Category Archives: Students

 
Journalism and non-journalism students at Michigan State University explore how to better report environmental issues to the public at the Knight Center for Environmental Journalism.
 

Environmental journalism courses can help students meet the School of Journalism’s elective requirements. They can also be used as part of an environmental theme to complete the school’s concentration requirement by combining them with environment-related courses outside the journalism program. See your academic adviser or contact the Knight Center.
 
Non-journalism students interested in environmental issues are encouraged to contact instructors to discuss waiver of pre-requisites. Often a journalism environmental course may meet communication course requirements of other departments.
 

 
Undergraduates are also encouraged to join the student Environmental Journalism Association and write for Great Lakes Echo to gain resume-building experience and clips.
 
Undergraduate students are eligible for several awards and scholarships in environmental journalism.
 
They are encouraged to augment their study with environment classes and programs elsewhere at MSU such as the Residential Initiative on the Study of the Environment.
 
 

Utilities are an underappreciated source of environmental stories

Editor’s note: This is part of an occasional series of tips gleaned from the most recent annual conference of the Society of Environmental Journalists.

By Devin Anderson-Torrez

BOISE, Idaho – Utilities are an undercovered beat, yet they represent a source of great stories at the intersection of human, energy and environmental issues.

What they decide – quickly, slowly or not at all – will be a key factor in whether the battle against climate change is a winning one, said Sammy Roth, a reporter at the LA Times, who spoke at the recent annual conference of the Society of Environmental Journalists.

Continue reading

Advice from the field: Make your producer cover climate change 

Editor’s note: This is part of an occasional series of tips gleaned from the most recent annual conference of the Society of Environmental Journalists.

By Vladislava Sukhanovskaya

Journalists and meteorologists met at this year’s Society of Environmental Journalists conference to explore how to connect extreme weather and climate change.

Here are some tips and useful resources provided by a panel at the organization’s annual conference in Boise, Idaho.

Continue reading

Knight Center student wins Iceland reporting trip

By Finn Hopkins

Recent MSU graduate Cassidy Hough (far right) poses alongside other 2023 Storyfest winners.
Credit: Alexandra Daley-Clark/Lindblad Expeditions

A Michigan State University student recently won a climate change reporting trip to Iceland in a national journalism contest.

Cassidy Hough won first place in the “Best Use of Science or Data” category of the competition with a report on perennial grains for the Knight Center for Environmental Journalism’s Food Fix podcast.

Judges recently announced the winners of the annual national Storyfest competition for exemplary work covering stories on the environment, sustainability and climate change.

Continue reading

MSU Knight Center student’s podcast episode ranked among the top 20 solutions journalism stories by the Solutions Journalism Network

An MSU Knight Center student’s podcast episode ranked among the top 20 solutions journalism stories by the Solutions Journalism Network. What the judges said of the story by Cassidy Hough appearing on the center’s The Food Fix podcast: “It’s not only a great example of student journalism, it also shows…that solutions reporting ‘can — and does — translate well into entertaining and informing podcasting.’ It’s a fun, in-depth and remarkably concise answer to the question, “Could food crops regrow on their own?”