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Idaho Statesman recognized for Environmental Reporting

Most newspapers in the U.S. West are failing to cover “the big story” on environmental issues in the West, a report issued this week by a journalism think tank concludes.

The Idaho Statesman

But nine dailies, including The Idaho Statesman, were recognized for the quality and commitment to environmental reporting with the group’s first Wallace Stegner Awards for Exemplary Journalism.

Large-scale demographic, economic, and environmental changes are transforming the entire region, yet are largely covered piecemeal, said the Institutes for Journalism & Natural Resources http://www.ijnr.org/ , a journalism watchdog group in Missoula, Mont.

“Citizens in the West are being deprived of information and insight they need to carry on productive conversations and to make responsible decisions about the region’s future,” said Frank Allen, author of the report, “Matching the Scenery.”
http://www.ijnr.org/wsi/index.html

Allen, a former environmental reporter for the Wall Street Journal and a former journalism professor at Montana State University, edited the report based on research of the work of 285 daily newspapers in the West. His team of researchers included Bill Dietrich, a Pulitzer Prize-winning former reporter for The Seattle Times.

A panel of jurors choose the winners of the Stegner Awards, named after the Pulitzer Prize-winning author, historian and writing professor at Stanford University.

In addition to The Idaho Statesman, the winners were: The Anchorage (Alaska) Daily News; the (Flagstaff) Arizona Sun; The Durango (Colo.) Herald; The Press-Enterprise in Riverside, Calif.; The Los Angeles Times; the Seattle Post-Intelligencer; The (Portland) Oregonian, and the Sacramento Bee.

John Freemuth, a Boise State University political scientist and fellow at the Andrus Center for Public Policy, said some of the institutes’ findings echo the Andrus Center’s conclusions from its own earlier analysis, including the way costs and time restraints affect coverage of the West.

He also said the public has an appetite for serious news coverage and a stake in how journalists do their jobs.

“The media are the ones that tell us our stories, that present our conflicts and influence how we all think about the West, its culture and its future,” he said.

Among the institutes’ findings: Western dailies should invest more to expand news-gathering capacities, be more creative about how they are used and should utilize their existing newsroom resources more effectively.

Assign and encourage more reporters to cover growth, development and the environment. For many newsrooms, this recommendation would require hiring at least one more journalist.

Become more selective about coverage of growth, development and the environment. Quality rather than quantity should be the goal. Reporters need more time to work on stories that are important, ambitious and complicated. Give more space and prominent placement to such stories.

Provide more training opportunities for reporters and editors. The institutes recommended increasing and sharing knowledge and competence.

Cultivate and retain valuable veterans. The institutes recommended creating workplace conditions that enable accomplished elders to nurture less-experienced journalists.

Take more risks by exploring and testing other formats and approaches to gathering and telling complicated stories about growth, development and the environment.

http://www.idahostatesman.com/story.asp?ID=49748

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