Media On The Move

 

Edited By MIKE MANSUR

Jim Handman and Pat Senson, producers with CBC Radio's weekly science progra, "Quirks & Quarks," have won the 2007 ScienceWritingAward from the American Institute of Physics. It is the second time the team from Q&Q has won the prestigious prize. The program has been a runner-up in the SEJ Awards three times.

John S. Adams, formerly a staff writer covering the environment and politics for the weekly Missoula Independent inMissoula,Mont., was hired as the Great Falls Tribune's new capitol bureau chief in November. Adams now covers politics, energy and the environment for the daily from the other side of the divide in Helena, Mont.

A three-day series in The Times-Picayune of New Orleans  titled "Last Chance:The Fight to Save a Disappearing Coast" was one of the winnersof thisyear's JohnB.OakesAwardfor Distinguished Environmental Journalism. The series was authored by Times-Picayune reporters Mark Schleifstein (a member of SEJ's board of directors) and Bob Marshall, graphics artist Dan Swenson, former Times-Picayune reporter and now Associated Press Billings, Mont., correspondent Matthew Brown and Times- Picayune photographerTed Jackson.

The Tampa Tribune's Mike Salinero recently gave up his position as the paper's environmental reporter to take over coverage of Hillsborough County government. Salinero became the Tribune's fulltime environmental writer in June 2004 after covering environmental matters at the state level in the Tallahassee Bureau for three years. Salinero maintains his love and interest in all things environmental but said he was ready for a bigger challenge. Hillsborough County has 1.2 million citizens and the county commission has a $4 billion operating budget.

Amy Westervelt, a correspondent for Sustainable Industries, a monthly magazine covering green business innovation on the west coast, won a Folio Gold Eddie for her feature "Algae Arms Race," which appeared in the April 2007 issue of the magazine.

Founding SEJ Board Member and freelance journalist Julie Halpert has written a book, Making Up With Mom: Why Mothers and Daughters Disagree About Kids, Careers and Casseroles (and What to do About It). The book, co-written with sociologist Deborah Carr, focuses on generational differences between women and their mothers and how to resolve them. It will be published April 15th by Thomas Dunne, a division of St.Martins Press. For more information, visit the Web site: www.makingupwithmom.com

Freelance writer Susan Williams has published a book of essays and short stories about the desert. It explores contemporary themes about water availability, cultural perspectives of the region and science education about the Sonoran Desert Upland Desert subdivision.Formore information about Paean to the Earth, 2008,Tuscon,Ariz., Four Feathers Press, check www.writeforchange.com.

From April 5-14, Wendee Holtcamp will be blogging live for Discovery Channel as she reports on and dives with sharks and researchers inAustralia's Coral Sea to promote the 2008 Shark Week. Visitors to the site can comment and ask questions. http://blogs.discovery.com — look for SharkWeek blog 2008.

Kathy Sagan has moved from the digital world (thedailygreen.com) back to books this summer as a senior editor at Simon & Schuster, acquiring both nonfiction and fiction.

Alexa Elliott, at PBS affiliate Channel 2 in Miami, won a Suncoast Regional Emmy in the health/science/ environment category for Channel 2's series, "Wild Florida," about Florida's native species and habitats. Elliott shares the award with producers, videographers and editors. The series is syndicated throughAmerican Public Television and is scheduled to air on over 30 PBS stations nationwide as well as in a couple of foreign countries.

Amanda Womac recently won the Best Research Award for a Master's Student at the University of Tennessee's College of Communication and Information Sciences 30th Annual Research Symposium for her paper, titled "Frames ofMountaintop Removal in Print Journalism." This was the second year in a row she has won the award.

Christie Aschwanden has won the 2008ArleneAward forArticles ThatMake a Difference from theAmerican Society of Journalists and Authors. Her awardwinning article in The New York Times described a Vietnamese botanist's project to protect minority tribal groups from the lingering effects of Agent Orange in Vietnam's central highlands. After the piece ran in the Times, botanist Phung Tuu Boi received donations in excess of the $20,000 he needed to complete the project. He will use the surplus funds for other environmental remediation programs in the area. Aschwanden's travel to Vietnam was funded by a grant from the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting.

Media on the Move needs an editor.  Interested in gathering and compiling news on your fellow reporters, professors, students and others in the environmental journalism world?  If so, contact Mike Mansur at mmansur@kcstar.com

** From SEJ's quarterly newsletter SEJournal, Spring 2008 issue