Holly Wise speaks about solutions journalism in India and advice on researching newsworthy topics worldwide

By Zephanie Battle

Zdb14@txstate.edu

Holly Wise, Texas State journalism lecturer and journalist, joined Mass Comm Week 2018 from Karnataka, India, (via Skype) to highlight the effect of solutions journalism and how newsworthy topics can be found no matter where you live.

As a Fulbright Scholar, Wise teaches classes, workshops and is often a guest speaker for solutions journalism at Mount Carmel College, an all-girls university in Bangalore, India, the capital of Karnataka and the third largest city in the country.

Wise, who has been in India about three months,  says that such issues like sanitation, severe weather fluctuations, women’s safety issues are not uncommon worldwide and solutions journalism makes that point more obvious.

“There are challenges that India is facing and many of them are similar to ones that everyone in the world is facing,” Wise said. “The more I travel and interview people, I’m convinced that we’re all trying to solve the problems, they just look a little bit different.”

Wise had successful tips to find newsworthy topics, even in a huge, news coverage area like India.

Wise says to know your interests, take advantage of the network you’ve built. Even in college, research your coverage area so you can find the “main players” you can talk to on your beat.

“This is the process of reporting a topic and turning it into solutions journalism,” Wise said. “(I’m) building it from the ground up and trying to figure out close the loop between the problem and the solution.”