Journalism & Media

The digital age of environmental journalism has brought with it an ugly underbelly characterized by increasingly bitter personal exchanges and accusations and a sucking-up of countless hours of productive reporting time and effort. How reporters handle these distractions may shape how well the American public understands, or doesn't understand, the climate challenge they and future generations will face.

Non-profit media, online media, freelancers, student journalists, and even some mainstream media are having trouble getting credentials to cover the climate treaty talks in Copenhagen Dec. 7-18, 2009. While one root of the problem may be capacity of the building, a key issue is whether non-profits, bloggers, and freelancers are truly legitimate media.

Environmental journalists working for local news media outlets may want to check out the EPA ZIP code lookup tool for discovering potential stories in their areas.

As USA TODAY exposes a culture of secrecy at FDA that caused schoolkids in several states to get sick because the FDA hid information about tainted tortillas, SEJ and other journalism groups insist FDA ends restrictions on staff interviews with press.

The Center for Research on Environmental Decisions (CRED) at Columbia University has published a free, research-based guide for "Scientists, Journalists, Educators, Political Aides, and the Interested Public."