Covering the Environment by Bob Wyss

Author:Bob Wyss [Wyss, Bob]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Language Arts & Disciplines, Journalism, Social Science, Media Studies
ISBN: 9781135598020
Google: B5SNAgAAQBAJ
Publisher: Routledge
Published: 2010-09-28T04:44:45+00:00

Explanatory

Betty Gray’s water stories climaxed in a few days. Often an environmental story moves more slowly in time, and the breaking stories are more numerous as are the challenges in repeatedly having to convey information that sometimes can be both technical and complex.

Gwendolyn Craig was a recent college graduate and new reporter at the Auburn Citizen in 2016 when she was assigned to write about the blue-green algae blooms that were appearing with increasing consistency in ponds and lakes in the Finger Lakes region of New York. In 2017 those blooms reappeared and their risks escalated from nuisances that were closing down swimming areas to now threatening public water supplies. Those findings changed everything. “It caused a form of mass panic,” said Craig, “because nothing like this had been seen in the state before. Many people did not know how to handle it.”

Suddenly an assignment that had been taking a minor portion of her time escalated into one that was consuming more than half of her reporting time. It was time-consuming and one reason was the complexity of the story. The algae concentrations were being measured in micrograms per liter and while the blooms were called blue-green algae they were actually bacteria called cyanobacteria.

Translating that information was a challenge. “That’s the worst part of the story,” said Craig. “That’s what I struggle with the most.”

There were also so many players in the story, including local and state officials in a variety of roles and agencies, as well as scientists. In addition the issue affected many ordinary people, ranging from farmers accused of creating runoff that caused the pollution to residents afraid to drink or bathe in the water coming out of their faucets.

Craig learned what to report and what not to write by going to meetings where many of the affected parties attended and then following up with interviews. “It has involved a lot of learning,” she said. “I talk to a lot of scientists and I try to go out on the lake with them when they are doing testing” (Craig, 2017b).

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