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.
 
 

A day in the field beats one in court, but environmental journalists have to find a way to cover key decisions

GreenGavel-300x262By David Poulson
You may have caught this weird judicial twist in a recent story on the Knight Center’s environmental news site: A Wisconsin judge ruled that manure was not a waste but a valuable commodity.
That’s no surprise. Anyone with a backyard garden knows that.
But providing that legal stamp produced a counter-intuitive outcome. It meant that an insurer was on the hook for damages when a farm polluted nearby wells with that valuable manure.
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Knight Center grad gets northern Michigan reporting post

Carol Thompson

Carol Thompson


Knight Center alum and 2012 MSU graduate Carol Thompson has just picked up a new gig as a business reporter for the Traverse City Record Eagle.

Carol, who reported for the center’s Great Lakes Echo from 2011 to 2012, will cover northern Michigan industry, business trends and the people who make the community tick.
And while not an environmental beat, she says that commerce takes resources, and business reporting will lead to stories on environmental impacts of local industries and some businesses’ sustainable efforts.
Carol spent two years at the Peninsula Pulse newspaper in Door County, Wis., where she wrote for all sections of the weekly paper. She reported on environmental issues, local government, health care, music and just about everything that goes on in a tight-knit, tourist community.
While at Great Lakes Echo, she covered such issues as Avian botulism, cottage food industries and the unique environmental challenges faced by islands.