How CBS has trained reporters to deliver solutions journalism, with the help of the Solutions Journalism Network. (Image: Associated Press Photo/Ted Shaffrey, File)
CBS News Effort Shows Growth In Solutions Journalism To Combat Bad News Fatigue
A Colorado school is creating a “zen den” for troubled students. A soccer coach in Pittsburgh goes out of her way to relieve pressure on players. A Chicago community group equips a van for mobile mental health help, and a Los Angeles school trains students to counsel peers.
Each effort to tackle youth mental health issues has been featured on a local CBS newscast recently, examples of a movement toward “solutions journalism.”
The idea is that reporters need to be more than the bearer of bad news.
“We want to look past the who, what, where and why to asking ‘how can we help?’” said Wendy McMahon, co-president of CBS News and the CBS Television Stations. “How can we help make our communities better places to live? That’s the aspiration.”
CBS has trained news leaders in solutions journalism at the 14 local stations it owns, in big markets like New York, Los Angeles and Chicago, and opened an “innovation lab” for them to work together on stories.
The network works with the Solutions Journalism Network, an organization formed in 2013 by two former New York Times reporters, David Bornstein and Tina Rosenberg, and entrepreneur Courtney Martin. The Times reporters wrote a column called “Fixes” that was often popular despite dealing with tough, dry subjects like foster care, homelessness or childhood trauma.
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Coverage of calamity — shootings, fires, accidents — is such a staple that the phrase, “if it bleeds, it leads,” was popularized for local TV news. But that’s a downer at a time news outlets don’t need another excuse for consumers to leave. Research picks up on people who feel their community isn’t covered unless something bad happens, McMahon said.
That’s why the CBS stations emphasize finding people and organizations trying to tackle problems.
Among other stories that reflect that focus: training resource officers in Georgia to prevent the arrest of children in schools; efforts in New York, Denver and Sacramento to speed up the resolution of criminal cases; a California county’s solution to stop wage theft in restaurants; a new sea wall being constructed in New York to deal with climate change.
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