This article analyzes one case of university teaching innovation in the field of online journalism through multimedia journalistic projects linked to the UNESCO's Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). These projects aim to develop Transversal Competencies (TC) useful for emotional, creative training and for creating enterprising future…

The birth of the modern environmental movement in the 1970s sparked more extended and in-depth news coverage of ecological issues and awakened interest among journalism educators and prospective journalists to report about those issues, leading to new courses and programs. Recent dramatic changes in the news industry, student expectations, faculty…

A small number of programs provide training on scientific and environmental topics to early- and midcareer journalists across the globe. Yet there are questions about the effectiveness of these programs: Do they make a difference in science reporting quality or quantity? What aspects of training are most impactful? Do journalists find the training…

While the scale of the environmental problems facing the planet mean that effective environmental journalism is now more important than ever, the environmental beat can be extremely challenging for journalists. One way to address this is by providing specialized training for future journalists. This study involves an investigation of the extent to…

We conducted a survey of environmental journalists in the United States to explore individual, routine, and organizational influences on perceived knowledge of environmental issues. Using the gatekeeping theory, we found that routine and organizational factors, such as orientation to particular sources and affiliation to an organization, predict…

This article examines the difficulty in teaching contemporary students of journalism (those in the much-discussed Millennial Generation) to report on complex topics like science and the environment. After examining contemporary literature, the authors subjected 120 undergraduate students to a strategy that combined visual representations of…

Local news media help shape the agendas from which new policies emerge. Furthermore, local media help determine public understanding of complex issues. Media should inform citizens and policymakers on important policy issues. This study uses a content analysis of 11 newspapers to understand the manner in which reporters covered a specific…

This study provides baseline data regarding environment reporters in the twenty-first century, and then compares this baseline information about a specialized journalism beat to existing studies of U.S. journalists in general. This comparison between 652 environmental journalists working at daily newspapers and television stations and more than…

News media reporting on sustainability and environmental (S&E) issues is seen as a form of informal environmental education. For journalists to play such an educative role, prior education on these topics appears necessary. By assessing a trial introductory-level journalism module on sustainability, this case study strengthens the argument for…

Environment reporters have been criticized for allegedly having an antibusiness bias. This study, based on a series of regional surveys including 364 U.S. environment reporters, found the journalists commonly used a business or economics framework for their stories. The reporters used some business organizations as sources more often than some…

Uzbekistan faces severe ecological problems including the rapidly shrinking Aral Sea, desertification, residues of biochemical weapons, and environmentally related respiratory disease. Even so, the country's print and broadcast media do little in-depth or analytical reporting on environmental issues, nor are journalists trained to cover such…