Author Archives: Dave Poulson

MSU Knight Center associate director elected to national board

David Poulson

Members of the national Society of Environmental Journalists recently elected David Poulson to their board of directors at the organization’s annual meeting in Chattanooga.
Poulson, the senior associate director at Michigan State University’s Knight Center for Environmental Journalism, represents the 1,300-member society’s academic section.
He has taught environmental journalism at MSU for nearly 11 years following a 22-year career as a reporter and editor.
Poulson is the founder and editor of Great Lakes Echo, the center’s award-winning environmental news service, and has been a member of the Society of Environmental Journalists for more than 21 years. The MSU alumnus also organizes and teaches workshops for professional journalists and for scientists seeking to improve communication skills.

EJ or not EJ? Commitment and the freelance life

Eric Freedman

By Eric Freedman
The rapidly changing face of journalism writ large is also the changing face of environmental and science journalism.
These are despairingly dark days of continued newsroom downsizing, the disappearance of long-established news outlets and reduced environmental coverage by those news outlets that survive.
Thus it was no surprise that the challenges of freelancing were high on the agenda at last week’s annual Society of Environmental Journalists annual conference, Time after time, someone stood up during a Q&A period and began, “I’m a freelancer from…” before asking a question to speakers or panelists. Continue reading →

River snorkeling and public engagement: Can it preserve species?

Cool water pooled in the space between the small of my back and my wetsuit as I drifted face down in Tennessee’s Tellico River.
The minor discomfort was forgotten as a dark-striped fish with a bright orange belly erupted from a hole in the rocky river bottom below.
Pat Rakes, co-director of Conservation Fisheries, Inc. in Knoxville, spit out his snorkel and gleefully sang out, “A tangerine darter, two of them.”
Indeed, there were – and more. A school of Tennessee shiners appeared with bright
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The view from Chattanooga

Eric Freedman

By Eric Freedman
Director, Knight Center for Environmental Journalism
When I turned on my laptop shortly after 6:15 a.m. on Friday, there was a breaking news story on my CNN homepage about Tropical Storm Karen threatening the Gulf Coast.
The homepage also had links to these other environment-related and science-related stories: “Deadly hornets are world’s largest,” “Roman skulls unearthed in London” and “Dinosaur’s fossilized tail found,” plus video links to “Great white sharks munch on whale” and “Does this video show a snoozing Bigfoot?” You may debate whether Bigfoot, a/k/a Sasquatch, counts as a topic of science rather than of myth, imagination or delusion, but science is one of the options, unlikely as that might sound.
It was the start of my second day at the annual conference of the Society of Environmental Journalists in Chattanooga, and an indication of what’s on the minds of environmental journalists as newsworthy these days.
Continue reading →