When journalists get more curious about ‘what works’ rather than ‘what is wrong’, we learn about solutions and not just problems. That is the reasoning behind the Solutions Journalism Network, which grew out of a powerful article written in 2018 by Amanda Ripley. She asked if journalists, in trying to present ‘two sides’ of stories, were actually increasing what she calls ‘high conflict’ and thus deepening ideological differences, and called on journalists to become curious, to look behind and beyond the obvious, especially where there are conflicts.

In 2018, she had realized that despite being a journalist for two decades, she didn’t know much about how to navigate conflict creatively, and she spent three months “interviewing people who know conflict intimately and have developed creative ways of navigating it. I met psychologists, mediators, lawyers, rabbis and other people who know how to disrupt toxic narratives and get people to reveal deeper truths. They do it every day — with livid spouses, feuding business partners, spiteful neighbors. They have learned how to get people to open up to new ideas, rather than closing down in judgment and indignation.”