Knight News
Knight Center Launches Online Courses
Trying to juggle job, internship and J-School program requirements this summer? Here’s a great way to pick up a 400- or 800- level journalism course on your own schedule.
The MSU Knight Center for Environmental Journalism is launching undergraduate and graduate online environmental reporting courses this summer.
JRN 412 and JRN 812 meet once in the classroom at the beginning of the summer. After that, these courses meet online for the next seven weeks.
Attend class at 2 a.m., from a fast-food joint, at home, at the library or while waiting for your pizza to bake. You won’t even get kicked out if you eat that pizza in class. Just don’t get any cheese on the keyboard.
But…it’s not fun and games or just answering questions between bites of pepperoni. These courses require a serious commitment to serious work. Here are their special challenges:
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It’s up to you to keep up, stay on track and meet deadlines. When you cut a virtual class your education (and your grade) still suffers.
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These courses are during the abbreviated summer session. That means that each week you are responsible for twice as much material as you are during a 15-week traditional course.
Interested? Sign up. Lifelong education students are welcome.
Questions? Contact Dave Poulson, associate director, MSU’s Knight Center for Environmental Journalism, poulson@msu.edu, or 517 432 5417
Knight Center students receive top honors
Four student reporting projects affiliated with Michigan State University’s Knight Center for Environmental Journalism received top honors in the Region 4 Mark of Excellence contest of the Society of Professional Journalists.
The winning entries encompass journalism efforts in broadcast, magazine, feature-writing and online investigations. They were announced with other contest winners March 15 in Pittsburgh.
“The diversity of the winning projects is especially impressive,” said Knight Center Director Jim Detjen. “Our students won first place in four categories. We are honored at the recognition they received from the Society of Professional Journalists.”
The Knight Center winners and links to the entries:
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Have it Your (the Sustainable) Way, Best Magazine Non-Fiction Article - Jessica A. Knoblauch. This guide to avoiding the ecological costs of eating cheap food was published in EJ Magazine. An online version is at http://www.ejmagazine.com/2007a/eating.htm
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Dying to be Heard, Television In-Depth Reporting - Ben Phillips, Kathy Pence & Kevin Wilt. This feature on the role that an MSU scientist played in uncovering the environmental threats of the pesticide DDT was broadcast on WKAR television. A preview and information is at http://ej.msu.edu/environmenttv/index.html
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Pine River Superfund Site, Online In-Depth Reporting - Andy Blaskovitz, John Allison & Ian Walker. This multi-media project examines a community’s struggle to clean and live with a river highly contaminated with DDT and other chemicals. It is published on the Great Lakes Wiki at http://greatlakeswiki.org/index.php/Pine_River_Superfund_Site
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EJ Magazine, Best Student Magazine. Student writers, photographers, designers and editors produce a print version of this environmental magazine in the fall and spring. An online version is at www.ejmagazine.com.
College journalists submitted 377 entries from 18 colleges and universities across Region 4. More than 3,400 entries in 39 categories were submitted across the organization’s 12 regions. First place regional winners advance to the national round of judging. National winners are announced in mid-May.
MSU awarded the Knight Center for Environmental Journalism's efforts to promote diversity
The Knight Center for Environmental Journalism was awarded by MSU on Wednesday, March 12 for the center's innovative efforts to promote diversity.
For more information see the following: http://msutoday.msu.edu/news/index.php3?article= 06Mar2008-3
MSU conference helps Detroit student journalists cover heath and the environment
What are the causes of teen depression? How will global warming affect polar bears and other wildlife? Will the cosmetics you use today make you sick when you get older?
These are some of the questions that more than 200 high school journalists from Detroit explored on Wednesday, Feb. 27 during a day-long conference called “Steroids, Makeup and Polar Bears: Journalism and the Environment.”
The conference took place in the Detroit Zoo, at Woodward Avenue and 10 Mile Road (I-696) in Royal Oak, from 9:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. The participating students were encouraged to write stories for their high school newspapers about the topics highlighted at the conference.
This conference was supported by grants from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation. Other conference co-sponsors include the Detroit Free Press, Ford Motor Company Fund, Detroit Public Schools, Wayne State University, Local 22 of the Newspaper Guild, the National Association of Black Journalists, the Asian American Journalists Association, Barnes & Noble, the Society of Professional Journalists and the MSU School of Journalism. Another key sponsor, the Michigan Interscholastic Press Association, ran the student journalism contest.
Students learnt about how to report about health and environmental subjects by professors at the Michigan State University School of Journalism and journalists from the Detroit Free Press, Metro Times, WDIV Channel 4 TV, WXYZ-TV Channel 7 and other news media. Among the topics that were covered are reporting about cosmetics and health, steroids and sports, global warming and wildlife, teen depression and environmental justice in Detroit.
The students also got a chance to visit exhibits at the zoo, such as the Arctic Ring of Life, which contains polar bears, and Amphibiville, a display on amphibians.
Among the speakers and educators at the conference were Paul Anger, Vice President/News at the Detroit Free Press; Connie Calloway, general superintendent of the Detroit Public Schools; Ron Kagan, executive director of the Detroit Zoological Society; Emilia Askari, Chris Lau and Kirkland Crawford of the Detroit Free Press; Cheryl Pell and Sandra L. Combs of the School of Journalism at MSU; Carolyn Clifford of WXYZ-TV Channel 7 in Detroit; Andrew Humphrey, meteorologist with WDIV Channel 4 TV, Detroit; and Curt Guyette of the Metro Times.
Mark Hallett, senior program officer at the McCormick Tribune Foundation in Chicago, wrote this positive review about the conference:
http://mccormickmediamatters.blogspot.com/
To see a slideshow of photos taken at the workshop click here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/mipamsu/sets/
72157604003623941.
Three student-produced videos win awards at the first Great Lakes Environmental Film Festival
Three video projects, produced by the Knight Center for Environmental Journalism and the College of Communication Arts and Sciences (CAS) at Michigan State University, won honors at the first annual Great Lakes Environmental Film Festival in Bay City, Michigan in early January.
The Knight Center's documentary production, “Dying to be Heard,” won first place in the college-level long-length video category. Ben Phillips, the program’s co-producer, and Kevin Wilt, a graduate student in the College of Music, received a $1,000 scholarship. The documentary was produced by instructor Lou D’Aria with assistance from Knight Center faculty, staff and students. The documentary was broadcast on WKAR-TV and other Public Broadcasting Service stations in Michigan in May 2007. The documentary is based on an article by Jim Detjen, Knight Center Director, which appeared in EJ Magazine. The program describes the role that George Wallace, a MSU zoology professor, played in research showing how the pesticide DDT affected robins and other birds. This research was cited by Rachel Carson in her pioneering environmental book, “Silent Spring.”
A mini documentary on the history of the Great Lakes region and how to sustain the regional environment, produced by a TISM student Carl Kondrat, won second place in the same category. He was awarded a $100 scholarship. This video was produced as an independent study project under the faculty mentorship of Amol Pavangadkar, who teaches at the Knight Center and in the college.
First place in the college-level short-length video category and a $1,000 scholarship was won by a group of seven students: James Semivan, John Ostler, Michael Kohon, Chelsey Susin, Kyle Haan, Andrew Smith and Chelsea Yosin. They created a series of five 30-second public service announcements to show students how they can alter their habits to help the environment. These videos were produced as a part of a CAS special topics class taught by Pavangadkar in Fall 2006. The local PBS station, WKAR, has been broadcasting these videos since October 2007.
The awards were announced on Jan. 12 during ceremonies at the historic State Theatre in Bay City. Thirty-five videos were entered into the competition.
MSU's Great Lakes Wiki receives national recognition.
A Michigan State University experiment in environmental reporting is among the projects recognized by a national competition for cutting edge journalism.
Judges of the Knight-Batten Awards recognized MSU's Great Lakes Wiki "for collecting information as broad and deep as the Great Lakes it covers." The contest spotlights the creative use of new information ideas and technologies that involve citizens in public issues. Only 10 of the 133 entries were honored.
The site at GreatLakesWiki.org, is among four projects that judges cited in a new honorable mention category. They said the project "has the categories, content and organization that made this wiki the best of those entered."
Creators of each project presented them on Sept. 17 at a symposium, "Creativity Unleashed," at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C.
The Great Lakes Wiki is a collaborative effort within MSU's College of Communication Arts and Sciences. It was created in a citizen journalism class taught by David Poulson, associate director of the Knight Center for Environmental Journalism, and Cliff Lampe, an assistant professor in the Department of Telecommunications, Information Studies and Media.
The site helps citizens, students, policymakers, scientists, artists, business operators and others collaboratively publish news and information about the ecology, culture, economy, recreation and other aspects of a region with nearly 20 percent of the world's fresh surface water.
"Its strength is that it allows readers to come at environmental information from diverse points of view," Poulson said.
Those who appreciate art may learn about climate change from watching interviews with artists involved in Chicago's Cool Globes public art project.
See Great Lakes Wiki Cool Globe
Music lovers may learn about invasive species while listening to, "I've got the round goby blues," written and sung by the scientist who discovered that this voracious fish entered the Great Lakes.
See Great Lakes Wiki Invasive Species
The site is a great place for students to publish experimental forms of journalism, Poulson said. One group reported an MSU environmental conference as video clips of the speakers who appear to answer questions selected by viewers.
Full story online at http://www.greatlakeswiki.org/
index.php/Great_Lakes_Wiki_Award.
Knight Center sponsored workshop wins third place at AEJMC.
A Knight Center for Environmental Journalism workshop for Detroit high school students won a national award in August 2007 at the annual meeting of journalism educators. The workshop, “Cell Phones, Hurricanes & Mascara: Journalism and the Environment," which was organized by Jim Detjen, Cheryl Pell and Sandra Combs of the School of Journalism won third place in the Innovative Outreach to Scholastic Journalism competition of the Association for Education in Journalism & Mass Communication. The award was given to the journalism educators at the national AEJMC conference in Washington, D.C. on August 11, 2007. The workshop at the Detroit Science Center trained more than 200 high school journalism students from 14 Detroit high schools about environmental, science and health journalism on February 28, 2007. Emilia Askari, a reporter at the Detroit Free Press, also played a key role in coordinating this event.
Knight Center Director Lectures in Austria.
Jim Detjen, Director of MSU's Knight Center for Environmental Journalism, lectured about global media coverage of climate change to students and faculty from 15 countries at an innovative global seminar held in a historic palace in Salzburg, Austria on July 31, 2007.
He taught 52 students from five continents at the inaugural Salzburg Academy Program on Media and Global Change held at the Schloss Leopoldskron, a historic palace where the movie "The Sound of Music," was filmed in the 1960s. Among the participants were journalism students from China, Israel, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, England, Italy, Argentina, Mexico, Chile, Pakistan, Oman, , Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates, Canada and the United States. U.S. Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy gave the opening address at the three-week seminar, which focused on the media's coverage of terrorism and climate change. Other speakers included pianist and conductor Daniel Barenboim, former music director of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, and Richard Ford, the Pulitzer Prize winning author of the novel Independence Day.
The Salzburg Academy is jointly organized by the University of Maryland's Philip Merrill College of Journalism and the Salzburg Global Seminar, a non-governmental organization that brings together imaginative thinkers from different cultures to solve issues of global concern. The academy was funded by the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation and other organizations.
Everyone knows they should recycle, but not everyone does. That’s why an MSU class created a video to promote it.
The result, “Recycling: Every Bit Helps,” is a four-minute feature that gives a crash-course in recycling. It can be viewed online at http://ej.msu.edu/media/492/recycling.html.
The video is a project by a media-design class offered by the Communication Arts and Sciences Department at MSU.
“The students learned and refined their technical and presentation skills during the production of this feature,” said Amol Pavangadkar, the course instructor.
The four students who produced the video are Kristin V. Johnson, Allison Osmar, Nick Emrich and Marissa Gallagher. Johnson designed the Web site and Osmar managed video production.
Pavangadkar taught two multimedia production classes in the fall 2006 semester which produced features highlighting environmental issues.
New environmental option available for incoming master's students
The Knight Center for Environmental Journalism is pleased to now offer a master's degree in journalism with an option in environmental journalism to the entering class of fall 2008.
Read more about this specialization here.
The Knight Center for Environmental Journalism received an Excellent Progress toward Diversity Collaboration award from MSU.
