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Create A New Collection

Collections are versatile, powerful and simple to create. From a customized course reader to an action-guide for an upcoming service-learning trip, collections illuminate themes, guide inquiry, and provide context for how people around the worls are responding to social challenges.

  • Name and describe your collection

  • Add Stories

  • Add external links at any time

  • Add to your collection over time and share!

1. Name your collection

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2. Add Stories

Add stories to your collection from your list of Favorites below, or add stories directly to a collection from Search or Discovery. Anytime you see the collection icon you can add a story. Just click the icon and follow the instructions on your screen.

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Solutions Story Tracker®

Welcome to a curated database of rigorous reporting on responses to social problems.

15,700 stories produced by 8,900 journalists and 2,000 news outlets from 89 countries. The stories cover responses in 192 countries, in 17 languages. This resource is made possible because of a growing movement of journalists who use solutions journalism to illuminate both problems and evidence-based responses to them.

Learn more about the Solutions Story Tracker.


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There are 19 results  for your search.  View and Refine Your Search Terms

  • In Memphis, a Lab Experiment for Local News

    James Fallows
    2019-12-11 03:53:15 UTC
    0

    November 08, 2019 |

    The Atlantic |

    Text |

    1500-3000 Words

    Response Location: United States, Memphis, Tennessee

    Over the past dozen years, The Commercial Appeal, once the top morning newspaper in Memphis, Tennessee, slowly succumbed to the same ownership changes and downsizing that has plagued numerous other local papers across the country. Hungry for local news after The Commercial Appeal had left a gap, Eric Barnes and Andy Cates created the Daily Memphian. The paper is an online-only, subscription-based service owned by a new 501(c)3 non-profit, Memphis Fourth Estate Inc., which has no editorial control over the paper's content.

    Read More

    • 8770

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  • ‘We're Doing It for Love of Community'

    James Fallows
    2019-12-14 19:02:42 UTC
    0

    October 16, 2019 |

    The Atlantic |

    Text |

    1500-3000 Words

    Response Location: United States, Harvard, Massachusetts

    All over the country, budgets for local newspapers are drying up and these small institutions are dying with them. But in Harvard, Massachusetts (which has no connection with the university), one local paper may have found a solution for survival. The Harvard Press operates on a shoestring budget with borrowed and donated equipment and a volunteer labor force. The paper also trains students and young people from the community in order to increase its presence throughout Harvard.

    Read More

    • 8786

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  • There's Hope for Local Journalism

    James Fallows
    2019-10-07 18:24:04 UTC
    0

    September 18, 2019 |

    The Atlantic |

    Text |

    1500-3000 Words

    Response Location: United States, Provincetown, Massachusetts

    The retention of local ownership provides a more viable business model for small newspapers. In Provincetown, Massachusetts, the Provincetown Independent eschews the profit-maximizing, private-equity business model in favor of a weekly publication that is focused on local issues. The newspaper operates on the basis of a hybrid business model, blending its publication with non-profit activities, such as training new journalists and other projects.

    Read More

    • 8204

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  • 'Local, Local, Local': How a Small Newspaper Survives

    James Fallows
    2019-10-05 17:47:37 UTC
    0

    August 30, 2019 |

    The Atlantic |

    Text |

    1500-3000 Words

    Response Location: United States, Eastport, Maine

    Getting away from daily publishing helps local newspapers focus on serving their audience. The Quoddy Tides, a family-owned newspaper in Eastport, Maine, publishes only twice monthly. Publishing less frequently allows the newspaper to include more local stories, which are of interest to their community of readers, many of whom either live in, or have ties to the community. By avoiding the 24-hour news cycle, the newspaper can focus on local discourse and civic engagement.

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    • 8178

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  • Three Big Lessons From One Small Town

    James Fallows
    2019-10-07 04:33:48 UTC
    0

    July 18, 2019 |

    The Atlantic |

    Text |

    1500-3000 Words

    Response Location: United States, Danville, Virginia

    The town of Danville, Virginia survived the downfall of the mill industry by using creative financing and investing in solid economic infrastructure that will remain sustainable into the future. The town has invested in broadband and used funds from a tobacco settlement to re-install city money into local institutions.

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    • 8191

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  • Bitwise Goes Big

    James Fallows
    2019-10-07 20:12:16 UTC
    0

    June 19, 2019 |

    The Atlantic |

    Multi-Media |

    800-1500 Words

    Response Location: United States, Fresno, California

    A company called Bitwise in Fresno, California thinks beyond financial gain and factors social background and economic justice into their developer training programs. Bitwise offers a coding school as well as a custom software business that hires graduates from their training program to help with commercial projects.

    Read More

    • 8207

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  • How a 'Communiversity' Works

    James Fallows
    2019-10-02 14:26:20 UTC
    0

    May 30, 2019 |

    The Atlantic |

    Text |

    800-1500 Words

    Response Location: United States, Columbus, Mississippi

    Bucking the stereotypes of strained town-gown relations and the removed university, the Mississippi Communiversity is bringing together a community college, research university, local high schools, state and local government, federal government, private businesses, and local individuals to build a truly collaborative academic center. The academically structured, industrially aligned program enjoys funding from all of the above parties mentioned.

    Read More

    • 8119

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  • An Unusual Way to Bridge the Town-Gown Divide

    James Fallows
    2019-09-29 12:27:23 UTC
    0

    May 01, 2019 |

    The Atlantic |

    Text |

    1500-3000 Words

    Response Location: United States, Muncie, Indiana

    Ball State University and Muncie, Indiana, are forging an inventive town-gown partnership. In 2018, the school became the first public university to assume responsibility for the city's public schools. The transition has involved intentional community engagement and sparked community enthusiasm that had waned in recent decades and resulted in a dramatically declining school population.

    Read More

    • 8077

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  • Fort Wayne Makes Its Own Luck

    James Fallows
    2019-10-13 17:09:33 UTC
    0

    April 26, 2019 |

    The Atlantic |

    Text |

    1500-3000 Words

    Response Location: United States, Fort Wayne, Indiana

    Fort Wayne, Indiana follows the national trend that transforms old abandoned buildings into new economic powerhouses by converting what was once the massive GE campus into a mixed space of residential, business and retail space. While some cities tore down older structures in the '70s and '80s, cities who kept their open-space warehouses -- cities like Fort Wayne -- are now taking advantage of the empty spaces and making room for economic growth and civic participation.

    Read More

    • 8260

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  • A Renewable Energy Revolution in Small-Town America

    Nicolas Pollock, Deborah Fallows, James Fallows
    2019-11-05 03:41:38 UTC
    3

    November 03, 2016 |

    The Atlantic |

    Video |

    5-15 Minutes

    Response Location: United States, Spearville, Kansas

    Small towns across America are leading the shift towards renewable energy. Part of a series called "American Futures", this video visits Kansas, Pennsylvania, and California to learn more about green initiatives in biofuel, wind, and solar power. Although each solution is different, each are a new way of generating income for the residents of the towns and often comes with societal acceptance as well.

    Read More

    • 8459

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Please sign in via My Profile before submitting a story. This will allow you to view the status of your submission and get notified if the story is added to the Solutions Story Tracker®.
Filter your search by the language of the story. As the Solutions Story Tracker grows, we are working to include more stories in more languages. Your story submissions can help! Submit stories here.
These factors identify the ways communities overcome the big challenges and help you see the insights. Learn more about the Success Factors here.

Solutions Journalism Around the World

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Solutions In Focus

Discover curated content about themes that matter to you, exclusively from the Solutions Story Tracker. Explore collections, resources and more.

  • Climate Solutions

  • Advancing Democracy

  • Youth Mental Health


Go to All Solutions in Focus

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    Video Tutorials

    Learn how to find what you need in the Solutions Story Tracker in español and in français.

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    Submission Guidelines

    This database is powered by user submissions. Submit a story.

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    Custom Story Alerts

    Get notified when new stories match your interests by setting up custom story alerts in My Profile.

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Solutions Story Tracker® FAQ

  • Solutions journalism…
    • Describes a response to a problem and how it works.
    • Seeks to draw out insights that explain success or failure.
    • Presents the available evidence about the effectiveness of a response.
    • Explains the shortcomings or limitations of the response.
    Learn more.
  • The Solutions Story Tracker® is a curated, searchable database of solutions journalism stories — rigorous reporting about responses to social problems. We vet and tag every story in the Story Tracker, which offers an inspiring and useful collection of the thousands of ways people are working to solve problems around the world.

  • You can learn more about how we source, vet, and tag stories here, as well as how we share them. We also have video tutorials in Spanish and French that show how to use the Solutions Story Tracker to find what you need.

  • Story collections are curated by our staff or other partners to explore a theme, pattern, or trend via selected solutions stories and external resources. Some story collections focus on an in-depth exploration of a topic with solutions journalism; others highlight journalists and how they report on topics. Certain story collections include discussion questions and notes, so that educators and community discussion leaders can lead learners to fully engage with the stories.

  • The Solutions Story Tracker® is powered by user submissions. We encourage submissions from journalists, as well as from anyone who has an eye for solutions journalism. Click here to submit. (Why submit? So many reasons!)

  • You can submit a story directly on the Solutions Story Tracker®. You will be prompted to register or log into the Solutions Journalism Network website, if you are already logged in. (It is free to register!) Logging in allows you to track the status of your submissions under My Profile, as well as save your favorite stories, create story collections and story alerts, and access other helpful features of our website.

  • After you submit a story to us and assign it a topic, it is sent to one of our Solutions Story Tracker team members. Our team member evaluates the story for the four qualities of solutions journalism, and on the basics: The story must come from a news outlet and have a date and a byline. If the story meets our criteria, our team tags it accordingly and adds it to the database. If the story falls short of the mark, our team will include the reason why. We include stories in the Story Tracker that meet our standards of solutions journalism. Inclusion does not mean we support the initiatives, policies, organizations or approaches featured in those stories.

    Discover common reasons why a story may miss the mark for inclusion in the Solutions Story Tracker®.

    Learn more about the history of the database.

  • Solutions Journalism Network features these stories in the searchable database making them publicly accessible to anyone who wants to search for rigorous reporting on solutions to social problems. Any story that is added has the potential to make more impact than its original purpose. Added stories are used in journalism trainings, school curricula, research projects, and independent analysis on issue area trends. This now includes artificial intelligence tools, which are applied for educational value to find stories and support story vetting, as well as to extract insights from the stories. SJN has digital products and newsletters that give new life and exposure to the stories meeting people where they are at. Story data also is used to develop innovative tools to reach the general public with solutions journalism as well as some specific research projects requested by researchers. If you have any questions or concerns about our use of story data or added stories, please contact Lita Tirak.

  • News outlets determine whether all users can access their stories — and some limit the number of stories that anyone can view, or require a subscription. The majority of stories in the database can be accessed for free.

  • We work with journalists, academic researchers and others who feel that our database will support their research. We are especially interested in research that seeks to develop new insights about solutions journalism and its spread and its impact on social problems. Please complete all sections of the Data Request Form, and we will contact you to discuss your request in greater detail.

  • We do not fact-check the stories in the Solutions Story Tracker®. We do ensure that each story comes from a credible news source that has its own editorial infrastructure.

  • We worked with Tara Pixley and Jovelle Tamayo of the Authority Collective, who developed a guide for using equitable visuals. We follow this guide when choosing images for our website.

  • We welcome your feedback and additional questions. Please use this form to get in touch.

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