🌍 Youth-led solutions journalism
We spotlight impact-driven organisations that are helping to solve urgent social and environmental problems.
Who are we?
We’re a collective of students and recent graduates with interests or experience in various fields, including politics, renewable energy, medical care, food systems, conservation and more.
Solutions Journalism
Conventional journalism tends to focus on what is wrong with the world. While it is important to know and understand the problems that we face, being constantly bombarded with doom and gloom can leave readers feeling powerless.
Solutions journalism takes a different approach. Instead of just focusing on the problems, it focuses on both the problems and the solutions.
By presenting people with not just the problem, but also the solution, solutions journalism gives people hope and agency. Research by the Institute for Applied Positive Research (2017) found that:
“solutions-oriented reporting made people feel less anxious, more energised and more connected to the community. Audiences also reported more willingness to talk about the issues, collaborate with others, and hold officials in positions of power accountable for change…”
To learn more about solutions journalism and its positive effects, check out the work being done by the Solutions Journalism Network, an organisation whose approach has greatly inspired our own.
Learn more:
Our Organisation-focused Approach
What makes Mangrove Report’s solutions journalism unique is our organisation-centred approach. Our articles focus on specific organisations that are helping to solve important social and environmental problems (more on how we identify problems below). Our definition of “organisations” is broad – it includes companies, non-profits, startups, publications and more.
But why focus exclusively on organisations?
We don’t want people to just read an article and forget about it. We want them to be able to take immediate and concrete steps. Our organisation-centred approach makes this possible. If they are interested in or inspired by an organisation, readers can take action – donate, volunteer, invest, apply for a job… whatever!
Ultimately, we want our articles to be not just informative, but actionable.
What do we consider when choosing an organisation?
1. “Not all problems need solving”
Most, if not all, organisations are trying to solve “problems”. But not all problems need solving. Organisations can treat something as a problem when it's not. Even worse, they can create a false problem. A good example that illustrates this is the “beauty” industry.
False problem: Natural skin, wrinkles, or body hair are portrayed as flaws.
False solution: Constant pressure to buy creams, treatments, or makeup to "fix" something that was never broken.
New problems: Body image issues, unnecessary spending, social pressures, environmental destruction etc.
2. “Trying to fix problems can create new ones”
Even when we mean well, our “solutions” can cause bigger issues down the line – these are sometimes referred to as “externalities”. Meaningful progress requires anticipating these externalities before trying to solve a problem. A good example of this is germs.
Problem: People want to avoid germs and illness.
Narrow solution: Use strong antibacterial soap and antibiotics often.
Externalities: Bacteria evolve and become resistant, creating dangerous “superbugs” that are much harder to kill.
3. “Problems might just be symptoms”
Things that we might think of as problems might not be problems in and of themselves, but rather symptoms of broader problems. It’s important to consider this when assessing a “solution”. For example, consider the example of drugs:
Symptom disguised as a problem: Drug use, overdoses, drug-related crime.
Narrow solution: Ban drugs, criminalise users, increase policing.
Underlying drivers: Poverty and inequality, lack of mental health services.
However…
…some problems—like overconsumption, climate change, or poverty—are so big and complex that we can’t solve them quickly. They take time, cooperation, and major change. But that doesn’t mean we should do nothing while we wait for big solutions. Take beach cleans, for example:
Symptom: plastic pollution on beaches.
Underlying drivers: overconsumption on a global scale.
A beach clean doesn’t fix that system—but it still helps. It protects wildlife, makes places safer and more beautiful, raises awareness and brings people together.
So yes, we should look at the big picture—but we shouldn't ignore small steps. In certain contexts, both matter. Short-term efforts can buy time, ease suffering, and keep hope alive while we work on deeper solutions.
In short, we need to be very careful about how we think of “solutions”. With this in mind, we use the following step-by-step process to identify organisations that are engaged in meaningful problem solving:
For a comprehensive overview of the problem-solving frameworks that we use, check out the work of the Consilience Project. In particular, their feature article, “Development in Progress”:
How do we write about an organisation?
Below is the checklist that our contributors use when writing about an organisation. From the reader’s perspective, the checklist helps to ensure a comprehensive assessment of a problem and how an organisation is helping to solve it. From our perspective, it helps us to maintain good journalistic standards and provide balanced and consistent analysis of a wide range of different types of organisations.
THE PROBLEM
What is the problem and why does it need to be solved?
What is the scale of the problem?
What are the underlying causes or drivers?
THE SOLUTION
What is the organisation’s mission?
How does their system/model/technology work?
What is unique, interesting or inspiring about it?
IMPACT AND ASSESSMENT
To what extent have they helped to solve the problem?
What are the weaknesses and/or drawbacks of their system/model/technology?
What obstacles/opposition do they face?
CALL TO ACTION
What are the main lessons that can be learned?
What can people do to help?
Where can people go to learn more?