Category Archives: Awards

Student environmental reporting wins SPJ prize

Andrew Blok and Kurt Williams

Two master’s students at Michigan State University, Kurt Williams and Andrew Blok, won first place in the Online Reporting category at the recent Region 4 meeting of the Society of Professional Journalists in Cleveland.

Williams and Blok received a Mark of Excellence award for their reporting titled “Algal Blooms in the Great Lakes: Investigating efforts to protect and preserve water quality.” The award recognizes the finest in collegiate journalism in Region 4, which encompasses Michigan, Ohio, western Pennsylvania and West Virginia. Their project now moves on to the national Society of Professional Journalists competition.

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

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By Eric Freedman

The Knight Center is awarding $2,000 grants to four 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. Continue reading →

Knight Center awards fifth round of documentary grants

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The Knight Center for Environmental Journalism has awarded two $3,500 documentary grants to MSU faculty-student teams.

The winning projects were chosen from proposals submitted in a campus-wide competition:

“The Ground Beneath our Feet” — The film will document how a community of ordinary people, acting extraordinarily, can show that others can take a stand for their communities against big industry polluters. Faculty: Geri Zeldes, School of Journalism and John Valadez, Department of Media & Information. Students: Evan Kutz and Taylor O’Neil, Journalism; and Jon Famurewa and Jason Howard, Media & Information.

“We Are Flint” — The film will look at the narratives of Flint residents/families talking about the city, the environment they live in and their lives there. Faculty: Judy Walgren, School of Journalism. Students: Courtney Pasek, Sylvia Jarrus and Nic Antaya, Journalism.

In addition to public dissemination of the projects, the Knight Center will use the documentaries on its website and for presentation in classes, workshops and other center activities.
This is the fourth year of the center’s grant competition.

Study on dangers facing environmental journalists wins award

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Knight Center director Eric Freedman’s study of dangers facing environmental journalists was recognized as a Top Faculty Paper at the 2018 Association for Journalism & Mass Communications annual conference.

The award came from the organization’s Communicating Science, Health, Environment and Risk Division.

For the study, “In the Crosshairs: The Perils of Environmental Journalism ,” Freedman interviewed journalists from five continents who had been arrested, interrogated, sued, harassed, physically assaulted or threatened for their coverage. It explored the impact of such situations, including the psychological effects on these journalists’ sense of mission and professional practices.

Freedman said environmental journalists around the globe are at heightened risk because environmental controversies often involve influential business and economic interests, political power battles, criminal activities, and corruption, as well as politically, culturally, and economically sensitive issues concerning indigenous rights to land and natural resources.