Round Two of the Knight Center Documentary Grant competition
The Knight Center for Environmental Journalism will award up to 3 grants of $3,500 each to support the making of environment-related documentaries (video, audio or other digital media) by MSU faculty-student teams.
Here are the essentials
Deadline for submission: December 1, 2015, at 5 p.m.
Decisions to be announced approximately January 15, 2016.
Open to faculty and students from all departments at MSU.
Maximum award: $3,500 for 1 year
These must be documentaries, not public service announcements or advocacy pieces.
The Knight Center for Environmental Journalism must be credited for underwriting the project.
The Knight Center will be entitled to use your documentary, including linking on our website and presentation in classes, workshops and other activities.
Allowable expenses include travel, essential equipment, supplies, pay for students and festival & competition entry fees. All expenditures must comply with MSU procedures and rules. Any equipment purchased remains the property of MSU.
What to Submit
• Working title
• Medium: video, audio or other digital media
• Project summary (200 words maximum): What compelling story will you tell?
• Estimated timeline (Be realistic)
• Most likely audiences: Whom do you expect to watch or listen to it?
• For video & audio documentaries, what length do you expect the final version to be?
• Distribution plans: How will you disseminate your product?
• Budget plan: How do you plan to spend the money?
• Team members:
• Faculty: name, rank and department or school and project role, with abbreviated CV
• Students: name, year, major and project role, with resume
• Potential problems and obstacles
• Links to any relevant projects by team members or bring a CD to the Knight Center office at 382 Com Arts Building by the deadline
Email questions to Eric Freedman, Director, freedma5@msu.edu
Email submissions to Barbara Miller, mille384@msu.edu

Knight Center Research Director Bruno Takahashi has been named one of four 2015 Sustainability Fellows at Michigan State University.
The program funds research on environmental responsibility and sustainability at MSU to better inform decision makers how to improve it.
Takahashi is part of a team that will survey undergraduate students on their knowledge of sustainability and related behaviors and attitudes toward environmental responsibility.
Other members of the team include John Besley, associate professor in the Department of Advertising and Public Relations, and Adam Zwickle, assistant professor in the Environmental Science and Policy Program and the School of Criminal Justice in the College of Social Science.
Also named as a Sustainability Fellow is Sina Jahangiri Mamouri, a doctoral student in MSU’s Department of Mechanical Engineering who will explore the potential for solar water heaters on campus.

Here is an excellent interview of Charleston Gazette reporter Ken Ward on the West Virginia chemical spill.
This is a great example of a longtime environmental reporter with significant background and expertise who is able to put an immediate crisis quickly into context.
Kudos go to the journalist and to NPR which was smart enough to seek him out. It’s a great way to advance the circulation of quality reporting and observation.
Stay with it to the end to hear Ken’s take on having a sense of place and why he reports from where he does.
David Poulson