The goal of journalism, in the words of Carl Bernstein, is to provide the “best obtainable version of the truth.” This is hard to do. It’s not just a matter of sorting fact from fiction, dealing with “filter bubbles” and motivated denial of facts, or even contending with the public’s lack of trust for journalists.

A deeper problem is that human beings tend to form our ideas about the world from the images that come to mind most readily. In other words, if you follow the news regularly — even if the stories you see are factual — you’re likely to overestimate the amount of violence in the world, underrate the performance of the government, and develop an unduly low opinion of the average American.

For counterpoint, here’s an end-of-year round up of solutions journalism, a reminder that for every problem you see reported in the news, there are almost always people responding — and some are doing pretty smart things. Here are a number of examples:

One encouraging pattern visible across the country is a gradual shift from reflexive punishment, which is usually counterproductive and wasteful, to harm reduction and treatment. This theme is explored in “Chasing Heroin,” a two-hour PBS Frontline documentary produced by Marcela Gaviria, which illuminates the country’s heroin crisis through the lives of people who are addicted. The film explains the public policies that shaped the crisis and reports on some alternatives to punishment, including drug courts, and a promising initiative in Seattle, Law Enforcement Assisted Diversion, which — while far from a cure for addiction — has been shown to markedly reduce criminality among addicts.

In “How to Get Out of Solitary — One Step at a Time,” published by the Marshall Project, Maurice Chammah examines the spread of “step-down” or “incentive” programs in prisons. These allow prisoners in solitary confinement to gain privileges in stages through positive behavior, eventually becoming reintegrated in the general prison population. Chammah explains how these programs emerged and spread, and explores their potential to reduce violence and conflict, decrease stress and anxiety for guards, and improve relationships between prison staff and prisoners.