Alex Steffen - Solutions-Based Journalism

Solutions-Based Journalism

Steffen practices what he describes as solutions-based journalism, that is, the explicit goal of his work at Worldchanging is to highlight the possible solutions to what the editorial team sees as the planet's most pressing problems, rather than to spread news of those problems or critiques of their causes. He was quoted in the Guardian as saying "Cynicism is often seen as a rebellious attitude in western popular culture, but in reality, our cynicism advances the desires of the powerful: cynicism is obedience."

Steffen summed up what he sees as the benefit of this approach in an essay called The Politics of Optimism in which he wrote, "We can freely acknowledge the tremendous struggle ahead of us, and yet choose to remain decidedly optimistic, and to work from a fundamental belief in the possibilities of the future. ... Every time we explain how a better future might be built, we redraw the boundaries of the possible."