An asset for Detroit’s recovery

With Detroit’s economic woes in national headlines it is significant that some of the city’s assets are, well…liquid. Today, Great Lakes Echo and our partner, WKAR’s Current State public affairs program, launch a series of stories exploring the Detroit waterfront.  They are remarkable stories of recovery and promise. They include a push to “daylight” the city’s ghost waters and soften its shoreline. They describe some of the best fishing in the world and report on efforts to repair longtime damage to an industrial riverfront. These are important stories for a city struggling to remake itself.

Favorite Echo headlines of 2012

Here at Echo we often write headlines designed for Search Engine Optimization.

But that’s a bit tedious. And the writers in us can’t resist the occasional word play.

Here are 2012 favorites organized in completely arbitrary categories.

Engaging readers, journalists and mudpuppies

Almost three-and-a-half years ago Echo reported the discovery of a stable population of mudpuppies in Ontario’s Sydenham River. Mudpuppies are one of the more bizarre-looking creatures that inhabit the Great Lakes region. Their fans are as diverse as adult scientists and young kids. And Echo journalists. Here’s why: When people come across these giant salamanders they inevitably Google around to find something out about them.

Tired of answering surveys? Here’s your chance to ask the questions

I have a colleague who will teach survey methods in the pursuit of journalism next semester. He’s asked for ideas for an environmental story that might be based on a survey of scientists or government officials. That sounds good to me. Give it enough of a Great Lakes focus and such a story could well end up on Echo. But for now, I think I’ll punt the question to Echo readers.

What does the voice of the Great Lakes sound like?

Does all this water makes us talk the same? The communities of the Great Lakes region have long shared an environmental, industrial, commercial, recreational, cultural heritage. Echo claims the region has a shared news community. But a shared accent? That’s what Slate recently indicated in an article cleverly titled Vowel Movement: How Americans near the Great Lakes are radically changing the sound of English.

Universities need to be in the news business

University-based news organizations can hit the trifecta of higher education.

They teach. They report news that otherwise is unreported. They experiment with how news is gathered, disseminated, conceived.

Sounds like education, outreach and research to me.