Solutions Journalism: News at the Intersection of Hope, Leadership, and Expertise

Description

As audiences avoid negative news and public risk perceptions fracture across polarized media ecologies, journalists are being called upon to tell engaging and optimistic stories about the future. Consequently, solutions journalism has moved from the margins to the global mainstream, resulting in a plurality of new solutions-focused practices. Solutions Journalism: News at the Intersection of Hope, Leadership, and Expertise explores the professional dynamics and tensions concerning solutions journalism, clarifies these related practices and, in so doing, provides scholars and journalists with a nuanced appreciation of the opportunities and liabilities of reporting solutions. Drawing upon a year-long study of journalism in Tasmania, Bill Dodd develops a tripartite theory of solutions journalism at the intersection of three core concepts: hope, leadership, and expertise. In Australia’s lagging southernmost province, where development propositions have sparked global protest movements, ‘New Tasmania’ represented a newly optimistic spirit of bipartisanship. Yet, in this book, a close reading of solutions-focused discourse reveals deeper asymmetries regarding whose voices are routinely privileged in framing the future. On this basis, the book argues for a solutions journalism founded on a nuanced understanding of hope and a plurality of community leaders and practical expertise. Cover Solutions Journalism Solutions Journalism: News at the Intersection of Hope,Leadership, and Expertise Copyright Contents Acknowledgments Introduction Part I Chapter 1 Hope Social Hope Journalism’s Psychotherapeutic Turn Positive Psychology The Psychology of Hope Hope Theory Conclusion Chapter 2 Leadership From Public Journalism to Solutions Journalism The Public Sphere Governance and Public Opinion Field Theory The Governmental Field Leadership as Symbolic Capital Leadership Frames Metaphor The Moral Politics of Leadership Conclusion Part II Chapter 3 “New Tasmania” Lagging Tasmania Economic Recession Forestry Collapse “New Tasmania” Refugees of the Interior New Tasmania under New Management Solutions The Tasmanian Governmental Field Conclusion Chapter 4 “An Entrepreneurial Spirit” Tasmania’s Journalistic Field “An Entrepreneurial Spirit” Tests of Leadership Reflections and Balance Conclusion Chapter 5 Governmental Metaphors Navigation Construction Nurturance Conclusion Note Chapter 6 Expertise “Industry Experts” Metaphor as Masquerade Utilitarian Rigor Hope, Virtue, and Practical Wisdom Conclusion Chapter 7 Conclusion Solutions Journalism Expanding the Governmental Field A Taxonomy of Solutions Journalism Solution Ensembles Metaphor Adaptation Conclusion Appendices References Index About the Author