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Environment Reporting
enterprise reporting, going well beyond
the press releases and the events
and digging deeply. But it’s harder
than ever for smaller newspapers to
support this kind of time-intensive reporting.
And with smaller staffs come
editors’ demands for long-term story
planning, and this means having to
promise to deliver multiple stories at a
time, for two, three, four weeks in
advance. Breaking news then throws a
cog in the wheel of the machine.
The Role Played By the
Society of Environmental
Journalists (SEJ)
That this beat is growing increasingly
complex was not lost on SEJ’s founders.
The association they formed in 1990
has grown into the first stop for journalists
who step into the environment
beat. I wasn’t among the small group of
award-winning journalists, including
reporters, editors and producers working
for The Philadelphia Inquirer, USA
Today, Turner Broadcasting, Minnesota
Public Radio, and National Geographic,
who launched SEJ. But I have
benefited greatly from its existence.
Now with more than 1,200 members,
SEJ—with its annual conference, seminars,
listservs and Web-based resources—has
made it much easier for
me to keep pace with advances in science,
with happenings in Washington,
D.C. and globally, and to combat a
feeling of isolation that can come with
working on a highly specialized beat.
At the start of the 1990’s, when I was
writing about recycling and endangered
plants and animals in California, I could
not envision that my beat would eventually
take in biotechnology and then
ultimately bioterrorism and biowarfare.
Everything from bioengineered corn
to anthrax to West Nile virus is now
part of the environment beat. In addition
to pollution coming from power
plants, cars, tractors, trucks and factories,
I now write about genetic pollution,
asking scientists about findings
on whether altered genes from a
farmer’s field will contaminate the crops
of his neighbor.
Sometimes I long for those days
when I just wrote about buffalo in
Montana. ■
James Bruggers covers environmental
topics for The (Louisville) Courier-Journal.
He has previously
worked at newspapers in Montana,
Alaska, Washington and California,
and in 1998-99 was a Michigan
Journalism Fellow at the University
of Michigan in Ann Arbor. He has
served on the SEJ board since 1997
and in October completed two oneyear
terms as president. He has an
M.S. in environmental studies from
the University of Montana and holds
an undergraduate double major in
forestry and journalism from the
same university.
jbruggers@courier-journal.com
A New Kind of Environment Reporting Is Needed
Blending objectivity with advocacy to arrive at sustainable journalism.
By Jim Detjen
Bring a group of environmental
journalists together for a long
enough time and it is likely a
debate about objectivity and advocacy
will erupt.
“Journalists should be objective,”
argues one group. “Journalists are stewards
of the truth for their readers and
viewers. They should report all sides
and be as scrupulous as possible in
writing a balanced piece, expressing
all points of view.”
“Objectivity is impossible,” argues
another group. “Environmental journalists
should be advocates for changes
to improve the quality of the planet.
They should educate people about the
serious problems that exist and use the
power of the news media to bring about
changes to improve the quality of the
Earth—air, water, wildlife and natural
resources.”
Which side of this debate journalists
are on is based often upon the media
they work for and the country they
work in. If they are employed by a
mainstream newspaper, news magazine
or broadcast station, they are likely
to be in the camp of objectivity. If they
work in developed parts of the globe,
such as the United States, Western Europe
or Japan, they probably also support
this view. But if they work for an
environmental magazine, the alternative
press or are a freelancer, they might
side with the advocacy school. If they
live in developing regions of the globe,
such as Africa, South America, and parts
of Asia, they might also favor this view.
Sustainable Journalism
Is it possible to support both schools of
thought? Carl Frankel, the author of
“In Earth’s Company: Business, Environment
and the Challenge of
Sustainability,” argues that it is. “Contrary
to the conventional wisdom, I do
not experience these two identities as
incompatible,” he says. “Yes, there is a
tension between the two, but I find
myself able to resolve the tension.”
Frankel has called for a new kind of
environmental journalism, which he
terms “sustainable journalism.” He says
that sustainable journalism embraces
the following three tenets:
38 Nieman Reports / Winter 2002