Meigs County: A Close Encounter with CoalJune 9, 2009 in Uncategorized 

By Joe Brehm and Amy Nordrum

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Coal mining in Meigs County predates the county borders. Not until April Fools Day of 1819, four years after the first coal company started mining this land, were the lines of the county drawn. Coal has had a steady presence in this corner of southeastern Ohio ever since.

 

 Meigs County

Environmental Justice and the Legitimacy of Science

Week 9 Response Paper

 Chapters 8 and 9 of Environmental Communication covered two important topics relevant to environmental journalism:  environmental justice and the legitimacy of science.  Environmental justice is crucial for science journalists to be aware of so that they can see not only what environmental problems are being addressed, but also those that are not and should be.  The validity of science is also fundamental to a science journalists’ background, as politics often threaten cloud the waters of ecology and scientific understanding.  Cox provides a broad background of each issue in chapters 8 and 9.

Week 8 Response Paper

The assigned chapters in Environmental Communication and Science in Public this week explore the realm of environmental risk communication.  The definition of risk communication presented by Robert Cox is “any public or private communication that informs individuals about the existence, nature, form, severity, or acceptability of risks.” Questions to help analyze risk communication include:  Who controls the discourse with the public about environmental risks?  Who is at risk?  Who benefits from this risk being taken? 

How Will the Public Track Environmental Issues in 5 Years?

While Five years is potentially a long time given the current rate of technologic advance, I do not think the public will track environmental issues in a drastically different way than today.  With that said, environmental communication is certainly changing.  Blogs are filling a niche left vacant by a shrinking “news hole” for environmental issues in mainstream media.  Alternative environmental media such as High Country News have also taken an important role in presenting scientific information to the public.  I would expect both of these trends to continue. 

I would also expect another trend to continue– that levels of environmental literacy in this country will remain low.  Environmental and science journalism will continue to fail at improving public understanding of environmental issues.  Amateur blogs will likely fair even worse.  Why? 

Response Paper Week 7

 The assigned chapters from Science in Public and Environmental Communication explore the compatibility or incompatibility of the media and science. In many ways, science and journalism have very different ideologies and do not mingle well. The authors show, however, that there can be ways to reconcile these differences to some degree and in some instances. But mainstream media does not cover environmental issues sufficiently, and an alternative environmental media has emerged to take on this task. Why is all of this important to discuss? Because the mechanisms by which people are presented with information affects the perceptions of environmental issues that the public develops. Presenting nature as best friend or worst enemy has consequences.

Science in Public Chapters 3-4

 Daniel Quinn, in his novel Ishmael, asserts that traditional Western science is its own mythology.  Everything from the Big Bang Theory to the extinction of dinosaurs and evolution of human beings is a story that is told by scientists.  While this way of seeing traditional science does not foster a full appreciation of the intricate process that characterizes scientific investigation, it is a potent reminder that science is inexact.  This is one of the conundrums that Chapters 3 and 4 of Science in Public grapples with.  Science is a broad and complex field, divided over many issues and processes, and seemingly confused as to whether sharing itself with the public is a positive or negative experience.  The authors examine science in this context in the two chapters, raising important issues and questions. 
 

Week 5 Response Paper

Environmental Communication Chapters 3-4:  Public Participation, 9/11, and Community Collaboration

 Chapters 3 and 4 of Environmental Communication discussed public involvement and participation in environmental issues.  Chapter 3 gave an overview of the ways in which citizens are able to participate in government actions that determine environmental policy.  Cox also provided a history of why things like public hearings and citizens groups are able to be involved in such processes.  In Chapter 4, Cox delved into specific information about collaborative and consensus processes, one of the more comprehensive types of public participation in environmental issues. 

Response Paper:  Environmental Communication Chapters 1-2

The first two chapters of Environmental Communication introduce the field of environmental communication and frame it in the context of the realms of general communication, American history, and culture in the United States.  These introductory chapters explore why words like “environment”, “nature”, and “wilderness” have come to carry the connotations that they do, and the role that environmental communication has had in building those connotations.

Ideas Into Words:  Chapters 4-7

Though some writers are able to make environmental journalism look easy, the process of writing a good article is anything but easy, according to Elise Hancock.  In Chapters 4-7, she offers experienced-based advice and troubleshooting for the in-depth process of writing a sound scientific journalism article. 

Chapter 4 offers information concerning how best to structure an article.  Hancock first points to the importance of having the facts entirely correct so that they may be presented clearly.  She compares this aspect of writing an article to painting a room—it often takes more time to prepare a room than it does to paint it.  She also offers a few templates for the structuring an article, and advises writers to draw these looped or branched structures that the story will follow.