Our colleagues at FGH’s Health Media Insights newsletter are highlighting a trend in the news industry called “solutions journalism,” which aims to reorient coverage toward problem-solving without sacrificing journalistic rigor. Here’s what you need to know: 

• Solutions journalism examines a solution to a social problem (often from a local, community perspective), assesses the solution’s progress and limitations, and raises opportunities for the solution to scale. This recent piece in NBC News, which studies Denver’s approach to supporting mentally ill individuals in crisis, is a strong example.
  
• Media outlets’ approach to solutions journalism varies. Some publishers treat it as a separate vertical, as The Guardian does with The Upside, while other outlets have designated solutions journalism as a reporter’s beat, as the Arizona Daily Star did recently with Caitlin Schmidt. 

Here are some tips for earning a place in a solutions journalism piece: 

• To start, it can be helpful to ask yourself a few questions: What local or small-scale solutions has my organization created? How successful have we been, and where is there still more to do? How can other organizations and locales replicate our success?
  
• Because solutions journalism often focuses on public policy, another way to contribute is to provide data or frontline perspective that can help journalists analyze the success of government initiatives.  

Want to learn more? You can read additional examples of solutions-oriented reporting aggregated by the Solutions Journalism Network, which partners with newsrooms around the world to train reporters on this approach to journalism.

To subscribe to the Health Media Insights newsletter, email health@fgh.com.