How Solutions Journalism Shapes Support for Collective Climate Change Adaptation

ABSTRACT News media are the public’s primary source about risks such as climate change, but traditional journalistic approaches to climate change have failed to build support for collective social responses. Solutions journalism, an emerging practice focused on credible stories about responses to societal problems, may offer an alternate approach. From an online experiment with a convenience sample of U.S. undergraduates (N = 348), we found that solutions journalism stories were positively associated with perceived behavioral control, which mediated support for collective action for climate change adaptation. Additionally, attribution of responsibility to individuals and government, participant hope, and eco-anxiety were associated with support for collective action. Findings extend our understanding of how risk communication affects policy support for climate change adaptation and suggest that solutions journalism may allow journalists to communicate climate change’s danger without depressing support for social action to mitigate its effects.

focused on objective reporting of responses to social problems, may encourage resilience regarding climate change. Initial solutions journalism research finds pro-social effects, including intentions to engage with social issues (Curry et al., 2016;Curry & Hammonds, 2014;Wenzel et al., 2018), but not its potential to increase policy support for climate adaptation. In an online experiment, we test the effects of solutions journalism on college students' support for collective responses to climate change, and possible mediating cognitive and emotional effects, including attribution of social responsibility, perceived behavioral control, and eco-anxiety. Our findings offer evidence to the journalism industry for an emerging approach, as well as extend the crisis communication literature, which largely focuses on organizational reputation management (Manias-Muñoz et al., 2019), and crisis communication theory about how media coverage predicts public responses to risk.

Solutions journalism
Solutions journalism is "rigorous reporting on responses to social problems" that includes four essential qualities: a focus on the response and its development, evidence of response efficacy, insight about the response's applicability or transferability to other locations, and the response's limitations (Solutions Journalism Network, n.d.). Stories about solutions are not new to journalism, but the formation of the nonprofit advocacy group Solutions Journalism Network (SJN) in 2013 catalyzed the idea of a distinct, codified practice with SJN's definitional approach ultimately accepted by scholars (e.g. McIntyre, 2015;Wenzel et al., 2018). Traditionally, journalists have assumed that warning and informing citizens about social problems suffice to encourage civic participation. However, as audiences worldwide report avoiding the news, with 58% saying it depresses positive emotions and desire to engage in social action (Newman et al., 2019), solutions journalism proponents counter that audiences need evidence of responses to social problems to provoke progress (Bornstein & Rosenberg, 2016). Initial research on solutions journalism media effects has found that such stories increase audience feelings of self-efficacy and intentions toward civic engagement (e.g. Curry et al., 2016;Curry & Hammonds, 2014;Wenzel et al., 2018) and optimism, empowerment, and community connectedness (Gielan et al., 2017). Yet peerreviewed scholarship on these effects is limited, with little guidance from theory . One solutions journalism study has considered climate change. Dahmen et al. (2019) found that compared with problem-themed photos, solutions-themed photojournalism about several topics significantly predicted narrative engagement, which in turn predicted audience interest, self-efficacy, and behavioral intentions, such as intending to learn more about the topic or read more by that journalist. However, follow-up pairwise comparisons showed no significant effects for the solutions photos about climate change, although results approached significance for selfefficacy. In order to further probe the connection between solutions journalism about climate change and audience efficacy and because textual and visual news elements serve different functions, we offer what we believe is the first study to explore the effects of a solutions journalism textual story about climate change on cognitive and affective outcomes. In discussing differential effects of solutions journalism photos by story topic, Dahmen et al. (2019, p. 13) suggest a possible role for audience victim blaming of individuals that may not apply to "more societal … occurring" problems like climate change. Therefore, we consider whether frames of climate change news stories focused on individuals or societal actors impact audience attribution of social responsibility.

Climate change frames and attribution of social responsibility
Climate change reporting tends to frame the crisis episodically, as a series of disconnected events (Hackett et al., 2017). A story's frame plays a significant role in shaping the way the public thinks about a crisis, including "who (what) the cause is, and what should be done as a solution" (Kim, 2015, p. 554). Episodic frames present an issue through a case study or as an isolated incident, whereas thematic framing places the issue in a social context (Iyengar, 1991). Audiences of problem-oriented stories with thematic frames lean toward attributing responsibility for problems to social and institutional forces, whereas viewers of episodic-framed stories tend to blame individuals or groups (Iyengar, 1990). When a social issue is portrayed through a thematic frame, government and society at large are often seen as the responsible party and consequently held accountable (Iyengar, 1989). For instance, thematically framed climate change stories increased attribution of government responsibility, in turn increasing support for government policies to address the issue (Hart, 2011). In contrast, an episodic frame using personal stories to present climate change-related issues may cause individuals to blame themselves for their own actions (Sun et al., 2016).
By focusing on rigorous responses to social problems, including insight about how the solution may apply or replicate in other contexts, solutions journalism stories necessitate a thematic frame (Thier, 2021). This element of solutions journalism suggests that such stories will increase attribution of social responsibility for crises toward social actors and build support for collective solutions. Compared to problem-oriented stories, solutions journalism stories that feature solutions implemented by collective actors, such as the government and corporations, are more likely to increase individual willingness to support collective action policies. Without an individual-level solution showcased, solutions journalism stories are unlikely to suggest to readers that they are responsible for a social problem.
Within crisis and risk communication literature, the protective action decisional model describes how warnings, pre-event factors, and pre-event perceptions lead to individual decisions to take protective actions (e.g. Lindell & Perry, 1992, 2004Sellnow & Seeger, 2021). The social-mediated crisis communication model has been shown to predict how communication contributes to individual protective responses to tornado risk (Liu et al., 2019). Although, by definition, crises require swift responses, environmental crises in particular do not necessarily "emerge quickly" and are not "of relatively short duration" (Sellnow & Seeger, 2021, pp. 8-9). Climate change generates both risks and crises for human society and nature, such as wildfires, disease, habitat loss, agricultural disruption, extreme weather events, and flooding (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, 2022), as unchecked risks become crises (Heath, 1995;Sellnow & Seeger, 2021) with growing scholarly interest in examining climate change as a crisis as disaster experiences may make the issue more salient to individuals (Liu & Kim, 2021). Our study extends the risk and crisis communication literature by exploring how communication may predict support for collective protective action with a focus on encouraging ameliorative action and policy support to address climate change related issues (Smith & Mayer, 2018). Therefore, we hypothesize: H1: Solutions journalism stories will a) be negatively associated with attribution of social responsibility on the individual level, b) positively associated with attribution of responsibility on the government level, c) and positively associated with attribution of responsibility on the business/corporation level, d) all of which will mediate a positive association with support for a collective response to climate change.

Cognitive and emotional effects of story frame
Media use of thematic and episodic frames have been found to evoke affective responses (Major, 2011), which in turn affect individuals' decision-making process about social or collective responses. Several appraisal theories of emotion (e.g. the cognitive appraisal theory; Lazarus & Folkman, 1984;Scherer, 1999) posit that individuals make initial appraisals of a situation and these initial appraisals elicit certain emotions. Regarding policy support, individuals rely on cognitive shortcuts and their emotions influence how they perceive crises. The integrated crisis mapping (ICM) model assumes that emotions are activated by a person's cognitive assessments of a crisis' nature and characteristics, and its relevance to their coping responses (Jin et al., 2007). Previous studies testing the ICM model suggest that anxiety was the primary crisis-induced emotional response (Jin et al., 2007;2010;2012).
Researchers describe the anxiety that individuals experience in response to the climate crisis as eco-anxiety, which may motivate active avoidance and discourage positive climate actions (Stanley et al., 2021). Due to journalism's surveillance role, journalists feel a duty to frame social problems negatively, but this approach may reduce the public's appetite to address problems such as climate change . When problem-oriented stories emphasize the climate change-related risks without providing solutions, individuals may be more likely to experience negative emotions such as eco-anxiety. Therefore, we hypothesize: H2: Solutions journalism stories will a) be negatively associated with eco-anxiety, b) which will mediate a positive association with support for a collective response to climate change.
The social cognitive theory of mass communication posits that vicarious experiences increase individuals' self-efficacy, that mass media influences perceived self-efficacy by modeling human behavior, and that perceived self-and collective efficacy influence people's incentive to act (Bandura, 2001). Scholars have identified efficacy beliefs as a factor affecting audience responses to journalism about climate change that incorporates solutions elements. Coleman et al. (2022) proposed adaptive frames, which emphasize preparedness, actions taken to address risks, concrete solutions, and the social benefits, and found that climate change stories with adaptive frames led to greater intentions to engage in adaptive actions, an effect mediated by perceived behavioral control, which is conceptually similar to self-efficacy (Wallston, 2001). Readers of solution-focused constructive journalism stories about climate change and sustainable development reported more pro-environmental intentions than readers of catastrophically framed stories, with self-efficacy acting as a mediator (Baden, 2019). 1 Exposure to solutions journalism has been found to increase selfefficacy (Curry et al., 2016;Curry & Hammonds, 2014), although not in the context of climate change, and the causal mechanism is not understood. We propose that solutions journalism, as defined by SJN, may induce efficacy or perceived behavioral control beliefs in news audiences by modeling effective, extendable responses to social problems. Therefore, we hypothesize: H3: Solutions journalism stories will a) be positively associated with perceived behavioral control, b) which will mediate a positive association with support for a collective response to climate change.
In contrast with problem-oriented stories, news stories with solution elements have been associated with positive emotions or a reduction in negative emotions. Constructive reporting that included solutions narratives and positive emotions led to lower levels of negative emotions, less decrease in positive emotions in children, and were perceived as more hopeful (Kleemans et al., 2017;Kleemans et al., 2019). Readers of solutions-focused stories about climate change and sustainable development reported feeling hope more often than readers of catastrophically framed stories (Baden, 2019). A positive news story about an environmental solution led to greater positive affect and intention to take positive action . Simulated articles about climate change including political efficacy increased hope, which in turn predicted political action intentions (Feldman & Hart, 2016). While scholars have found that creators of solutions journalism are oriented toward hope and are hopeful about the practice itself (Aitamurto & Varma, 2018;Porter, 2018), researchers have not examined whether stories that meet the scholarly-and practitioner-accepted definition of solutions journalism induce hope.
Hope may be considered an emotion (Nabi, 2015) or a cognitive approach composed of "agency (belief in one's capacity to initiate and sustain action) and pathways (belief in one's capacity to generate routes) to achieve goals" (Snyder et al., 1996, p. 321). Whether hope is an emotion or a cognition, hope motivates toward goal completion, with self-efficacy a potential precursor of hope (Nabi, 2015). As fear appeals that include efficacy information may lead message recipients to hope, with hope motivating goal achievement, according to emotional flow theory (Nabi, 2015), it may be that solutions journalism stories that include both potentially anxiety-provoking problem information and efficacy information inspire hope and constructive action. Thus, we hypothesize: H4: Solutions journalism stories will a) be positively associated with feelings of hope, b) which will mediate a positive association with support for a collective response to climate change. Figure 1 illustrates our proposed conceptual framework. To deepen our understanding of how various emotions may play a role in supporting climate change policies, we also explored the types of emotions evoked as participants read our stimuli guided by Fredrickson's (2001) broaden-and-build theory. Broaden-and-build suggests that the positive emotions of joy, interest, contentment, and love expand people's "thought-action repertoires" (p. 281), enhancing their personal capacities to flourish and respond to threats. In contrast, negative emotions narrow action tendencies (Fredrickson, 2004). Mindsets broadened by positive emotions contribute to individuals' personal resources, creating a storehouse that may be relied upon when facing future difficulties (Fredrickson, 2004). In other words, "positive emotions fuel psychological resiliency" (Fredrickson, 2004(Fredrickson, , p. 1371. In a journalism context, Baden et al. (2019) suggested broaden-and-build as the potential underlying mechanism for their finding that readers of constructive news that evoked positive emotions indicated greater intent to engage with the story topic than readers of negative-emotion news stories. As news stories that include solutions information are associated with hope, the broaden-and-build theory may explain solutions journalism's engagement effects. By reducing negative emotions and increasing positive emotions, solutions journalism stories may enhance audience thought-action repertoires, such as support of policies that mitigate the effects of climate change. Therefore, we hypothesize: H5: Participants in the solutions-oriented condition will have a greater number of thought-action statements on average than participants in the problem-oriented condition.
Additionally, by eliciting positive emotions solutions journalism stories may inspire positive emotions, and ultimately, resiliency. Thus, we ask: RQ1: How, if at all, do the emotions elicited by solutions-oriented and problem-oriented stories differ in valence?

Design and procedures
We conducted a between-subjects experiment embedded in an online Qualtrics survey from April to August 2021. The questionnaire grouped all items by construct in defined sections with consistent visual and textual markings and avoided the matrix format, all elements of the tailored design method to encourage valid responses (Dillman et al., 2009). Undergraduates enrolled in communication courses at a Mid-Atlantic university who elected to participate in the study were exposed randomly to one of two versions of a short news story about flooding due to climate change. Participants were compensated with extra course credit regardless of their attention check performance. In selecting stimuli, we considered stories about several negative consequences of climate change and associated responses; ultimately, stories about flooding were chosen based on design considerations outlined below. The solutions version included information about a local government response, whereas the problem version focused almost exclusively on the negative consequences of the flooding.
After exposure, participants answered 28 items measuring the following constructs -attribution of social responsibility for the problem, perceived behavioral control, eco-anxiety, hope, and support for policies to adapt to climate changewith exposure to items randomized at the construct level to mitigate against order effects. Additionally, participants engaged in a thought-listing exercise regarding emotions aroused by story exposure. Finally, participants answered four items about demographics. Of the participants who consented (N = 560), we eliminated (N = 208) those who did not respond to any items or did not respond to or failed the attention check, resulting in a final sample of 352 participants with slightly more participants (N = 186) randomly assigned to the solutions condition than the problem-oriented condition (N = 166). In addition, we conducted a descriptive analysis of participants' responses to an item asking which emotion they felt after reading the stimulus. The University of Maryland's Institutional Review Board approved this research [1737560-1].

Manipulation
First, we previewed solutions journalism stories about climate change from SJN's online Story-Tracker, a database of about 11,650 news stories vetted by the organization for solutions journalism criteria, because solutions stories include both solutions and problem elements . We filtered the database for less-than-800-word stories about climate change to reduce participant burden, ultimately choosing one with a narrative structure that allowed coherent modification focused on the solution and problem elements. The selected story was originally published in September 2019 by a digital-only, nonpartisan, nonprofit newsroom and was part of a six-story series about how Connecticut is coping with climate change effects "one small solution at a time" (Spiegel, 2019, n.p.). The story describes how a town's efforts to adapt to flooding caused by climate change brought additional economic benefits.
To create the solutions version, one of the researchers, a former professional journalist for seven years, eliminated only a few sentences less essential to the solution to reduce participant burden and substituted some dates with more current ones to guard against lack-of-recency effects. In the problem version the researcher eliminated almost all references to the solution and adjusted the headline to reflect the new story's emphasis. The final story lengths were 433 and 273 words, respectively, with the problem version serving as the control group. Studies testing the effects of solutionsfocused stories compared with problem-focused stories have included such stimuli of unequal lengths as solutions-focused stories are longer because they include solutions elements in addition to discussion of the problem (McIntyre, 2019;Meier, 2018;Thier et al., 2021). We followed this approach to prioritize ecological validity (Brewer & Crano, 2014), so that our findings might build theory relevant to journalism practice.

Mediating variables
Attribution of social responsibility Attribution of social responsibility for individuals, businesses, and government were measured using one item each modified from Sun et al. (2016). On five-point Likert-type scales ranging from Not at all responsible to Completely responsible, participants rated the level of responsibility they think individuals, businesses, and government officials should bear for addressing the flooding problem.

Eco-anxiety
To assess eco-anxiety associated with climate change, participants were asked to indicate the extent to which they feel each of the 12 items adapted from Clayton and Karazsia (2020) on a five-point Likert-style scale (1 never to 5 almost always). (Initially, 13 items were included, but one was a duplicate item. Before the questionnaire was corrected, the scores of the four participants who answered the duplicate items differentially were averaged.) Items included "Thinking about climate change makes it difficult for me to concentrate" and "I have nightmares about climate change." To create an index, we averaged scores (Cronbach's a = .94).

Perceived behavioral control
Perceived behavioral control was measured with four items that were summed to create an index (a = .71) adapted from Coleman et al. (2022) with items such as "Adapting to flooding caused by climate change can protect all of us" on a five-point scale (1 strongly disagree to 5 strongly agree).

Hope
Participants' state hope was measured with six items and summed to create an index (a = .86) adapted from Snyder et al.'s (1996) State Hope Scale with such items as "There are lots of ways around any problem I am facing now" on an eight-point Likert-style scale (1 definitely false to 8 definitely true).

Dependent variable
Support for collective response Behavioral intentions to take adaptive action were measured with three items adapted from Coleman et al. (2022) and summed to create an index (a =.81). Participants rated their likelihood of engaging in the three adaptive actions on a six-point Likert-style scale (1 extremely unlikely to 6 extremely likely). These items included "Support efforts the story described to handle flood disasters?", "Vote for elected officials who support this kind of disaster planning?", and "Endorse spending taxpayer money to address these issues in the ways described in this story?" We examined the mediating and dependent variables for skewness and kurtosis; all were within Kline (2011)'s benchmarks for acceptable range. Means, standard deviations, and correlations for all measured variables are shown in Table 1. A list of full survey instruments is provided as supplementary material in Appendix A.

Demographic variables
At the end of the survey, participants were asked their age, gender, sex at birth, and racial/ethnic background. Sample characteristics are described in Table 2.

Thought-action repertoires
To test whether story frame broadened participants' emotions, participants engaged in a Twenty Statements Test, a thought-listing exercise adapted from Fredrickson and Branigan (2005). After naming the strongest emotion they perceived as evoked by the story, participants listed up to 20 activities they would "like to do right now."

Statistical analyses
We tested the parallel mediation model in Figure 2 using PROCESS Model 4 (Hayes, 2018) to examine the effect of story frame on several proposed mediators and support for collective action to address climate change. The independent variable was story frame (problem versus solution). The mediators included attribution of responsibility (individual, governmental, and business), ecoanxiety, perceived behavioral control, and hope. The dependent variable was support for collective action toward climate change adaptation. Demographic variables, including sex at birth, gender, and race/ethnicity were included as covariates. We estimated the direct and indirect effects of story frame on support for collective action toward climate change adaptation with 5,000 bootstrapped samples.
To explore whether the number of participants thought-repertoires differed by story condition we conducted an independent samples t-test using SPSS 28.0 (IBM SPSS Statistics, Armonk, NY, USA).

Effects of story frame and potential mediators on support for climate change adaptation
Attribution of responsibility by individuals did not mediate the effect of story frame on support for collective action toward climate change adaptation, (b = -.28, 95% CI = [-.12, .02]). However, H1a was partially supported. While solutions stories were not negatively associated with attribution of social responsibility by individuals (b = .14, p = .202), that attribution was significantly negatively associated with support for collective action to mitigate climate change (b = -.28, p = .009). Similarly, H1b was partially supported. There was no significant effect of story frame on attribution of responsibility by government (b = .06, p = .420), but attribution of responsibility by government was associated with support for collective action toward climate change adaptation (b = .51, p = .004). Attribution of responsibility for business was not significantly associated with either story frame or the outcome variable so H1c was not supported. H2 predicted that solutions journalism stories will a) be negatively associated with eco-anxiety, b) which will mediate a positive association with support for a collective response to social problems. This hypothesis was partially supported. While solutions stories were not significantly negatively associated with eco-anxiety (b = -.03, p = .686), eco-anxiety was positively associated with support for a collective response to climate change, b = .38, p = .011. Thus, eco-anxiety did not mediate the effect of story condition on support (b = -.01, 95% CI = [-.08, .05]).
Results from the parallel mediation analysis found that perceived behavioral control significantly mediated the effect of solutions stories on support for collective climate change adaptation, (b = .31, 95% CI = [.14, .51]). Specifically, solutions stories were positively associated with perceived behavioral control (b = .95, p < .001) and then further positively associated with support (b = .33, p < .001). Thus, Hypothesis 3 was supported.
H4 predicted that solutions journalism stories would be associated with feelings of hope, ultimately, mediating a positive association with support for a collective response to climate change. This hypothesis was partially supported. Solutions stories were not positively associated with hope (b = -.16, p = .818). However, hope was positively associated with support for a collective response to climate change (b = .05, p = .001). Because both paths were not significant, sequential mediation was not observed (b = -.01, 95% CI = [-.09, .07]).
Our analysis revealed some demographic differences in how readers were affected by climate change stories. Gender (b = .24, p = .023) was positively associated and sex at birth (b = -.32, p = .008) was negatively associated with eco-anxiety; race was negatively associated with attribution of responsibility to business (b = -.10, p < .001).

Broadening thought-action repertoires
An independent samples t-test was conducted to assess Hypothesis 5: whether participants in the solutions-oriented condition will have a greater number of thought-action statements on average than participants in the problem-oriented condition. There was no significant difference in mean scores for solutions stories (M = 6.64, SD = 5.87) and problem-oriented stories (M = 6.13, SD = 5.62), t(df = 349) = 0.82, p = 0.415 (two-tailed). Therefore, H5 was not supported.

Story frame and emotional valence
We conducted a descriptive analysis to analyze RQ1whether solutions stories and problemoriented stories will evoke different emotional experiences? We created our coding scheme based on previous studies' conceptual framework on measuring human emotions (Mohammad, 2018). Among all the dimensional models in emotion studies, the circumplex model is one of the most widely used (Russell, 1980). The model posits that "all emotional experiences are distributed in a circular space that is anchored by perpendicular axes, valence and arousal" (Liu et al., 2018, p. 2). We coded participants' responses with four core emotions established in the two-dimensional circumplex model: high-arousal, positive valence (e.g. excited); high-arousal, negative valence (e.g. frustrated); low-arousal, negative valence (e.g. depressed); and low-arousal, positive valence (e.g. content). Each researcher coded emotional experiences for the first 20 participants and reached an overall agreement rate of 100%. Table 3 shows that people who read solutions stories tended to have high-arousal and negative-valence emotions (35.2%), followed by low-arousal and negative-valence emotions (26.4%). People who read problem-focused stories had more high-arousal and negatively valenced emotions (35.8%), followed by high-arousal and positive valence emotions (27.9%). Figures 3 and 4 show the percentages of the core emotions evoked in each story condition as corresponding to the circumplex model.

Discussion
This study offered the first test of textual solutions journalism about climate change on support for collective adaptation action. Initial research about solutions journalism, an emerging news genre, has provided evidence that such stories engender efficacy and intention to engage with social issues (Curry et al., 2016;Curry & Hammonds, 2014;Wenzel et al., 2018), but this study is the first to test whether such stories increase policy support for climate change adaptation. Our conceptual model draws on theories about framing, risk communication, emotional and cognitive media effects, and psychology in an effort to ground solutions journalism research in theory, as scholars have yet to consistently propose and test explanatory mechanisms for its effects (Thier, 2021). In doing so, we not only contribute to our understanding of an emerging journalism practice, but also crisis communication theory about how journalistic stories about crises predict public responses to risk. Additionally, we offer explanatory, predictive, and descriptive findings that complement or reinforce each other and suggest additional avenues for future research.
In this study, we examine how story frame impacts audience attribution of individual, business, and government societal responsibility attribution for climate change, in which our results confirm and contradict previous studies. Entman's (1993) exploration of how society attributes responsibility for social problems indicates that exposure to framed messages shapes how people think about an issue by suggesting what the issue is about and the solutions to it. According to Iyengar's (1991) conceptualization of responsibility framing and Weiner's (1995) study on attribution theory, thematic framing presents an issue in an abstract social context, leading the audience to a more socially oriented interpretation of the causes and solutions. Our findings were consistent with existing research on the effect of thematic framing, despite story orientation not influencing attribution of responsibility toward any actor. Perhaps participants in the solutions condition did not attribute responsibility to individuals because that story only described a collective response by the local government, rather than suggesting any individual climate solutions. However, participants who attributed responsibility for climate change to individuals were less likely to support collective action. Similarly, participants who read solutions stories and attributed social responsibility to the government were more willing to support collective action, although the story frame did not significantly associate with attribution of responsibility. Given these findings, we suggest journalists and strategic risk communicators consider pitching stories that depict climate change as a social problem that requires societal-level interventions, while scholars investigate more thoroughly whether and under what conditions solutions journalism's thematic frame creates attribution of responsibility effects.
Studies have shown that individuals' collective response to climate change is closely related to their behavioral engagement accompanied by negative emotions such as anxiety (Clayton & Karazsia, 2020). As expected, our results indicated that eco-anxiety could enhance collective response to climate change, consistent with previous studies on the positive effect of affective response on people's pro-environmental behaviors (Ogunbode et al., 2022). Although not examined here, studies have also demonstrated that environmental identity and levels of stress (Dean et al., 2018) could also increase anxiety about climate change and other ecological issues, besides media influences. At the same time, we found that hope, which is antithetical to anxiety, was positively associated with support for collective climate change adaptation. Future research should explore how other cognitive factors may influence climate change responses. The idea that solutions journalism is positively associated with perceived behavioral control builds on previous research about positive relations between solutions stories and audience feelings of efficacy (Curry et al., 2016;Curry & Hammonds, 2014;Wenzel et al., 2018), but in the new  context of climate change. Furthermore, our study suggests that perceived behavioral control mediates support for collective action toward climate change, offering evidence for a link between feelings of efficacy inspired by this emerging journalism genre and attitudes toward pro-social change. Industry proponents of solutions journalism have contended that journalism's traditional theory of change (providing information is enough to spark social action) should be amended because audiences require examples of progress to inspire their own progressive engagement (Bornstein & Rosenberg, 2016;SJN, n.d.-a). Drawing on Bandura's (2001) social cognitive theory of mass communication, we offer support for the idea that by modeling a social response to social problems solutions stories influence audience perceived behavioral control, or self-efficacy, which in turn influences their incentive to act. We believe this is the first test of a mediating role for efficacy in the solutions journalism literature. These findings build on previous studies linking story frame, efficacy, and behavioral intentions in environmental contexts for related journalism approaches, such as adaptive frames (Coleman et al., 2022) and constructive journalism (Baden, 2019), with future research needed to isolate which elements in each journalism approach are responsible for this effect. Although journalists view themselves as objective reporters of issues, Aitamurto and Varma (2018, p. 698) suggest a constructive role for the press that includes coverage of solutions of social problems as normative yet is a "latent endorsement of sparking social change as more desirable than conserving social stasis." As traditional climate change journalism has failed to empower audiences to press for collective and policy solutions (Hackett et al., 2017), journalists should consider altering their approach to climate change coverage to include objective coverage of solutions, without fear of abandoning their normative ideals.
While solutions journalism practitioners find the practice hopeful (Aitamurto & Varma, 2018;Porter, 2018), we did not find that reading solutions stories induced hope in participants. Emotional flow theory (Nabi, 2015) posits that information inducing fear that includes efficacy may evoke either hope or relief before intentions toward protective action. In Nabi et al.'s (2018) inaugural test of emotional flow, induced hope did mediate between gain-framed solutions-oriented efficacy news messages and climate change policy attitudes and advocacy. However, these news stories depicted policy solutions under consideration, whereas solutions journalism stories report on existing initiatives with a focus on how they operate. It is possible that the solution story in this study generated audience relief for some participants, rather than hope.
Future research should explore whether solutions stories elicit hope or relief and if so, under what story conditions and issue topics, before deconstructing possible fear-hope-action and fearrelief-action explanatory mechanisms. Although the parallel mediation in hypothesis 4 was not fully supported, study participants' feelings of hope were positively associated with support for collective action to mitigate the effects of climate change. Echoing Hackett et al.'s (2017, p. 7) contention that a lack of "agency, hope and efficacy" decreases support for addressing climate change, we propose that journalists and strategic risk communicators consider moving away from doom-andgloom stories in favor of stories and messages that may evoke hope. However, such stories and messages must offer hope without sugar-coating the risks or progress remaining to avoid suggesting that action is unnecessary. By requiring evidence of a response's efficacy and mention of its limitations (SJN, n.d.-b), solutions journalism, particularly rigorous examples, should balance perceptions of hope with reality. Strategic communication scholars of risk communication should explore how best to communicate hope to spark support for climate change adaptation without creating backfire effects, which may occur due the effect of partisan polarization about climate change on individuals' information and message processing (Bolsen & Shapiro, 2017). Specifically in the context of solutions to climate change, Campbell and Kay (2014) found that Republicans presented with information about a climate solution were skeptical about climate science, demonstrating support that individuals' partisan beliefs may result in solutions aversion.
Although the two emotions directly measured in this study, hope and eco-anxiety, were positively predictive of support for collective action for climate change adaptation, the overall picture regarding participants' emotional responses is mixed. We did not find support that the broaden-and-build theory of positive emotions (Fredrickson, 2001(Fredrickson, , 2004 explained the emotional impact of solutions stories or their connection with prosocial action. At the same time, our descriptive analyses revealed few differences in how readers are emotionally affected by solutions-oriented and problem-oriented stories. Both solutions and problem stories tended to arouse high-arousal, negative-valence emotions. Readers of solutions stories were next most likely to list low-arousal and negative-valence emotions, whereas readers of problem stories were next most likely to list higharousal and positive valence emotions. While it is not surprising on some level that both types of stories evoked negative emotions since both contain information about the problem of climate change, it is surprising that solutions stories were not likely to inspire positive emotions. It is unclear how emotional valence and arousal inspired by news stories pushes people to approach rather than avoid social problems. We know the news media's negativity bias results in increasing news avoidance and social disempowerment (Newman et al., 2019), uncertainty about solutions to social ills (McIntyre, 2019), and decreased civic participation (Parks, 2019). Future research should continue to focus on which specific emotions, besides hope or anxiety, are engendered by solutions stories, as well as how emotional valence interacts with attitudes and intentions toward prosocial behaviors. Finally, the broadenand-build theory may be applicable for other news topics as slow-moving crises such as climate change may result in different amounts and types of thought-action repertoires than fast-moving crises or less abstract social problems.
Our finding that a short solutions journalism about climate change adaptation did not directly affect support for collective climate action raises interesting questions about how climate change journalism affects news audiences. News about adapting to climate change may suggest the crisis can be remediated, possibly depressing support for mitigation efforts (Carrico et al., 2015;Evans et al., 2014;Greenhill et al., 2018;Howell et al., 2016). However, evidence suggests including information about adaptation actually increases support for mitigation efforts (Greenhill et al., 2018;Evans et al., 2014). Other studies found no difference in adaptation or mitigation information on support for mitigation generally, except that adaptation messages increased mitigation support for moderates (Carrico et al., 2015) and mitigation messages were more engaging for those highly concerned about climate change (Howell et al., 2016). Emphasizing personal or government mitigation action did not affect support for mitigation, but those mitigation messages were more engaging for those highly concerned about climate change with a government-driven mitigation message not engaging for individuals with low levels of climate concern (Howell et al., 2016). As our study examined support for adaptation rather than mitigation, future research should examine if issue concern level and political ideology moderate the effect of news about adaptation efforts on support for adaptation, particularly for adaptation responses at the individual and government levels.
Furthermore, individuals likely harbor pre-conceived knowledge and opinions about climate change due to efforts by strategic actors (Bolsen & Shapiro, 2017) compared with less prominent social issues so a single exposure to a short news story may not produce direct effects, particularly for policy-related constructs. A meta-analysis of experimental interventions for climate change attitudes found interventions designed to influence policy attitudes less effective at influencing policy attitudes than beliefs (Rode et al., 2021). Future solutions journalism research about climate change should investigate whether length, specific climate change topic, or other story characteristics produce direct effects and for which outcomes.

Limitations
Like all research studies, this study was not without limitations. First, this study employed a convenience sample of undergraduate students, meaning the findings do not generalize to other populations. Problematically for this study, market research has shown younger audiences prefer solutions journalism and find it more likely to inspire social action (Heyward, 2020;Hutchins & Granger, 2019), so future research should attempt to replicate these findings in a more age-diverse sample. The student body at the university where the research was conducted is heavily Democratic; however, partisanship may moderate responses to framed climate change messages (Bolsen & Shapiro, 2017;Druckman & McGrath, 2019). Thus, future studies should rely on politically diverse samples. While the textual elements of the stimuli were designed to enhance ecological validity, eliminating the story source, author, and visuals to avoid confounding effects created different conditions than those encountered by real-world news consumers. Furthermore, our stimuli were less than 800 words to reduce participant burden, but relatively shorter solutions stories are less representative of the genre; 78% of text-based stories in the Solution Journalism Network's online Story-Tracker are between 800-3,000 words compared with 13% for stories less than 800 words. Future studies should find ways to further increase ecological validity while controlling for confounding factors and attending to data quality. Finally, participants were asked after the fact to recall emotions and cognitions experienced while reading a news story; it is possible participants adjusted their responses due to social desirability bias.

Conclusion
This study contributes to our understanding of an emerging journalism genre, solutions journalism, and its potential to influence how news consumers process risks generated by climate change and support for climate change adaptation. Findings offer insights into how news audiences attribute responsibility for climate change, increase the evidence that solutions-oriented stories enhance audience efficacy, connect that enhanced efficacy with policy support, and explore the role of emotion in support for collective responses to climate change. As climate change is an ongoing crisis that requires rapid and increased adaptation efforts, understanding how an emerging journalism genre may be more effective than traditional problem-oriented journalism in inspiring support for adapting to our changing climate is critical. Note 1. Constructive and solutions "act as an antidote to the negativity bias in traditional news, and both encourage contextual, thematic reporting with an aim to increase trust and empower audiences," yet they are "separate approaches" (Lough & McIntyre, 2021, p. 2). Constructive journalism may, but not necessarily, employ solutions-oriented journalism (McIntyre & Gyldensted, 2018;Thier, 2021), whereas solutions journalism refers to news stories that meet SJN's definition of credible responses to social problems with four essential qualities. Thus, it is "much narrower" (BBC World Service, 2016, n.p.).