We want this Echo redesign to stand the Great Lakes basin on its ear. And we plan to shake up journalism while we’re at it.
Through this transition we’re sticking with a core Echo principle: A news community can transcend state and national borders to be defined by a natural resource — in this case nearly 20 percent of the world’s fresh surface water. We’ll continue to provide regional environmental news, a fairly radical departure from many current journalism experiments that tend to be either hyper-local or national.
But we also invite greater participation from readers while we experiment with new ways to deliver news. Perhaps the greatest difference you’ll discover with Echo 2.0 is the Catch of the Day. Here Echo reporters tell you of things that they can’t express in a traditional news format:
- Sometimes that’s frustration over an inability to get a story. Check out what Echo reporter Andrew Norman is up against trying to report on a federal administration that boasts of its openness. Weigh in on what that means. Better yet, give him some advice on a work around.
- Sometimes we’ll let you know what we’re working on. Our hope is to tap your knowledge, skill and sources to help us craft stories and other features. Today read mashup maven Rachael Gleason’s plea for help finding Great Lakes data maps.
- Sometimes reporters will tell you about the interesting odds and ends that may not make a story. This is the stuff typically left unreported in their notebooks or between their ears or confined to newsroom conversations — like Echo reporter Haley Walker’s take on bread bowls.
- Sometimes you’ll find reporter reactions to what sources have to say outside of the context of a news story — like Echo reporter Sarah Coefield’s musings on how Echo can truly report on the Great Lakes when it is physically far from their shores. (My take: The Echo staff is more than happy to move lakeside if anyone wants to donate the real estate.)
- And sometimes…well, we don’t know yet. Help us figure that out.
We also improved on some of the things you’ve come to expect from Echo. We’re still reporting environmental stories that other publications ignore. Not only will they be featured prominently in the top left of the home page, we’ll keep them on the page longer and more visible after initial publication.
We’re giving our special reports more prominent display. So if you missed them first time around, make sure to take a look at Cleaning Coal, Public Pools/Public Health, a bankrupt GM’s environmental legacy and other in-depth features.
You’ll still find Echo lynx hunter Karessa Weir’s Great Links pointers to environmental news reported by others. Karessa sees more Great Lakes news than anyone. We want to leverage that perspective by having her occasionally weigh in on Catch of the Day with her take on what others report.
Get to know us better. Reporter bylines are now linked to short biographies and an archive of their Echo stories. Want to reach them? Here you’ll find their e-mail addresses. But if you have a take on their stories, weigh in directly in the comments sections so that other readers benefit.
We’ll continue to experiment with nontraditional ways of engaging readers like this invasive species Facebook quiz.
And for those who are so bent out of shape over Echo polls — well, get over it.
Yes, we realize that unscientific online polls fail to accurately reflect the views of a defined demographic. Our readers know that. But such features offer another way to prompt and engage in a conversation about immensely complex environmental issues — if for no other reason than to gripe about the missing alternatives.
The map accompanying this column is a fresh way of looking at the Great Lakes region. In the coming days, we hope that kind of fresh perspective applies to the journalism you find elsewhere on the site — even while we strive for traditional values of fairness, accuracy, credibility.
We look forward to your help upending the Great Lakes basin and shaking it hard until the news drops out.
Echo Editor David Poulson is the associate director of Michigan State University’s Knight Center for Environmental Journalism.