view of the subject under discussion. So nothing that appears in a newspaper should be accepted as the gospel truth. The same can be said of other media platforms including TV and websites as well. So can these media platforms actually help solve problems?

Then answer is an emphatic Yes. My argument is that a reporter becomes part of the solution the moment he or she raises a problem. That, in fact, is the first step towards finding a solution. But it is only the first step. One has to move further if one is really keen on finding a solution or at least indicating a possible one. This is what solutions journalism is all about. It looks at an issue from several angles, highlighting not only the problem but also the factors preventing its resolution. It could be a legal lacuna, a cussed government official or the lack of collective will on the part of people facing it.

This kind of journalism believes in 360 degree reporting and delving into the root cause of problems while taking into account popular voices. It is not necessarily feel-good reporting which more often than not looks at only brighter side of things and remains prone to superficial presentation of issues. Instead it is based on painstakingly collected facts and their careful analysis.

This can help make response to problems effective. Can this then be categorized as campaign journalism? You can brand it as such if you so desire but only in the positive sense.