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.

Public radio summer internship opportunity

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Interlochen Public Radio is seeking an environmental news intern for the summer. This paid position is funded by the Knight Center for Environmental Journalism and is open to students or recent graduates associated with Michigan State University. The internship will run at least three months, beginning in May and continuing into August, according to the intern’s availability. The deadline to apply is January 31, 2018

This is an extraordinary opportunity for any aspiring journalist interested in public media and the environment. The intern will learn to probe people for detailed information, connect ideas and facts into a larger context and tell stories that help people understand the natural world. In addition to working with the staff at IPR, you will participate in a weeklong workshop run by Transom.org, a national leader in radio storytelling.

Major responsibilities will include the following:

Research issues and story ideas, possibly for credit, during the spring semester.
Produce environmental news stories for public radio.
Produce related digital content.
Share stories with the Knight Center’s online environmental news service, Great Lakes Echo.
Help manage IPR News Radio’s daily broadcast.

Continue reading →

Three 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 three 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.

The grants go to: Continue reading →

Knight Center affiliate explores Rachel Carson’s impact on popular culture of environmentalism

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Perry Parks

During his studies in journalism and science communication, Perry Parks, a Knight Center affiliate and doctoral candidate in the School of Journalism, noticed recurring references to Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring in academic literature, environmental reporting texts and popular mass media. Parks was intrigued both that the 1962 book on pesticides was still so prominent in the culture and that nearly every reference credited Silent Spring in some way with launching the modern environmental movement.

Parks decided to investigate Silent Spring’s role in environmentalism and the causes of its staying power. So he read previous research on the book and conducted a historical and cultural analysis of every reference to the term “silent spring” in the New York Times and the Washington Post over 50 years. That turned out to be more than 1,000 news stories, editorials, letters to the editor, calendar listings and other items. Continue reading →

Spring course offers publication opportunities for students

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Learn investigative, in-depth and project reporting skills across media platforms. This class covers the use of databases, documents, financial and survey data, geographic information systems and other journalism tools.
Students create high-level stories essential for job applications by reporting for three professional news organizations:
The Food Fix, which reports on food system innovations and problems of the developing world.
Capital News Service, which reports on Michigan government and political issues.
Great Lakes Echo, which reports on environmental issues in the Great Lakes states and provinces.
Check out JRN 801 – Multiple Media Reporting II for Spring 2018. Meeting times currently are Fridays from 10:20 a.m. – 2:10 p.m.
If you are interested in the course, but cannot make this day and time, it may be moved. Please let Dave Poulson (poulson@msu.edu) know if you are interested.