By Great Lakes Echo
Great Lakes Echo has joined a nationwide collaborative to provide better and more local reporting of climate change.
The Local Media Association selected the 12-year-old regional news service as one of 22 leading outlets in the Covering Climate Collaborative.
Echo is a project of Michigan State University’s Knight Center for Environmental Journalism.
It is one of two members of the collaborative where university students are the key journalists.
“Echo is founded on the idea that the best way to teach journalism is to do it,” said David Poulson, the editor and founder of Great Lakes Echo. “We are eager to extend that mission and even more eager to better serve our region with the support and training provided by the Local Media Association.”
The collaborative’s news organizations will gain access to tools, training and data to report on climate change challenges and solutions. They also will gain support for developing strategies to make climate coverage sustainable.
“We’re thrilled to announce this group of newsrooms that are recognized for their commitment to reporting locally on the impacts of climate change,” said Frank Mungeam, the Local Media Association’s chief innovation officer. “This collaboration brings together newsrooms with diverse platform expertise — from print to digital to audio and video — and represents key regions directly affected by our changing climate.”
The collaborative’s five regional hubs are:
Great Lakes:
- In Michigan – Great Lakes Echo (East Lansing,) WDIV-TV (Detroit) and Planet Detroit (Detroit.)
- In Illinois – WBEZ (Chicago)
West:
- In California – The Sacramento Bee, KGO-TV (San Francisco) and Southern California Public Radio
- In Washington – Investigate West
East/Southeast:
- In North Carolina – The News & Observer
- In South Carolina – The Post & Courier
- In Florida -The Miami Herald, WJCT Radio, WJXT-TV Jacksonville, WKMG-TV Orlando and Florida University’s South Florida Media Network.
Gulf Coast:
- In Louisiana – The Times-Picayune (New Orleans) and WWNO/WRKF Radio
- In Texas – KPRC-TV (Houston), and KSAT-TV (San Antonio)
Southwest:
- In Arizona – ABC15-TV (Phoenix)
- In New Mexico – The Paper (Albuquerque) and NMPBS
Supporting members of the collaborative are:
Climate Matters helps meteorologists and journalists report on climate impacts and solutions in ways that are local, immediate, personal and grounded in the latest science.
George Mason University Center for Climate Change Communication is the nation’s first research center devoted entirely to improving public communication about climate change.
Climate Central is a science and communications organization working to make climate change local, relevant and understandable.
SciLine, based at the nonprofit American Association for the Advancement of Science, is a philanthropically supported free service that connects reporters to knowledgeable, articulate scientists and validated evidence on deadline.
Climate Communication, a nonprofit science and outreach project supported by the Rockefeller Brothers Fund and the Hartfield Foundation.
Solutions Journalism Network, a group that supports rigorous reporting on social problems and stories that show potential ways to respond to them.
The Society of Environmental Journalists, a professional organization that strengthens the quality, reach and viability of journalism that advances public understanding of environmental issues.