Category Archives: David Poulson

David Poulson is the senior associate director of Michigan State University’s Knight Center for Environmental Journalism.

Losing the stake in stakeholder

PoulsonTeachAhhh…sweet vindication.
A perk editors enjoy is enforcing pet language peeves.  Sure, there are grammar guidelines, punctuation rules and proper word use that are generally accepted practices.
But then there are those innocent words and phrases that unreasonably drive editors around the bend. For me, one of those words – and there are perhaps too many – is stakeholder.
This is a significant problem in my role as the editor of the Knight Center’s Great Lakes Echo environmental news service. Government agencies, nonprofit groups, lawyers and others affiliated with environmental issues are enthralled with what has become to mean anyone with a stake in those issues.
Me? Nothing gives me greater pleasure than excising stakeholder from copy. “The only stakeholder is a vampire killer’s assistant,” I tell reporters.
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Knight Center faculty member discusses geography tools to explain the environment

Knight Center Senior Associate Director David Poulson describes how journalists use digital geography tools to report on the environment.

Knight Center Senior Associate Director David Poulson describes how journalists use digital geography tools to report on the environment.


It’s a challenge to conceive of a news community consisting of parts of eight states and two provinces.
But an orbital camera can snap it all in the same frame.
Satellite imagery was among the digital geography tools for journalism that David Poulson demonstrated recently at Michigan State University’s library.
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New documentaries among food communication showcase

MSU student Trish Abalo speaks with a Malawi vendor. Photo Credit: Alyssa Cleland

MSU student Trish Abalo speaks with a Malawi vendor. Photo Credit: Alyssa Cleland


Faculty and students affiliated with MSU’s Knight Center for Environmental Journalism are featuring a multi-media program to explain research and innovations for better feeding the world on Nov. 13.
The event showcases communication elements of the Translational Scholar Corps., a program developed with Michigan State University’s Global Center for Food Systems Innovation. The program explains global food problems and solutions in part by improving researchers’ ability to tell their own story.
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