Solutions journalism can spur climate behavior, research finds

News articles highlighting potential solutions in line with the harsh reality of climate change, allowing people to take action. As long as stories allow readers to see their own role in the solution, new research by University of Oregon researchers has discovered.

Solutions Journalism is an approach that not only explains a problem, but reports while adhering to the values ​​of core journalism, emphasizing how to solve it. For example, the talk of solutions on harms from climate change may highlight the work of new types of electric vehicles or climate action groups as a way to mitigate some damage.

The intent is to make the news public and make it more useful. Emmanuel Maduneme, a doctoral candidate at UO’s School of Journalism and Communications, said that such empowerment is usually a lack of traditional news coverage.

When the journalist became a researcher in journalism and media psychology, Maduneme said he saw negativity as the basis for the news, “If it bleeding, it leads.”

“The news ecosystem we have is making people feel like they can’t do anything about it, and the problem is best left to the voting booth,” Maduneme said. He spoke. “But you should feel that you can do something about it. You should feel empowered. And in fact, solutions journalism can give you a way to get involved.”

The pressing issues, particularly climate change, produce news reports that focus on severity rather than progress, Maduneme said. Solution narratives can be used to paint a complete picture that stimulates hope and action, and newsrooms like the Climate Solutions section of the Washington Post are increasingly using that power.

But he said that whether solutions journalism works and how it encourages people to change their behavior is not understood by people, particularly in the context of the climate crisis. Maduneme collaborated with Alex Segrè Cohen, an assistant professor of science and risk communication in the Journalism and Communication School, to conduct a research experiment to investigate the effectiveness of solution-focused messaging compared to problem-oriented journalism. did.

The results of their research have recently been published in a journal environment and behavioral paper.

Two researchers have asked over 400 American adults to read a short news article about how floods exacerbated by climate change are affecting Connecticut communities. Half of the study participants read a version of the story highlighting the success of the new flood control system. The other half read stories where possible solutions were stripped.

Subsequently, participants were asked how the story felt, their confidence in collective efforts on climate change, and whether they intend to participate in environmental promotion actions such as donations to environmental organizations. I answered.

Maduneme and Segrè Cohen found that those who read solution-oriented stories tend to feel more positive than those who read traditional news versions. These positive emotions also give them a greater sense of collective effectiveness, and more participants try to take action.

In other words, emphasizing solutions has driven people to be positive, empowered and involved in efforts to solve problems. That’s the power of a call to action, Segre Cohen said.

“Many of these doomed stories end up almost in a cliffhanger,” she said. “I don’t know you, but whenever I read a book, watch a movie, or there’s a cliffhanger, I don’t feel happy about it. So by offering a resolution, I can’t believe what you can do. There is a sense and applies to your life.”

But that is the story of the solution frame alone and does not mean that people will engage in environmental environmental practices. In certain cases, researchers found that solutions journalism led to inaction. It may be because reading the story of someone fixing something can lead people to conclude that the problem is handled and called the self-satisfaction effect.

They said that by increasing the relevance of audiences both personally and locally, reporters can increase the likelihood that solution-oriented climate narratives lead to action rather than self-satisfaction.

“Good solutions journalism always leaves more room for action,” Madumme said.

Researchers warned that not every story should focus on solutions, and that solution journalism is not necessarily synonymous with positive news. Maduneme said there is a place for pleasant stories, but Solutions Journalism adopts more of a “glass half-empty” approach by accurately reporting both the severity and possible corrections to the threat. It’s there.

“There’s no solution that’s fine, so if you don’t do a good job explaining the problem, you can’t talk about the solution,” he said.

As participants in this study were from the US, Madunmeme is interested in expanding the work to other countries and comparing the outcomes of individualist and collectivist cultures.

In today’s digital age, people don’t just consume news, they live in it, Maduneme said. He explained that humans are naturally used to threats, but that also means we are looking for opportunities for solutions. He said Solutions Journalism is one tool in a kit of communicators to tell accurate, comprehensive, hopeful stories about issues like climate change.

“The greatest discovery of this work is that emotions are powerful,” Maduneme said. “People feel emotions when they are involved in the news, so why not take advantage of them forever?”