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June 1, 2016 | Category: Blog, General Content | Author:

Weekly roundup: Solutions, Strangers, Emotion

SJN-image

The Solutions Journalism Network has a fabulous new website. The group — which is “enabling reporting on who’s doing it better, and how” — offers an online community who want to help “make coverage of solutions a common feature of our mainstream news” and a “Solutions Story Tracker” searchable database of 1,000+ curated, quality examples of solutions reporting. Learn more about the group on its website, and in the Narrative Arts storytelling guide.

“Talking to Strangers” is artist and interviewer Kalie Boyne‘s evocative project, in which she interviewed 50 people she mets, selected portions of those interviews to transcribe, and presented them alongside beautifully drawn portraits of the people. The project is not unlike “Humans of New York,” only with drawings rather than photos, and the quotations have an open, philosophical leaning. Selected words and images are available on her website. Read a short interview with the artist here.

Why are we so afraid to show emotion in policy stories? Julie Dixon of the @NationalJournal Communications Council addresses that question in a story on Medium. She argues that “all [policy professionals] ever get from our organizations are an endless stream of packets, data, white papers, and reports — and no stories, or at least not stories that have any kind of human, emotional connection. It’s not because they ain’t buying — it’s because we ain’t selling.”