Last November, we brought together a diverse group of journalists — editors and reporters and engagement specialists alike — committed to a new journalistic frame, a new way of telling stories, a new way of making impact in a community.

There were executive editors and media entrepreneurs of all types, people who have launched podcasts and regional collaborations, and built organizations focused on audience engagement, better and more diverse stories from better and more diverse sources, and a more civil dialogue.

Here is a smorgasbord of discussions and takeaways that framed or came out of breakaway sessions at the 2017 Solutions Journalism Summit:

  1.  Meet people where they’re at. Build trust at the beginning. Establish your credibility; engage your critics.
  2. Get the whole newsroom involved.
  3. Accurately represent your community — your whole community.
  4. Avoid advocacy. -A good solutions story won’t have the word “solution” in it. Shed light on why you chose the one out of many responses that are attempting to tackle a social problem. Take the word “vital” out.
  5. Depolarize communities.-By preying on conflict and discord, much of our news coverage tends to underscore our divisions. Examining issues via the solutions lens (regardless of whether the solution may have derived from the left or from the right, what is working?) might allow the content to reach a broader, more diverse audience.
  6. Use research — well.-We need much stronger connections between journalism professionals and academics, more sharing of knowledge in both directions, at the earliest point possible.

Read the full article about six insights into journalism from Solutions Journalism at Medium.