“PBS NewsHour”
William Brangham,
“PBS NewsHour”
Journalists often get accused of publishing negative stories and are attacked for shining light on corruption, but journalism can also be used to highlight people with bright ideas to solve global issues.
Solutions journalism focuses on individuals’ responses to broad problems, focusing not just on what is broken but also how it can be fixed.
“PBS NewsHour,” with headquarters in Arlington, Va., features packages related to STEM and the environment. From 2018-2019, reporter William Brangham produced a series of packages digging deep into solutions for environmental challenges in Antarctica. He did another on the world’s dwindling bee population.
Student reporters working with the PBS NewsHour Student Reporting Labs also used a solutions-journalism model to produce the series “Engineering Our World,” available on the Student Reporting Labs website. See summaries of these stories below.
We encourage journalism staffs to use the links and lessons posted at the convention website to analyze solutions journalism and how it might be useful to their community.
Bio: William Brangham
Bees
The world’s dwindling bee population could have catastrophic health and economic consequences for the human population. Brangham brings to light what those in cutting-edge science and technology are doing to save these pollinators.
Antarctica
In his series on change in Antarctica, Brangham covers the climate and the impact it could have on penguins, melting ice and rising sea levels and how a tourist boom could affect Earth’s “last great wilderness.”
How Colin O’Brady mentally prepared for his Antarctic feat
Antarctic penguins have existed for 60 million years. Can they survive climate change?
Antarctica is losing ice at an accelerating rate. How much will sea levels rise?
How Antarctica’s tourist boom could affect Earth’s “last great wilderness”
Can Antarctica remain a refuge for science and peace?
Student Reporting Lab: Engineering Our World
Students in PBS NewsHour STEM Student Reporting Labs are actively involved in solutions journalism. They have pitched and developed more than 20 stories about science, technology and engineering and how solutions could bring a better world.