In Louisville, Ky., soon after the killing of George Floyd sparked protest cries of “defund the police” in 2020, the Gray-owned NBC affiliate WAVE reported how one Kentucky police department hired a social worker instead of an additional officer, which saved the town money and helped the agency serve its community in new ways.
When the CDC announced a rise in STD transmission in 2021, a Graham national team produced a story about ways people can help stop the spread. Last year in Austin, Texas, a few weeks after the Uvalde school shooting tragedy, Nexstar-owned KXAN profiled a school training program launched in Colorado to prevent mass shootings. And when the calendar flipped to 2023, Hearst’s Chief National Consumer Correspondent Jeff Rossen explained the “50-30-20” rule for better personal budgeting in the new year.
The through line between these otherwise disparate stories — from local newscasts and national broadcasts of various groups, appearing on their digital and linear platforms and running across topical and tonal spectrums — is that they are part of an emerging TV news trend. In “solutions journalism,” reporters don’t simply deliver the news. They help solve everyday problems their viewers face.
“It’s the antidote to ‘if it bleeds it leads,’” says David Lieberman, associate professor of professional practice in media management at The New School. When consumers watch solutions journalism, he says, they think to themselves, “This is news I can use,” and it provides