Building Diversity in, and through Environmental Journalism

A program designed to strengthen the understanding of the Earth and environment among populations underrepresented in geosciences by:

• Improving the quality and accuracy of environmental reporting reaching these communities

• Improving the visibility of environmental reporting by minority journalists and about minority communities

This is Accomplished Through the Following Partnerships:

The Goal of these partnerships is to

• Raise interest among journalists of color & journalists serving minority communities in covering the Earth & Environment

• Raise awareness among non-minority journalists & editors of how minority audiences can be better served through environmental reporting

• Exchange skills & reporting resources on environmental issues of special interest to minority communities.

• Foster relationships and collaborations between individual journalists of color and environmental journalists

Native American Journalist Association

National Association of Black Journalists

National Association of Hispanic Journalists

• Foster institutional partnerships between the Society of Environmental Journalism and minority journalists’ professional societies

• Showcase & reward exemplary environmental journalism

PROGRAM COMPONENTS

• Fellowships for journalists of color to attend the annual SEJ conference.

In 2001 there were 8 minority fellows who attended the Portland Oregon annual SEJ conference.

In 2002 the number of minority fellows attending the Baltimore conference had doubled to 16. For the New Orleans 2003 conference this number grew to 24 fellows, with 8 of these returning for their second conference as senior fellows.

Brenda Box of WTOP-AM radio, Washington DC, first attended the Society of Environmental Journalist Annual Conference as a fellow for the 2002 conference. In September 2003 she returned as a senior fellow to the New Orleans Conference. In New Orleans Brenda, (pictured here holding a baby alligator), ran a conference mini-tour on the Bayou Savage National Wildlife Refuge, a 23,000 acre National Wildlife Refuge. Brenda was also a craft session panelist on “Radio and the Environment: Using Sounds and Words to get the Story Across”. Brenda was elected to the SEJ Board of Directors at the annual meeting.

• Trial memberships in SEJ for journalists, and student journalists of color

• Co-organize sessions on environmental topics at minority journalists association conferences

Ecotour descriptive brochure for NAJA Ecotour 2003

Write up of Ecotour by Wisconsin State Journal News

Above pdf files require adobe acrobat to preview them. For free downloadable software please click on the adobe icon to the left.

• Organize awards for exemplary environmental journalism within minority journalists associations. NABJ awards

To apply for a SEJ fellowship for 2004

For additional information:

E-mail:kastens@ldeo.columbia.edu

Phone number: 845-365-8836

Postal Address:

Kim Kastens, Lamont-Doherty earth Observatory of Columbia University, 61 route 9W, Palisades NY 10964

This project is supported by the National Science Foundation’s Opportunities for the Enhancement of Minorities in the Geosciences under grant No. GEO-01-20207.  Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.