A story about a problem often ends at the problem, leaving the reader with a clear sense of what is wrong but no sense of what, if anything, is being attempted in response. Learning to ask that second question deliberately changes what a person takes away from difficult news.
The question does not require the answer to be reassuring. Sometimes the honest response is that little is being done yet, which is itself useful information, prompting a reader to look further or ask why, rather than simply absorbing the problem and moving on with a vague, unresolved sense of unease.
Asked consistently enough, this habit shifts a person's relationship with difficult news from passive absorption toward something closer to informed attention, since a problem paired with a genuine question about response tends to stay useful in the mind rather than simply accumulating as one more reason to feel quietly discouraged about everything at once.