It changes our brains, making us feel hope rather than despair.

It changes society, inspiring more people to make positive changes.

So let’s dive into what solutions journalism actually is and why it is so important.

Traditionally, the news has been built on a simple logic: if all the trains run on time, there’s no story. The journalist’s role was to dig into what’s broken, with investigative reporting celebrated as the purest form of journalism. That watchdog work remains essential. But focusing only on the negative overlooks something just as important: people are constantly trying to fix things. Humans are problem-solvers by nature.

Solutions journalism doesn’t shy away from the problems. It’s not fluffy “good news,” nor is it about elevating heroes or glossing over systemic issues. It requires the same scrutiny as traditional reporting and sometimes an even deeper awareness of what isn’t working. The difference is that the reporting doesn’t stop at failure—it goes further to examine attempts to address the problem, showing what’s working, what isn’t, and what can be learned.

The idea has been around for decades. In 2003, the French NGO Reporters d’Espoirs (Reporters of Hope) was founded to connect journalists interested in solutions-based news. A decade later, the Solutions Journalism Network was launched in the United States, helping newsrooms embed solutions reporting into their everyday practice.

To do solutions journalism well, there are four basic rules to follow.

1. Look for evidence
   A solutions story should be as rigorous as any investigation. That means showing proof that a response is working (or not). Go beyond the marketing jargon, ask probing questions, and find out the limitations, as well as who benefits and who doesn’t, from a certain solution.
   
2. Focus on how, not just what
   The heart of a solutions story is explaining how an approach works. What steps were taken? What made the difference? What can others learn or apply? Framing a response this way gives readers a clearer understanding and teaches them more about finding solutions that work.
3. Rebalance the perspective
   The news often magnifies rare but dramatic events, like plane crashes. Solutions journalism helps correct that distortion by placing problems in context. This doesn’t mean covering up the bad stuff, but conveying an accurate sense of how big a problem it is and how it has evolved over time.
4. Avoid “happiness journalism”
   A solutions story is not a feel-good puff piece. It should never whitewash structural causes or suggest that one bright spot means a problem is solved. Strong solutions journalism includes in-depth coverage of the problems, critical voices, and a realistic assessment of the impact.

Solutions journalism solves many of the problems of traditional news media. Here are some of the ways it can provide more balance.

Bad news sticks in our minds more than good news, thanks to a psychological mechanism called negativity bias. We evolved to pay more attention to threats than to positive or neutral events. When it comes to survival, it is better to remember which berries are poisonous than to remember the recipe for your grandad’s blueberry pie.

Except in today’s world of 24/7 media, this negativity bias actually distorts how we see the world, especially when combined with what psychologists call the availability heuristic—our tendency to judge how common something is based on how easily examples come to mind.

One example is air travel. When a plane crashes, it dominates the headlines. The images are harrowing and likely to stick in your head long after. Despite the fact that crashes are extremely rare, seeing this coverage may make you feel unduly nervous about flying. In reality, in 2023, there was just one fatal crash across 32 million flights, a risk so low that a passenger would need to fly daily for 103 239 years to experience it. By contrast, car crashes kill 1.19 million people every year, but because they are less dramatic, they rarely make the news. Which means you are far more likely to fear flying than driving.

In the same way, media coverage of social issues can mask the progress happening on a global scale. Extreme poverty has fallen from over a third of the world’s population in 1990 to under 10 percent today. Literacy has risen to more than 86 percent worldwide, and among young people, it is above 90 percent. Rates of child marriage are declining too: in the past decade alone, some 25 million child marriages have been prevented.

And of course, it is still not good enough. It won’t be until there is no child marriage, no one under the poverty line. But it is important to understand issues in context, rather than having a negativity bias that makes it feel like everything is getting worse and that there is nothing we can do about it.

Solutions journalism helps rebalance this picture. By reporting not just on crises but also on responses, it gives audiences a fuller understanding of reality. If every disaster story also showed how communities are rebuilding, or every piece on poverty included examples of what has worked elsewhere, readers would build mental libraries of solutions alongside their memories of problems. Over time, constructive examples can become just as “available” in our minds as disasters.

If you have ever been stuck scrolling through depressing news stories, you’ll know that mounting sense of dread that starts in the pit of your stomach and leaves you feeling hopeless. There is a word for this habit: “doomscrolling.” It is a remnant of our survival instinct—we’re staring at this little screen, getting all the information we can about the threats we have to face. Except it isn’t useful. It leaves us feeling depressed and debilitated.

Studies show that consuming a steady diet of negative headlines is linked to higher levels of stress, anxiety, and poor sleep. A 2022 survey published in Health Communication found that people who reported frequent doomscrolling had significantly higher levels of anxiety and depression symptoms than those who didn’t. Reading solutions journalism has the opposite effect—it is linked to a better mood. A 2023 systematic review of nineteen studies of solutions-focused reporting found consistent emotional outcomes for audiences: people exposed to solutions stories reported greater hope, less despair, and more positive affect.

On a personal level, reading stories that focus on solutions is much better for our mental well-being than reading only about what’s wrong with the world. But the impact goes further than just our mood. Those feelings of hope are more likely to spur us into action than the feelings of doom.

A study from the Center for Media Engagement tested how audiences responded to solutions framing across several issues. With a sample of around 755 participants, they found that solutions stories increased reader engagement, usefulness, and thoughtfulness. Participants were more likely to say they wanted to discuss the story and share it with others.

Hope is not passive. When people see credible evidence that change is possible, they’re more likely to believe their actions matter. And they are more likely to take action.

At TrooRa, we are firm believers that better media can lead to a better world. We don’t shy away from important issues, whether it be climate change, inequality, or systemic injustices. But we dedicate equal energy to the solutions, to the people leading the charge to make the world a better place.

All too often, these changes are led by members of marginalized groups. Showcasing their work serves not only to illustrate the solutions that exist but also to challenge the narratives that reduce marginalized people to their struggles.

Of course, we’re working against a current. Negative news sells. A 2023 study in Nature Human Behaviour analyzed millions of headlines and found that negative words boosted click-through rates, while positive ones actually decreased them. Algorithms reward what gets the most engagement, which means outrage, fear, and shock rise to the top of our feeds. That’s why most news outlets lean into negativity.

Solutions journalism has to make a different bet. It asks editors to take a longer view: to trust that audiences want more than fear and despair. And it asks something of readers too: to make a conscious choice. To seek out journalism that doesn’t just leave us drained, but helps us understand what’s possible.

And inspires us to take action.