The MSU J-School has launched an initiative to diversify journalists who report on the environment.
It offers significant scholarships, training and internships that benefit emerging and diverse student journalists in any field.
But the focus is on building expertise in covering environmental problems that particularly threaten communities of color. Think of it as reporting on how environmental decisions can unfairly threaten social justice, civil rights and the values of diverse communities.
The program does not require environmental experience.
The expertise of journalists is their lived experience. When that lived experience is diverse, the result is better reporting and more informed decisions regarding environmental threats.
Selected participants are eligible for at least one of these benefits:
1. They can qualify to interview for paid summer environmental reporting internships exclusively provided to MSU students by Bridge Michigan, Detroit Public Television, Michigan Public Radio and Circle of Blue.
2. They can gain paid experience and clips by working for the Knight Center’s Great Lakes Echo professional environmental news service.
3. At least two students will receive fully funded trips to the Society of Environmental Journalists annual conference this spring in Boise, Idaho.
4. Students can receive a $1,750 scholarship to attend MSU environmental journalism classes. These classes (3 credits) count toward your J-School graduation.
More about this program is here. https://comartsci.msu.edu/about/newsroom/news/knight-center-receives-mott-foundation-grant-increase-diversity-environmental?fbclid=IwAR3CyP1zybw39mIHVu6Ilxi-kHU1bVLNwsl0c9J-_MH_wczn9Z_nKfdANW8
Interested? Before midnight Sunday, Jan. 22, 2023, send to MSU Knight Center Senior Associate Director David Poulson, poulsondavid@gmail.com:
• a resume.
• copies of or links to up to any three stories you’ve produced for publication or class.
• contact information for one reference
• an essay no longer than 250 words that explains how your background and lived experience brings diversity to environmental reporting, a field that now skews to majority white journalists. You may suggest environmental story ideas or list activities that indicate a particular interest in diversity.
The program does not require environmental experience. If you have questions, contact David Poulson, poulsondavid@gmail.com.