Great Lakes Echo (http://greatlakesecho.org/tag/journalism/)
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.
Echo readers were paid an indirect compliment this week. Two separate agencies contacted us about running advertising on our pages. That seems to imply you’re a demographic worth courting. But what does it mean to us? We’re a non-profit operation, but that doesn’t mean we’re not in need of revenue.
The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel had an interesting take last week on a Feb. 3 report out of the International Upper Great Lakes Study board. The news story questioned whether the report provided an unbiased view, and quoted one person confused over whether the information represented a “straight-up” news piece. You can read reporter Dan Egan’s take here. Echo reporter Jeff Gillies, who had referenced the IJC report in a post the day before, disagreed with that assessment.
Give us a hand identifying those reporting on environmental issues in the Great Lakes region for a survey leading to ways to improve global climate change understanding.
Washington Post columnist David Broder made an odd confession recently:
“If you want to be a stickler for journalistic ethics, I shouldn’t even be writing about the Great Lakes, because I have a huge bias – especially when it comes to Lake Michigan.”
Broder recalled youthful summer visits to a cabin on Lake Michigan and explained that for the past 50 years he has enjoyed another cabin on the lake’s Beaver Island. “Like everyone who comes under its spell, I love Lake Michigan,” he wrote. Broder felt a need to reveal that background before explaining his support of a new federal plan to clean up the Great Lakes. But is it an embarrassing impingement of journalistic purity to favor a clean environment? Environmental journalists are rightly cautious about getting painted green.
The windowless room where our reporters work is nicknamed the Echo Chamber. It’s a catchy phrase that is wrong on a couple counts. Reporters here better not be mere echoes. They should bring context and fairness and accuracy and diversity and complexity and their own innate brains and knowledge to what they produce. There is a difference between stenography and journalism.