Category Archives: Alumni

       
 

Knight Center grad awarded environmental fellowship

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Carol Thompson

Knight Center graduate Carol Thompson is among 13 journalists named to the inaugural class of the National Science-Health-Environment Reporting Fellowships.

Thompson, who graduated from the Michigan State University School of Journalism in 2012, developed her interest in environment reporting while reporting for the Knight Center’s Great Lakes Echo environmental news service.

“I still read it,” said Thompson, now a reporter at the Lansing (Michigan) State Journal.

Journalists selected for the award participate in workshops, a reporting bootcamp at the University of Missouri, multi-day field trips and webinars. They will attend national professional conferences for journalists reporting on health care, environment and science.

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Paid public radio internship for MSU students or recent MSU grads

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The Knight Center for Environmental Journalism is underwriting another paid fulltime internship at Interlochen Public Radio for an MSU student or recent MSU graduate.
This is a great opportunity for someone interested in public radio or environmental issues.
One of the station’s reporters is an MSU J-School alum who once had this internship.
It runs at least 15 weeks, ideally beginning in September, with some flexibility on timing. The deadline to apply is April 23, 2021.

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Knight Center alum accepts position at Alma College

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Tony Van Witsen

Former Knight Center doctoral researcher Tony Van Witsen will begin teaching next week as a full time visiting faculty member at Alma College, a small liberal arts school in Alma, Michigan. He will be teaching two undergraduate courses, Research Methods and Relational Communication, which will mostly encompass the relationship between science and policy. Tony entered the I & M program in August of 2014 and successfully defended his dissertation this past May. His research examines news coverage of environmental controversies and complex scientific issues, particularly the ways journalists make sense of statistics.

Knight Center goes to the Society of Environmental Journalists conference

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Andrew Blok, Dave Poulson, Brian Bienkowski and Andy McGlashen

Knight Center director Eric Freedman and senior associate director Dave Poulson represented MSU at the recent annual conference of the Society of Environmental Journalists in Fort Collins, Colorado. At the conference Poulson finished his second three-year term as the academic representative on the SEJ’s board of directors.

 

The MSU team included, in alphabetical order:

  • Alaska fisheries and environmental reporter Margie Bauman, a Journalism School alum who visits the Knight Center each fall to speak to our classes and network with our EJ students.
  • Environmental Health News senior editor Brian Bienkowski, a Knight Center master’s alum.
  • Detroit Public TV news director Natasha Blakely, a former Great Lakes Echo staff writer,
  • EJ master’s student Andrew Blok, a staff writer for Great Lakes Echo.
  • Audubon magazine associate editor Andy McGlashen, a Knight Center master’s alum.

Margie Bauman and Natasha Blakely

The SEJ conference, “Headwaters to the Plains: Where Rivers, and Politics, Change Directions,” took place October 9-13 at Colorado State University.