FYS: Reporting the Earth Crisis: Journalism, Ecology, and Popular Media

3 Credits.

In this First-Year Seminar, students will examine news stories, features, profiles, documentary films, and works of photojournalism with an eye toward understanding how the Earth Crisis (the complex combination of ecological problems facing the planet and its inhabitants) is communicated to audiences around the globe. How is climate change reported in European newspapers? How do Chinese media outlets write about air pollution? How do local news sources report on ecological issues here in Baltimore? Do nature documentaries advance or detract from our understanding of ecological threats? Is an ecologically themed short story more or less powerful than a photo essay examining the great Pacific garbage patch? We’ll ask these questions and more as we seek to understand how the story of the Earth Crisis is communicated to audiences around the world and how Baltimore's media landscape addresses local and regional environmental concerns. We'll visit a newsroom, a local environmental nonprofit, and local sites of ecological interest, including Baltimore's Inner Harbor.