Author Archives: Dave Poulson

Knight Center faculty teach environmental journalism in Chile

Students at the Universidad del Desarrollo in Concepcion, Chile, participate in an exercise led by Knight Center faculty. Image: David Poulson

Students at the Universidad del Desarrollo in Concepcion, Chile, participate in an exercise led by Knight Center faculty. Image: David Poulson

By David Poulson

Chile’s Chiflon del Diablo coal mine descends more than 3,000 feet below sea level before extending some five miles under the Pacific Ocean.

Miners no longer undertake the back-breaking, thigh-burning trek through low tunnels to extract coal – the mine closed in 1990. It’s now a tourist attraction operated by former miners and one that I visited as part of a 10-day swing through Chile while teaching environmental journalism with Knight Center Director Eric Freedman and Research Director Bruno Takahashi.

The three of us recently lectured at four universities in three Chilean cities as part of a $40,000 project funded by the U.S. State Department to further investigative reporting in that country. Continue reading

The environment is THE beat of the 21st century

Christy George

Christy George

By Jack Nissen
Environmental journalism is known by some reporters as the “bummer beat” and “the journalism of despair.”
For Christy George, it’s going to be the “story of the 21st century.”

“It already is,” said George, a public radio and television producer from Portland, Oregon. “People just aren’t reading it yet. Climate change and extinction and things like that are really critical environmental issues that are about to overtake us and become the number one story.” Continue reading

Knight Center grad recognized as young environmental leader

Haley Walker

Haley Walker

Knight Center alum Haley Walker recently joined the  Oregon Environmental Council‘s Emerging Leaders Board.

The council’s advisory board of “entrepreneurs, strategist, community leaders and visionaries under the age of 40 have agreed to share their extraordinary skills to support the mission of Oregon Environmental Council.”

Walker, who graduated from the Knight Center in December of 2010, is the senior communications director with The Freshwater Trust, the oldest wild fish conservation group in the Pacific Northwest.

While at MSU she wrote for the Knight Center’s award-winning EJ Magazine and was an early reporter for the center’s Great Lakes Echo environmental news service. The stories she covered for those publications were as diverse as climate change in national parks and gardens maintained by prison inmates and confessing to spending half her income on organic food.

As a student she was part of an award-winning team recognized by the Society of Professional Journalists for a series of stories about water quality problems at public pools. The Knight Center awarded her the Edward J. Meeman Service Award in 2010.

Three high schools win journalism-environmental science grants from the Knight Center

By Eric Freedman

The Knight Center is awarding $2,000 grants to three Michigan high schools for collaboration between their journalism and environmental science classes.

The winning projects were selected in the center’s third statewide competition.

The Knight Center also matches the schools with professional journalism mentors to work with the students and teachers for guidance and advice on the projects.

The grants go to: Continue reading