Columbia Journalism Review’s Anna Clark did a solid job of reporting the news that NPR will not be extending StateImpact to new states. And she did it while giving a big nod to the excellent, award-winning work of our state teams, who are well-positioned to successfully carry their StateImpact work forward.
Becky Lettenberger / NPR
StateImpact Pennsylvania's Susan Phillips
As a reporter covering the energy boom for StateImpact Pennsylvania, Susan Phillips has hung out with the residents of Dimock, a plastic surgeon making house calls in the village of Rae, and even a hitchhiking shale gas poet.
Now, she’s headed up to Cambridge to hang out with academics — and other immensely talented science journalists like her.
Susan was one of 12 journalists chosen for the Knight Science Journalism Fellowship at MIT in 2013-14. That means she’ll get to spend nine months taking classes, attending seminars and going to boot camps with some of the world’s preeminent energy researchers.
Susan is looking forward to immersing herself with so many smart people, and to developing sources who can deepen her reporting on energy and environmental issues in the future.
“One thing about this beat, she says, “is that there’s a plethora of studies and conclusions coming out every other day that contradict each other. It’s hard to know, if you don’t have a science background, what to believe and what not to believe.” Susan says it will be good to find “sources you can trust, and check with in terms of — is this a story or is it not a story? If it’s a story, what should I look for? What questions should I ask about it?”
As a Knight Science Journalism Fellow, Susan will be free of deadlines for almost a year. She’s also required to design her own course of study and take at least one science class per semester at either MIT or Harvard. Susan isn’t yet sure what classes she’ll take, but there’s one thing she knows she wants to get out of it.
“I’m hoping to learn about new energy sources on the horizon,” she says. “On one hand, there’s what the new research is and technologies involved with clean energy. But also, what’s the next fossil fuel development they’ll go after?”
Big congratulations to Susan, who expects to wind down with StateImpact in late July. The fellowship starts in Cambridge in mid-August. She can return to WHYY when the program finishes in May 2014.
See the full list of science journalists chosen for the Knight Science Fellowship this year.
The Radio Television Digital News Association released its list of winners for the Regional Edward R. Murrow Awards today. And StateImpact’s work was all over it.
Our teams in Florida, Idaho, Indiana and Pennsylvania won a total of seven regional Murrows for their work in 2012.
Here’s the full StateImpact list:
Becky Lettenberger / StateImpact
Emilie Ritter Saunders, Molly Messick and Sadie Babits of StateImpact Idaho.
Idaho’s legislature adjourned yesterday, giving Boise State Public Radio reporters Molly Messick and Emilie Ritter Saunders and news director Sadie Babits a chance to catch their breath. I’ve been really impressed with StateImpact Idaho’s legislative coverage this year. Here’s four reasons why:
Three cheers for StateImpact New Hampshire’s Emily Corwin, who found a way to take conversations in the state legislatures about raising the gas tax to improve the state’s roads and found a way to make it interesting, engaging and even, dare I say, adorable. Emily collaborated with New Hampshire Public Radio’s Sara Plourde, digital producer extraordinaire, to create this animated video:
How on earth did they do it, you ask?
Well… Emily wrote the script and added notes throughout, denoting what sorts of visuals she imagined might help illustrate each segment. Sara then worked her magic and added her own style to Continue reading
Sammy Mack will report for StateImpact Florida from Miami.
Sammy Mack is joining StateImpact Florida as a Miami-based reporter. She’ll collaborate with Tampa-based reporter John O’Connor in continuing the project’s award-winning coverage of education in Florida.
Mack has worked in just about every position in the WLRN-Miami Herald newsroom. She’s been a producer on the shows Topical Currents, the Florida Roundup, Under the Sun, and the Morning Edition newscasts. Most recently, as special projects editor, she oversaw the editorial side of the WLRN.org re-launch. Continue reading
The StateImpact Reporters’ Toolbox site is where we post information to help reporters do their jobs better. And lately, there’s a lot of good new material there:
Susan Phillips gets asked to be on a lot of panel discussions, which is great for getting exposure for StateImpact Pennsylvania and creating dialogue on her topic. But she’s learned that no two events are the same, and asking some basic questions upfront can avoid surprises. Read her Nine Tips For Being a Panelist.
Mose Buchele takes part in a Google Hangout organized by Minnesota Public Radio.
Mose Buchele of StateImpact Texas had a two-panel day last Tuesday.
During the day, he participated in a Minnesota Public Radio video discussion related to fracking. The panel was conducted via a Google Hangout. And despite some technical troubles (another one of the panelists had a bad internet connection), the result was a good example of how to use Google’s video conferencing tool to create a work of explanatory journalism.
In the evening, he moderated StateImpact Texas’ second live event in a month. This one brought four state legislators together to discuss ways of managing the effects of Texas’ oil and gas boom. More than 110 people came out to listen to the conversation and participate. “We got really awesome questions from the audience,” Mose said. Terrence Henry worked the mike through the crowd, while sending out snippets of the conversation on Twitter. Terrence filed a radio story related to the event, and audio and video from the event have filled multiple subsequent blog posts. Continue reading
StateImpact won 3 of the 11 awards that NPR received in the Best of Digital Design competition last week from the Society for News Design.
SND recognition is among the highest honor awarded for news design. It’s especially notable since, according to SND, only the New York Times and Washington Post won more awards than NPR. Continue reading
