Knight Center for Environmental Journalism

Dan Fagin discusses environmental journalism and his Pulitzer Prize-winning Toms River with MSU students in the Knight Center for Environmental Journalism

Dan Fagin discusses environmental journalism and his Pulitzer Prize-winning Toms River with MSU students during a pizza lunch in the Knight Center for Environmental Journalism. Image: Anthony Cepak

By Marie Orttenburger
Dan Fagin describes epidemiology as “a very long word for a very simple thing.”
What it amounts to is connecting the dots, he said recently at a presentation about his Pulitzer prize-winning book at Michigan State University’s Knight Center for Environmental Journalism. Though the concept may be “simple,” the process is no small feat.
Fagin is an environmental journalist and director of New York University’s Science, Health and Environmental Reporting Program. He visited MSU to discuss epidemiology and how he applied it in writing his best-selling book, “Toms River.” Continue reading →

Bruno Takahashi

Knight Center Research Director Bruno Takahashi recently presented environmental journalism research at the Hispanic Communication Conference organized by Florida International University.
The November conference gathered some of the most important academics and professionals working in communication and media issues that concern Hispanic audiences in the U.S.
Takahashi’s presentation, Challenges and Opportunities for Hispanic Media in Reporting Environmental Issues, included a general overview of the state of environmental journalism in the U.S. and recent research on the state of environmental reporting in Spanish language media.
Some of the results, based on in-depth interviews with journalists and news decision-makers, show important organizational, cultural, and journalistic limitations of Hispanic media – factors that constrain the salience of environmental issues.
Some of this work is in collaboration with MSU journalism professor Manuel Chavez and two colleagues at Florida International University, Juliet Pinto and Mercedes Vigon.
The researchers plan additional studies on the content of environmental news in Spanish language media and on Hispanic audience’s perceptions of environmental issues.