Solidarity Reporting on Marginalization: A Grounded Alternative to Monitorial Reporting’s Emphasis on Officials

Abstract

A dominant monitorial reporting method means that journalism shines a spotlight on officials’ activities, plans, and statements. While this reporting method has brought official wrongdoing to light, monitorial reporting has also participated in amplifying, emphasizing, and normalizing problematic official definitions that neglect structural factors contributing to persistent issues of marginalization. Using qualitative textual analysis, this study articulates a grounded alternative called a solidarity reporting method for covering marginalization. A solidarity reporting method means that journalism prioritizes marginalized people’s definitions, shared conditions, and ongoing struggles—which may challenge the definitional parameters that officials attempt to set. A case study of a 2016 journalistic collaboration called the San Francisco Homeless Project demonstrates how a solidarity reporting method enriches journalism on homelessness by representing the firsthand observations and perspectives of people subjected to social injustice, and accounting for structural conditions. Solidarity reporting helps advance journalism’s pursuit of truth.