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Knight Center part of MSU Sustainability campaign

The Knight Center for Environmental Journalism is part of MSU’s “Earth Month 2021” fundraising campaign focused on showcasing university initiatives that support sustainability.

As part of the campaign, MSU is highlighting its status as the only Big 10 school on the Princeton Review’s list of the Top 50 Green Colleges and its 2020 Tree Campus Higher Education recognition by the Arbor Day Foundation for its management of urban forests on campus.

“Donor support makes it possible to operate Great Lakes Echo, our award-winning news service in which students cover climate change, threats to the Great Lakes, biodiversity, natural resources, extreme weather and other key environmental issues in the Great Lakes region,” center director Eric Freedman said.

In addition to the Knight Center, other program partners are the Michigan Natural Features Inventory, MSU Institute of Water Research, Student Organic Farm, MSU Bikes, MSU Sustainability, Michigan Pollinator initiative and Residential Initiative on the Study of the Environment.

You can support the Knight Center and help Spartan students learn how to report on the world’s most important beat by donating at go.msu.edu/cp-knight-center.

Knight Center research director Bruno Takahashi publishes about Emergency Communications Policies in Puerto Rico

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Bruno Takahashi

Knight Center research director Bruno Takahashi has published the article Emergency Communications Policies in Puerto Rico: Interaction between regulatory institutions and telecommunications companies during Hurricane Maria in the journal Telecommunications Policy. The study was led by Luis Rosario-Albert, a professor of communication at the Universidad Ana G. Méndez in Puerto Rico.

The study examined the view of telecommunications carriers’ representatives on the adequacy of emergency communications policies during Hurricane Maria in 2017 in Puerto Rico. The article also presents a policy analysis to assess the Federal Communications Commission, the Telecommunications Bureau of Puerto Rico and telecommunications companies’ emergency communications processes and outcomes. It points to ineffective government emergency communications policies due to the impact of external factors and the lack of coordination of the Puerto Rico’s electrical power provider and private telecommunications companies.

The study is part of the project Infrastructure collapse and its effects on news practices during Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico, led by Takahashi and funded by the National Science Foundation.

EJ students looking at relationships among environment, culture and traditions in Great Lakes region

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By Eric Freedman

Coverage of the environment in the Great Lakes region involves a lot of reporting on nasty stuff—hazardous waste, invasive species, climate change, air pollution and so on. It involves reporting on good stuff—forests, wildlife, waterways, public lands, outdoor recreation, eco-tourism and the like. It involves covering science and social science studies, legislation, public policy and litigation.

At the Knight Center, we’ve also been pushing our students to report more on the relationships among environment, culture and traditions in the Great Lakes region.

Readers of Great Lakes Echo, our award-winning environmental news service, have always responded well to our stories about shipwrecks and lighthouses, both of them environmental icons of the Great Lakes.

But we’ve also been pushing environmental journalism students – those in our classes and those we hire to work at the Knight Center – to pay more attention to other cultural aspects of the region – the humanities and arts of the region. Continue reading →

International reporting tips from the Society of Environmental Journalists conference

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Editor’s note: This is the 3rd^t in a series of posts by environmental reporting students on things they learned at the recent Society of Environmental Journalists conference.

By Audrey Porter

At the international reporting meet-up at the recent virtual Society of Environmental Journalists conference, the speakers gave introductions about themselves, including job titles and locations where they work.

Audrey Porter

But, surprisingly, they wanted to hear a lot about me as I wanted to learn more about them. I spoke and got a little advice about international reporting.

One was speaking world languages when traveling. A speaker mentioned that there are a lot of ethics questions that you have to consider when you’re going between languages, when you’re jumping around places.

I responded by mentioning I took an anthropology class that talked about international traveling and how, in many countries, some things we say and do in America are not okay everywhere. So, if you’re doing international news, study the place you’re going and learn their language.

Another speaker added that getting good connections to people who can help you with translators and other things is the best first value in figuring out how to learn the language as a journalist. Continue reading →