Balance Trust with Accountability

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Trust in others has significantly declined since the mid-1970s, influenced by the portrayal of negativity in journalism and a lack of representation of positive actions. This erosion of trust correlates with public disillusionment towards institutions and fellow citizens, driven by historical events like Watergate and the Vietnam War that revealed government untrustworthiness. The shift towards investigative journalism sought to hold those in power accountable but neglected to balance this with acknowledgment of positive contributions, particularly from marginalized communities. As a result, only about 12% of people view others as inherently good, highlighting the media's role in shaping societal perceptions through a predominantly negative lens.

What is the goal of our digital information environment? Is it simply to inform us, or also to empower us to act?

The Solutions Journalism Network (SJN) understands that simply reporting on social problems rarely leads to change. What they’ve discovered is that rigorously reporting on responses to social problems is more likely to give activists and concerned citizens the hope and information they need to take effective action. For this reason, SJN trains journalists to report on “solutions angles.” More broadly, the organization seeks to rebalance the news, so that people are exposed to stories that help them understand the challenges we face as well as potential ways to respond.

In this episode, Tina Rosenberg, co-founder of SJN, and Hélène Biandudi Hofer, former manager of SJN’s Complicating the Narratives initiative, walk us through the origin of solutions journalism, how to practice it, and what impact it has had. Tristan Harris and Aza Raskin reflect on how humane technology, much like solutions journalism, should also be designed to create an empowering relationship with reality — enabling us to shift from learned helplessness to what we might call learned hopefulness.