Echo part of climate collaborative getting new story-sharing tool

By David Poulson

Readers of Great Lakes Echo will soon benefit from a new tool to share climate change stories with a nationwide network of nearly two dozen regional news organizations.

The Michigan State University news service run by the Knight Center for Environmental Journalism is part of a network of regional journalists reporting on climate change that is organized by the Local Media Association.

That group announced Sept. 22 a $200,000 award from the Google News Initiative to partner with Distributed Media Lab (DML) to develop story-sharing technology for the climate reporting initiative.

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Environmental journalism student finishes Detroit Public TV internship

By Rachel Duckett

Rachel Duckett

This summer, I worked as an intern at Great Lakes Now, an environmental journalism initiative through PBS and Detroit Public Television covering news around the Great Lakes.

I’m a senior at MSU, and until this internship I didn’t know that environmental journalism was an option for me. Now, I feel like I have a better sense of where I want to go with my degree and a bit more experience to help me get there.

It was really rewarding covering environmental news, I got the opportunity to talk to scientists, as well as people in my community for stories that I felt proud of.

I also got to pitch my own story ideas, like this article I wrote about lighthouses.

I got to practice everything I’d learned in my classes so far and I can’t wait to learn more in my environmental journalism courses this year.

The Knight Center for Environmental Journalism underwrote Druckett’s internship.

My environmental journalism internship experience has been nothing but eye-opening for me. I can’t say enough good things about it.

Prior to my internship, I wasn’t too interested in the environment and wasn’t sure what stories needed to be told. It only took a little under a week for me to understand the severity of how many stories were craving to be published. I was never extensively searching for a story pitch because there was always something happening.

But then I began to understand that most of the general public was, like myself prior to my internship; uninterested in the environment. Which broke my heart because without a healthy environment, we would cease to exist. While also considering the amount of environmental journalists compared to regular journalists, my mind was blown. I knew I was playing a very important role in society by sharing stories that weren’t being told.

My biggest skill that I’ve learned is that there’s always more than what meets the eye. This can be interpreted a lot of ways, including types of stories being shared, what’s happening in the world or even what someone is saying. It’s our job to dive deeper and provide context to any situation. This is true for all types of journalism.

I’ve had my fair share of stories, but there’s a few favorites that definitely stick out to me. These include

https://www.wkar.org/environment/2021-06-22/msu-dedicates-new-space-on-campus-to-the-research-and-protection-of-pollinators

If there’s ever an opportunity to become an environmental journalist, I highly recommend taking the opportunity and running with it. My experience has been absolutely incredible.