5 takeaways:

➀“Solutions journalism” seeks to reframe the way media cover issues. Rather than just highlight society’s problems, stories reported through the lens of solutions journalism show the responses to those problems, said Mikhael Simmonds, mid-Atlantic manager for the Solutions Journalism Network, a nonprofit training organization. The network is driven by the fact that news gives an “excessively dismal view of the world,” leaving audiences feeling powerless, anxious, resentful and wanting to tune out.

➁ But solutions journalism is not merely happy news. “It is rigorous, evidence-based reporting on responses to social problems,” Simmons said. “You look into the response. How is it happening? Who’s doing it? Who does it help? Who does it not help? Where does it succeed? Where does it fail?” Puff pieces need not apply. Solutions stories document efforts to solve problems, including the data that can prove or disprove whether something actually worked.

➂ Shades of gray are OK. Kevin Grant, co-founder and chief content officer at the news outlet The GroundTruth Project, said his organization has found readers aren’t looking for easy answers. They simply want the truth. “We’ve ended up earning the respect of audience members by respecting them in sharing the nuance of the story,” Grant said. “To try to oversimplify ultimately can dumb down what are complicated human problems.”

➃ What solutions journalism isn’t. There are plenty of imposters claiming to be a form of solutions journalism that aren’t. Included are “magic bullet” stories, activism masquerading as news, and hero stories. “Hero worship just says, ‘This person is awesome. They do great things. They went through hardship and they’re awesome,’” Simmons said. “You can do those stories. Nothing is wrong with those stories, but it is not solutions journalism. … If you actually had the same problem the hero had, you would have no idea how it was fixed.”

➄ Examples of solutions are wide and varied and use different story telling techniques. Some employ comparison, such as a piece about how towns in Kenya were learning from towns in Tanzania how to manage too much garbage.  Others are known as “howdunnit” stories, such as an NPR piece on “How A Danish Town Helped Young Muslims Turn Away From ISIS.” Others document bold new ideas: “Refugees adopt energy-saving stoves to save trees.” The Solutions Story Tracker includes more than 10,000 stories from across the globe.

This program was funded by Arnold Ventures. NPF is solely responsible for the content.