Solutions journalism and infotainment: A framing analysis of last week tonight with john oliver

In the United States, shrinking audiences for traditional news media and distrust in journalistic institutions have often been linked to factors such as social networks, political ideology, and perceptions of journalistic quality. An emerging line of research on constructive and solutions journalism points toward another contributing factor: the overwhelmingly negative, problem-centered framing in media coverage. Less attention, however, has been paid to whether soft news or entertainment-political hybrids intersect with solutions journalism. This study fills that gap by analyzing how Last Week Tonight with John Oliver frames its political news segments: problem oriented, solution oriented, or a mixture of both. Using a statistically guided random sample of 181 main segments drawn from 329 episodes aired between 2014 and early 2025, this content analysis assessed framing type (problem, mixed, solution), issue scale (local, national, international, multi-level), presence of political actors, and use of satirical techniques. Results show that Last Week Tonight relies heavily on problem-oriented framing, which appears in 70% of the sample, followed by mixed framing (29%), with solution-oriented framing appearing in just about 1% of the sample. The show’s framing type was not significantly associated with whether the issue was international, national or local, or with which political actors were mentioned; however, the use of satirical techniques was most common and significantly associated with problem-oriented segments. Qualitative analysis indicate that even problem-oriented episodes often end with a call to action, though these do not suffice to recast the episode as solution-oriented. Mixed framing tends to be the most balanced approach in both diagnosing issues and discussing existing responses.