SEJ2008

Introducing Guest Blogger Curtis Brainard

By Curtis Brainard

Hello, all. I cover science and environmental news for Columbia Journalism Review in New York. This is my third SEJ conference and always one of my favorite events of the year because it reminds me what a great time it is to be an environmental media critic. As Virginia Governor Tim Kaine noted at the opening dinner tonight, our beat has moved out of “the shadows” to front and center in American and global consciousness.

Tonight’s awards ceremony was testimony to just how impressive environmental journalism has become in the last five years or so. Indeed, though my title is media critic, I often feel that I spend more time lauding recent innovations in environmental reportage than I do criticizing its faults. As case in point, on the plane to Roanoke, I wrote a column (link to come) for CJR rebutting a recent article from MarketWatch’s Jon Friedman, which attempted to cast environmental reporting as hollow and gutless, and which riled up a number of SEJ members.

Introducing guest blogger Sara Peach

Hi, everyone.  I'm a master's student in the School of Journalism at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where I am a Roy H. Park fellow. I earned a bachelor's degree from UNC in environmental studies and spent two years working for a small environmental organization in rural Ohio. My environmental stories and videos have appeared in the News & Observer and in campus publications. A short documentary that I produced about a local dairy farm was recently selected as a semi-finalist in a YouTube/Pulitzer Center competition. This will be my first SEJ conference, and I can't wait to meet you all.

Message from New Blogger Sharon Stringer

Hi, I'm Sharon Stringer.  I'm a communication instructor at Lock Haven University of Pennsylvania and will be attending the SEJ conference for the first time.  This is also my first attempt at blogging.  I thought the blog would be a good opportunity to keep my students in my environmental journalism class posted on my activities while in Roanoke. In addition, my students have been assigned to use TRI data to identify the biggest chemical polluters in their hometown, while I am away.  I instructed them to look at scorecard.org for interpretation of TRI data, however, the most recent scorecard data is from 2002.  Any suggestions on this assignment ???

Guest Blogger Christine Heinrichs

I'm from Cambria, California, the Central Coast. I joined SEJ in 2001 when I was reporting on golf course maintenance and poultry was an avocation. Since then, Voyageur Press has seen the wisdom of publishing my book on chickens, How to Raise Chickens. It has been well received -- I'm big in Tractor Supply's books section --so they asked me to write another on poultry. How to Raise Poultry, with chapters on ducks, geese, swans, turkeys, guineafowl, game birds, ratites (ostriches, emus and rheas), and, of course, chickens, will be available in April 2009. My blog is http://poultrybookstore.blogspot.com.

Being involved with poultry has led me into so many environmental areas: agricultural practices of all kinds sustainable and industrial, herbicide and pesticide use, watershed management, water and air quality issues, humane farm animal treatment, food-borne illness, food quality, global hunger and saving the world.

E-journalism & the economic crunch

Hi, folks -

   With SEJ's 18th annual conference just a few days away now, I can't help but wonder what the future holds - for our country, for the environment, and for our journalistic calling.   My own concerns were echoed in an email recently from Seth Borenstein of the AP, who suggested a conference session on the following question(s):

Can we afford the environment and environmental coverage?

With the current financial meltdown situation, talks of spending freezes (McCain) and cuts, is the environment a luxury that we can no longer afford? What will happen to environmental policies, environmental agencies, environmental groups, and most importantly environment reporters? Do editors want environment stories when they could instead have a financial one?

   Our conference agenda is already pretty well set, but the questions Seth poses here are what I consider to be the undercurrent of this conference.  We'll all be talking about them, if not in the formal sessions, then between and after hours.

Introducing guest blogger: John Sutter

Hello from Roanoke! This is John Sutter, a guest blogger on this site. I'm in Roanoke early for a fellowship with the Knight Center for Environmental Journalism. The weather is beautiful, the leaves are turning and the class sessions have been quite informative so far.

I live in Oklahoma City and recently started an environmental news blog at http://concretebuffalo.blogspot.com. My portfolio is up at http://jdsutter.com.    I'm pumped for this week full of learning and fun, especially a rafting trip down the James River, where we'll learn about the impact of agriculture on water quality. That particular trip interested me because Oklahoma's attorney general is suing several poultry companies over alleged water pollution. I made my first hike in the mountains here on Saturday with a friend who works for the Roanoke Times. She was an excellent tour guide, and the view of the Blue Ridge from "sharp point" at the top of the hike was stunning. 

Introducing Guest Blogger Michael Fortune

Good sunny morning !

      Michael Fortune checks in to report on the trip to West Virginia to see removal of coal by blasting / cutting off the tops of mountains.   I figured this trip would be the most environmentally dramatic and relevant to our energy policy discussions and reporting. 

    First, about me:    I have met some of you, including Lisa, at the May seminar on "Climate Change: Its Sweeping Impact," sponsored by the Knight Foundation last May in Maryland.   I am an atmospheric scientist making a career shift into environmental journalism;  I write and produce an occasional newsletter  about climate  science for the public, at climate-science.org ....       And I freelance on natural science, weather and climate, and (hopefully) ethics, as well.

Introducing Guest Blogger Fred First

Hello SEJ-ers. My name is Fred First. I am one of the newest members and possibly the only one to claim a public writing start (at age 54 no less) by way of a blog.  Fragments from Floyd has, since 2002, given me a medium by which to share my passion for natural history-field biology, the culture and landscapes of the Blue Ridge Mountains and local and regional environmental matters.

My blog posts more often than not spring from my photographs close to home--just up the western slope from Roanoke in Floyd County. Those who take the Parkway field trip on Thursday at the conference will travel about 30 miles along the Floyd County's southern border on their way to Mabry Mill. I'd be happy to answer any questions a local resident from the area might be able to answer.

Introducing SEJ Blogmistress Lisa Palmer

I am a new member of the Society of Environmental Journalists, recipient of the Rivlin Fellowship, and the volunteer Blogmistress for the SEJ 2008 conference in Roanoke. I work as a freelance journalist and live in Rhode Island. I research, write and edit for major consumer and trade publications, including online media, covering topics from small business and green technology to education, health and lifestyle issues. My stories on the environment have appeared in Fortune and Rhode Island Monthly. As a Fellow at the Knight Center for Specialized Journalism, I studied climate change and its sweeping effects at the University of Maryland last May. Over the summer, I hiked 105 miles of the Continental Divide in Wyoming and saw first-hand the effects of climate change on glaciers of the Wind Rivers Wilderness.

If you're an SEJ member, I  hope you'll join me as a Guest Author on this blog. Regardless, I look forward to meeting you at the SEJ 2008 conference.

How to contribute to the SEJ2008 conference blog

If you would like to be a guest author for this blog, and you are an SEJ member, please leave a comment here with name, email address and SEJ membership status.  

 Thanks

Welcome to the SEJ2008 conference blog

This blog is set up for the SEJ 2008 conference.  It is moderated by Chris Rigel, Bill Kovarik and others.