By Debra Kaufman Big-name guests and a special focus on water will mark the 19th annual conference of the Society of Environmental Journalists, being held from Oct. 7 to 11 in Madison, Wis. According to SEJ executive director Beth Parke,…
By Debra Kaufman A new survey of environmental reporters indicates that their biggest challenge is the limited resources of their jobs and the most crucial issue they cover is global warming.The poll, conducted by NewsPro in conjunction with the Society…
By Debra Kaufman Although the upcoming United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP15) will be a hot spot of debate about how the world deals with global warming, few U.S. journalists, local or national, will be on hand — partly because…
By Debra Kaufman When Barack Obama was elected president of the United States many environmental journalists felt optimistic that his call for transparency signaled easier days ahead for obtaining information from the Environmental Protection Agency. Now, nearly nine months into…
By Elizabeth Jensen For proponents of efforts to pass a federal shield law, it’s been a few months of one step forward, two steps back. “Just when you think you’re making some headway, something comes up that you weren’t expecting,”…
By Elizabeth Jensen So why did the chicken cross the road? To get viewers and readers to pay attention to gloom-and-doom environmental stories, of course. Melting icebergs and dying polar bears are sad and scary stories; eyes glaze over when…
By Dinah Eng Industry layoffs and an economic downturn have sidelined thousands of journalists in the last year, forcing many who covered the environment to find new ways to make a living. Reporters who once worked to raise public awareness…
By Elizabeth Jensen When “Nova” debuted on PBS in 1974, the subject of its second program was a film about overreliance on the capacity of the Colorado River. In other words, PBS was examining environmental topics before it was cool….
The environment can be a tough beat. It requires extraordinary persistence and dedication to remain abreast of the myriad developments in an ever-evolving, often controversial field. For some reporters, it has become more than a career — it is a…
By Allison J. Waldman At Discovery Communication’s Planet Green network, it’s all about evolution. “We’re in the midst of a reformation,” said Planet Green President and General Manager Laura Michalchyshyn, who has been leading the channel’s development since she came…