Category Archives: Research

Knight Center seeks MSU students for paid jobs

The Knight Center for Environmental Journalism has limited paid staff positions for graduate and undergraduate students at Michigan State University. The work includes

producing news stories for Great Lakes Echo, our award winning online regional environmental news service;
assisting faculty with research, including online and library research and proofreading of conference papers, journal articles and other material;
interviewing scientists about their environment-related research for podcasts and other public distribution;
helping “translate” research for lay audiences.

Other needs depend on the flow of projects, grants and Knight Center activities. Hours are flexible.
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Knight Center faculty, grad students present environmental research

Some participants at the 13th biennial Conference on Communication and Environment toured the Space Weather Prediction Center operated by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration in Boulder, Colorado. Image: Eric Freedman

Faculty and doctoral students affiliated with the Knight Center played an active role as presenters and panelists at the International Environmental Communication Association’s 2015 Conference on Communication and the Environment.
The theme of the June 11-14 gathering at the University of Colorado in Boulder was “Bridging Divides: Spaces of Scholarship and Practice in Environmental Communications.”
As part of an effort to increase the organization’s engagement with environmental journalism teachers and researchers, Knight Center research director Bruno Takahashi organized and moderated a panel called “Bridging Environmental Journalism and Practice, Research and Education: Current State and Mapping Future Directions.”
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Knight Center researchers publish study on Twitter and typhoon

Christine Carmichael

By: Christine Carmichael
The latest issue of Computers in Human Behavior features an article by Knight Center research director Bruno Takahashi and graduate student staff member Christine Carmichael, along with co-author Edson Tandoc Jr. of the Philippines.
The article, “Communicating on Twitter during a disaster: An analysis of tweets during Typhoon Haiyan in the Philippines,” describes results from a content analysis of 1,000 tweets published by Twitter users before, during and after the deadly typhoon in the Philippines in November 2013. In light of the two recent and devastating earthquakes in Nepal, there is a growing need to understand the current and potential uses of social media services to assist those affected.
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Knight Center director lectures on environmental journalism in Russia

Eric Freedman at St. Petersburg University.

Knight Center director Eric Freedman recently spent a week giving guest lectures in two Russian cities about environmental journalism.
He spoke at the University of Television and Cinema and at Saint Petersburg State University in Saint Petersburg, the former Russian capital under the czars, and at Chelyabinsk State University in Chelyabinsk in the South Urals.
Both host cities face severe environmental challenges. In Saint Petersburg, the Neva River running through the heart of the city has been heavily polluted, primarily by industrial wastes, and it’s ranked the country’s third-most polluted city. Chelyabinsk and its environs have been described as among the world’s most contaminated places, due in large part to radioactive contaminants from a now-closed nuclear material processing facility, but also due to discharges from industrial plants.
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