Solutions Journalism Network grant funds 蘑菇短视频 project
The motto 鈥淚f it bleeds it leads鈥� has dominated news coverage since the dawn of time. Sensational, doom-and-gloom stories that entice readers to pick up a paper dominate front pages, yet with a $7,500 grant, journalism professor Katerina Spasovska is teaching students to go one step further. The grant from the Solutions Journalism Network will fund student reporting in solutions-based journalism as part of a Student Media Challenge.
鈥淚f it continuously bleeds, what is the triage we can do to prevent it from bleeding?鈥� Spasovska asked. Solutions-based journalism does not replace regular reporting on events, issues, and people, but it researches and reports on potential and viable solutions on social issues. The class will be focusing on youth mental health in the region and have begun to investigate areas who have begun to see improvements in youth mental health and if those solutions are viable locally.
As part of the fall and spring semester courses, students will be developing stories around youth mental health. According to the Center for Disease Control鈥檚 annual Youth Risk Behavior Survey, 29.7% of North Carolian High School Students reported feeling sad or hopeless, 19.6% of students reported having poor mental health most or all of the time, and 14% of students surveyed reported needing counseling but being unable to get it. Access to mental healthcare is difficult across the entire state, but especially in rural areas. Spasovska said that a representative from the WNC Health Network visited her class and explained that there is one psychologist serving around two-thousand students in rural school systems three times over the recommended 500 students.
Students have already begun to gather information on these issues while also researching solutions. Potential topics include everything from the mental health of first-generation college students, the efforts of non-profit organizations working with youth and high school mental health, and how exposing youth to nature and mindfulness practices improve youth mental health.
Spasovska is excited to not just teach her students about solutions-based journalism but learn more about it herself. 鈥淚've been aware of solution journalism for a while, but I've never had the time to invest in developing my skills on teaching solution journalism.鈥�
Prior to becoming a professor at 蘑菇短视频, Spasovska worked as a journalist for 14 years, primarily in North Macedonia and the Balkan region. Prior to the fall of communism and the breakup of Yugoslavia, to become a newscaster or a newspaper editor it was important to be a member to the communist party. News outlets most of the time were a mouthpiece for the government.
Spasovska entered the workforce just after the fall of communism when the increased press freedom brought a surge of private media. In the early 2000s she worked on investigative journalism projects on everything from LGBTQ rights, sex trafficking, and served as coordinator and editor for series of articles on a fake diploma ring in Bulgaria, Macedonia and Albania. 鈥淚 became a journalist in the 90鈥檚 because I wanted to help create a better society,鈥� Spasovska said. 鈥淚 still want to do that. As a teacher, I can provide my students with skills to do the same.鈥�
The primary role of journalists is to inform the public, but Spasovska sees them doing more. They are watchdogs who advocate for the voiceless. Through the Student Media Challenge, students are not just informing the public of the mental health challenges that youth in the region face but informing them of potential solutions. 鈥淧eople get depressed by bad news all the time, they stop consuming news,鈥� Spasovska said. 鈥淪olution journalism provides hope. It flips the script. It is not just about the bad news. It looks at how we can solve some problems or show how other people find solutions that could work here.鈥�