Solutions journalism and the politically awkward question of leadership

Tailored for an increasingly distracted and pessimistic audience, solutions journalism offers a democratic reorientation of journalism towards solutions, alternatives and success stories. Its proponents define the practice as “rigorous and compelling reporting about responses to social problems” (Bansal and Martin, 2015, p. 2). It seeks to balance crime and corruption reporting with an optimistic account of the future by showcasing transformative innovations and innovators. However, unlike preceding reform movements, solutions journalism has developed rapidly as a practice without the academic attention and controversy that surrounded public journalism in the 1990s. This presentation attends to this significant movement in reporting and argues that its success is a product of a more nuanced appreciation of the value of leadership and specialisation than its public journalism forebears. Drawing upon doctoral research, this paper presents a democratic theory of leadership in the ‘governmental field’ and draws out some recommendations for the movement going forward.