Solutions Journalism is the way forward for Africa

As journalists, we must hold power to account, and share stories that matter to those within society. We interview, write and publish people’s stories for a living. But sometimes that isn’t enough when we are required to do more to make a real difference.

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In July, we hosted a Twitter conversation on Reporting violence against women and girls in Nigeria. We had numerous speakers and experts in the media industry join us to share their opinions, best practices, and solutions on the matter.

One of them was Samson Folarin, an investigative reporter from Metro Desk in Nigeria. He passionately explained the key to impactful reporting that achieves real results in gendered issues: “The media plays a critical role in public enlightenment, it is not just about writing a story or satisfying your audience, as a journalist and a reporter we have to be invested and passionate about the issues we talk about.”

He adds: “We have to make sure matters do not get swept under the carpet and when it goes to court, we cannot stop there.”

This is what solution-seeking journalism is about.

Understanding solutions journalism

Defined as “rigorous and compelling news reporting about responses to social problems” by Medium, it seeks to be journalism that drives progress in society.

A report by the Reuters Institute on ‘News Avoidance’ explained how readers might avoid interacting with news content in the fear that consuming it will negatively affect their mood and can cause them to feel unable to make a difference.

Journalist Laura Oliver reported on how solutions journalism has worked in southern regions of the world by offering a positive but realistic perspective of the progress countries, people and communities can make.

One of the organisations that have inspired this global shift in journalism is also The Solutions Journalism Network. Founded by Tina Rosenberg and David Bornstein based on filling a gap within news reporting, the non-profit organisation trains journalists on how to produce solutions-based stories. Its core mission is to give readers everywhere, access to the news which helps them envision and achieve a more equitable and sustainable world.

Already, in Africa, there is a mutual desire of seeing positive change whether it is in the economic standing of some countries or the gender disparities happening across different industries like the media. There is a lot of progress that we all want to see, but how many news organisations reporting on serious issues are taking an approach centred on solution-based reporting?

In the last few years, solutions journalism has become a new and prominent topic of discussion that we are yet to see being implemented within newsrooms in Africa.

Journalists, no matter their gender need to be trained in solution-seeking and gender-sensitive reporting. As both fields are lacking within the rooms of media houses, stories that negate and perpetuate the mistreatment, oppression and discrimination of women are still being published. Particularly in cases of GBV and sexual assault, women are wrongfully portrayed as the ones to blame.

On behalf of UNESCO, Chindu Sreedharan and Einar ThorsenIssues conducted a report last year on the challenges involved in Sexual Violence news reports. The two researchers discovered how 2.2 per cent of daily news reports featured victim blaming and very rarely` gave a voice to the victim.

In the same report, 78 per cent of journalists felt responsible for the sexual harassment case in terms of making a difference but less than seven per cent of the news stories focused on solutions.

To stop these challenges from arising in sensitive-news reporting, we as journalists need to seek the solutions necessary to take action for the causes we are passionate about.

Actions for journalists and editors

One of the steps reporters can make when covering gendered news stories, is to be driven, investigators. Ones who take the initiative to ask the hard questions and dig deeper. The people we interview cannot only end with the victims or the activists fighting for change but also those in the industry that hold power. As they can start implementing change, we need to challenge them to it so a domino effect of solutions can follow.

In media newsrooms, there needs to be space for more solution-orientated news. Editors and directors need to share the same drive as their reporters, in seeing positive change happen within the communities they are serving.

To add to this, a united understanding of social responsibility as a critical part of journalism and the role we play as media professionals in society, need to be prominent.

We can uplift, empower, and inspire our audiences with the news they read. A balance of news reporting on the concerning matters happening across Africa as well as the progress that has been made and is yet to come is necessary to the way we affect our readers mentally.

By building a culture of change, we can positively influence the way people perceive the spaces they occupy daily. Whether it is in the newsroom or elsewhere, journalists and others in their industries can cultivate progress for a better and more progressive society to be achieved.

This article is part of the African Women in Media (AWIM) Graduate Trainee Programme in collaboration with Fojo Media Institute