Here's the audio file (MP3/16.7MB/1:13:06) for this Friday, October 17, 2008, session: Download C1_Craft
What are the characteristics of environment reporters of the 21st century? How do specialized journalists compare to general journalists in the United States?
David Sachsman, Mike Mansur, and Bud Ward discussed the findings of a study conducted between 2000 and 2005. The results showed that environment reporters are very similar to general reporters with only a few minor differences. One notable difference is that environment reporters often have more science education than other reporters. In addition, the study found that, when it comes to a newspaper’s ability to carry specialized reporting, bigger is, in fact, better. Results of the study showed that the larger the newspaper’s circulation the more likely it is that it will have specialized coverage of issues.
The biggest question that contemporary environment journalists are trying to answer is whether it would be more effective to adhere to the traditional standard of objectivity or to evaluate the facts and only present what they see as scientific truth, a method seen by some as advocacy rather than journalism. The quandry comes out of a tension between the traditional school of thought that journalists need to be completely objective, and the feeling of responsibility felt by many journalists to communicate a more subjective idea of truth, especially when it comes to covering pressing environmental issues. The blurring of the lines between objectivity, advocacy, and ethics is becoming more and more a prominent question for specialized reporters of the 21st century. The panel tries to open conversation on how the modern journalist can balance these issues.
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