Environmental Journalism
Welcome
This app will be compiling key takeaways from the Caulfield lecture on “Covering Climate Change from the Heart of the Chesapeake." The panel consisted of five environmental reporters including Christine Condon, John Lee, Kasha Patel, Aman Azhar, and Rona Kobell.
Finding the Story
What do you report on when there is not a major environmental crisis or event? As a reporter one must figure out how to find the story on a global scale or a residential one. Reporters can do this through going to town halls or budget meetings. While there may not be a direct discussion of environmental concerns, a reporter can determine how new policies or funding towards projects will have an environmental impact. It is important for a reporter to be able to read between the lines to find stories on a smaller scale since it is the smaller changes to the environment that add up to create a bigger issue. Most environmental stories are not going to be like Biden signing off on the Willow Project, some may be as simple as the making of a parking lot. Both however are going to affect a community of people just on different scales. Not all stories an environmental journalist will, tell will be longer hard hitting with a lot of research pieces. They will also have to find those smaller stories that will have an impact on the direct community.
Representation
Environmental journalism has a major problem with representation with the majority of reporters being white and male. It used to be a section of the paper or news site with people who are interested in the outdoors or outdoor activities. This affects how stories are told and whose stories are being told. Diversity in any work setting is important for more angles on what is going on in other countries and why it impacts not only that country but the rest of the world. Though right now, being a journalist requires people to have financial privilege or someone else to be able to “sponsor” them as they freelance or intern before they get a steady source of income. Not many people have that privilege, which limits the amount of people’s voices that get to be heard in the newsroom. More diversity is needed in environmental journalism to get a more well rounded idea of what is happening in the world.
Click here for more information on “The Diversity Problem in Environmental Journalism” by Cody Wiesner.
Impact
Environmental journalists are not able to necessarily see what impact their words have on people. When discussing political decisions that are centered around the environment there are going to be angry readers on both sides of the political sphere. However, when those decisions are impacting the environment it is still important to report on it even if there is backlash because it will still educate someone on the topic. For the smaller stories, readers are going to recognize that the story is happening directly to them which is way easier for them to accept as true. Both pieces will spark discussion which could lead to more important ones later which will hopefully affect the environment for the better.
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