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<h2>Jim Detjen</h2>
<p>Lecturing to large audiences in China confronted Jim Detjen with a dilemma he does not often face when addressing audiences world-wide on topics of environmental awareness and concern. “I didn’t want to be arrested,” Detjen recalls, “or thrown out of the country.”</p>
<p>Detjen, Knight Professor of Journalism and Director of the Knight Center for Environmental Journalism at Michigan State University, welcomes the emerging interest in accurate and vigorous environmental journalism in places like China. At the same time, as a practicing journalist he understands the need to balance urgent consciousness raising while acknowledging, in the case of China, traditions of state censorship of the press. Even in the United States, Detjen recalls many occasions when some people he worked for as a practicing environmental journalist would rather pick on the messenger than pick up on the message. “If you are doing in-depth environmental reporting, you are going to ruffle some feathers.” Nonetheless, “if you are reporting the truth,” he adds enthusiastically, “and you can document that you are reporting the truth, then the truth will get out.”</p>
<p>“Journalism has to be a watchdog of the public,” argues Detjen. He is worried that hard documentary reporting on the environment is fading on TV, but he is optimistic nonetheless. “Thirty five years ago there were a small number of environmental journalists, and there are thousands now.” Through lectures, workshops, and Knight Center initiatives, Detjen is helping new and experienced journalists focus on environmental issues in more depth.</p>
<p>“Many national environmental issues,” Detjen notes, “are often played out first in the Great Lakes area.” This is why he likes to see MSU journalism students take advantage of opportunities provided by the Knight Center. “It is exciting to see students get the fervor and the passion.” For example, in Detjen’s Wilderness Experience and Environmental Writing course, journalism students work with data and first-hand observations made during September camping trips to the Great Lakes. They learn about environmental reporting. They also create more personal reflections such as poems and art works. Detjen sees these experiences as ways for students to “express themselves about nature.” Other specialized courses are added constantly. This fall, Detjen will start a graduate course on Reporting about Climate Change.</p>
<p>Local communities benefit from these student projects through a variety of media. In 2002, the students at the School of Journalism, for example, started the Knight Center’s magazine, EJ, which has since won state and national awards and reaches a circulation of 4,000. Students also created an EJ Web site and broadcast environmental documentaries on MSU’s public broadcasting channel, WKAR-TV. Many of the projects students start for a course become high-quality investigative reports that circulate in other popular venues nationally.</p>
<p>Detjen also encourages students to reach out to the communities in other countries. One of his graduate students, Susana Guzman worked on a project in Mexico, for example, which eventually led to an annual conference, a listserv and Web site. The project also led to the creation a national organization of Mexican environmental journalists.</p>
<p>Detjen is happy to see that his students value in-depth environmental reporting that engages and impacts communities in positive ways. “Don’t just criticize,” Detjen warns his students, “but try to show to the public that there are solutions and highlight some of the solutions.”</p>
<p><em>The Knight Center for Environmental Journalism receives the MSU Excellence in Diversity Award in March, 2008. To see the magazine’s website please go to <a target="_blank" href="http://ej.msu.edu">http://ej.msu.edu</a>. For further information about the annual Unity Conference and the Environmental Summit please visit <a target="_blank" href="http://www.unityjournalists.org">www.unityjournalists.org</a>. For its conference on “Alaska: Reporting on the Climate Frontier” go to <a target="_blank" href="http://ej.msu.edu/alaska_main.php">http://ej.msu.edu/alaska_main.php</a>. For the national journalism “bootcamp” please view <a target="_blank" href="http://ej.msu.edu/bootcamp.php">http://ej.msu.edu/bootcamp.php</a> and for the Great Lakes Environmental Journalism Training Institute check out <a target="_blank" href="http://ej.msu.edu/glejti.php">http://ej.msu.edu/glejti.php</a>.</em></p>
Jim Detjen
Lecturing to large audiences in China confronted Jim Detjen with a dilemma he does not often face when addressing audiences world-wide on topics of environmental awareness and concern. “I didn’t want to be arrested,” Detjen recalls, “or thrown out of the country.”
Detjen, Knight Professor of Journalism and Director of the Knight Center for Environmental Journalism at Michigan State University, welcomes the emerging interest in accurate and vigorous environmental journalism in places like China. At the same time, as a practicing journalist he understands the need to balance urgent consciousness raising while acknowledging, in the case of China, traditions of state censorship of the press. Even in the United States, Detjen recalls many occasions when some people he worked for as a practicing environmental journalist would rather pick on the messenger than pick up on the message. “If you are doing in-depth environmental reporting, you are going to ruffle some feathers.” Nonetheless, “if you are reporting the truth,” he adds enthusiastically, “and you can document that you are reporting the truth, then the truth will get out.”
“Journalism has to be a watchdog of the public,” argues Detjen. He is worried that hard documentary reporting on the environment is fading on TV, but he is optimistic nonetheless. “Thirty five years ago there were a small number of environmental journalists, and there are thousands now.” Through lectures, workshops, and Knight Center initiatives, Detjen is helping new and experienced journalists focus on environmental issues in more depth.
“Many national environmental issues,” Detjen notes, “are often played out first in the Great Lakes area.” This is why he likes to see MSU journalism students take advantage of opportunities provided by the Knight Center. “It is exciting to see students get the fervor and the passion.” For example, in Detjen’s Wilderness Experience and Environmental Writing course, journalism students work with data and first-hand observations made during September camping trips to the Great Lakes. They learn about environmental reporting. They also create more personal reflections such as poems and art works. Detjen sees these experiences as ways for students to “express themselves about nature.” Other specialized courses are added constantly. This fall, Detjen will start a graduate course on Reporting about Climate Change.
Local communities benefit from these student projects through a variety of media. In 2002, the students at the School of Journalism, for example, started the Knight Center’s magazine, EJ, which has since won state and national awards and reaches a circulation of 4,000. Students also created an EJ Web site and broadcast environmental documentaries on MSU’s public broadcasting channel, WKAR-TV. Many of the projects students start for a course become high-quality investigative reports that circulate in other popular venues nationally.
Detjen also encourages students to reach out to the communities in other countries. One of his graduate students, Susana Guzman worked on a project in Mexico, for example, which eventually led to an annual conference, a listserv and Web site. The project also led to the creation a national organization of Mexican environmental journalists.
Detjen is happy to see that his students value in-depth environmental reporting that engages and impacts communities in positive ways. “Don’t just criticize,” Detjen warns his students, “but try to show to the public that there are solutions and highlight some of the solutions.”
The Knight Center for Environmental Journalism receives the MSU Excellence in Diversity Award in March, 2008. To see the magazine’s website please go to http://ej.msu.edu. For further information about the annual Unity Conference and the Environmental Summit please visit www.unityjournalists.org. For its conference on “Alaska: Reporting on the Climate Frontier” go to http://ej.msu.edu/alaska_main.php. For the national journalism “bootcamp” please view http://ej.msu.edu/bootcamp.php and for the Great Lakes Environmental Journalism Training Institute check out http://ej.msu.edu/glejti.php.
