Grantee: Transitions

Grantee: Transitions – Solutions Journalism

Independent journalism organisation Transitions aims to raise awareness of Solutions Journalism – a branch of journalism focused on reporting about responses to society’s problems. It provides training, mentoring, and support for journalists in Central and Eastern Europe who want to get involved.

It was awarded a Strategic Microgrant for its Page 404 Solutions Journalism Pilot. "The Page 404 media platform aims to encourage the Czech readership to be more willing to participate in topics and areas that are close to their hearts and that journalists should be covering (but often don't). Our goal is a dialogue between the editorial office and our readers," explains Apolena Rychlíková, co-founder of Page 404.

Regional elections are an ideal time to experiment and pilot new approaches because it is here that voters often express very specific demands in relation to their daily lives, allowing us to examine how well the political elite reacts to these demands before, during, and after the campaign. Instead of focusing only on highlighting problems, we will also listen to the solutions that readers suggest to improve their quality of life, laying the roots for greater interest in solutions journalism and increased dialogue between our editorial office and ordinary citizens. That should lead to a readership more willing to engage and articulate their concerns on a wide variety of topics in the future, which we can independently research and bring to wide public attention.