Category Archives: Eric Freedman

Eric Freedman is the director of Michigan State University’s Knight Center for Environmental Journalism

Can environmental journalism change the world?

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By Eric Freedman

Eric Freedman

Ask environmental journalists what news stories have changed the world and you’ll provoke a slew of thoughtful – and sometimes conflicting replies.

That’s what I found after Reporters without Borders interviewed me for a piece on environmental journalism. One of their questions: “What are the most important environmental investigations in modern history, the ones that ‘changed the world’”?  My immediate thoughts:

The Flint water crisis because it involved a massive public environmental health threat to thousands of vulnerable people, scientific questions, environmental justice and government misuse of power while triggering similar journalistic and government investigations of a dangerous weakness (lead pipes) in water systems across the U.S. and beyond.

Rachel Carson’s landmark book Silent Spring, which gave a major boost to environmentalism and environmental awareness internationally. I know she was a biologist, but the question said “environmental investigations.” Continue reading →

Knight Center director reports on soft propaganda from Moscow, protests in Tbilisi

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By Eric Freedman

A short article on the website of Georgia Today, an English-language newspaper, was headlined “Journalism and Youth: The South Caucasus Media Forum” and read like an innocuous advance story about an upcoming conference “where lectures of prominent figures of journalism and political science for young journalists and observers will be featured.” It said the main topics of the Sept. 4-7 forum would include regional political culture and media trends.

I saw the story two days before leaving the U.S. to spend the fall teaching and doing research in the Republic of Georgia. Sounded useful to give me a better sense of the mediascape in the South Caucasus. Continue reading →

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.