Fran Molloy teaches Journalism and Society: Science, Environment and Politics at NYU Sydney. She describes her exciting approach below:
Environmental journalism lies at a fascinating crossroad today. Focus on environmental issues has never been stronger as the crisis of climate change becomes apparent; and at the same time, media is transforming hugely, subject to unprecedented shifts in power and audiences as the web drives participation and a demand for information and conversations that can no longer be one-way.
Sydney is a great place to learn about environmental journalism as we are close to some fascinating places and people, and can get first-hand observations as we explore this journalistic tradition, its forms and its themes, and the place it takes in the new media world.
In the Journalism and Society course, we spent four weeks of the first half of the semester in the field, which really informed our writing-based second session.
Students walked through coastal wetlands, visited a bird sanctuary, and remnant urban forests; they met Senators, activists, developers and scientists – (at least one in each category!); and then they all developed a news and a feature story for publication and wrote about the latest in environment media and various environment topics for our class blog: http://ozonenyu.wordpress.com. .
We took a train to Wolli Creek, walking through threatened urban forest where we were thrilled to see a three-metre black snake devouring a frog. (Some of us were less thrilled than others!)
We also went by bus to the sensitive Kurnell peninsula, where local expert John Atkins of the Botany Bay Environment Centre guided us through the National Park. We visited the Cape Solander whale-watching research platform, and looked at the impact of heavy development on Botany Bay and the adjoining wetland of Towra Point, a listed bird sanctuary where many threatened migratory bird species rest from journeys of more than 12,000km, from distant sites in Siberia, China and Japan.
We went from observing tiny, brightly coloured anemones in rockpools to marveling at beautiful littoral rainforest inhabited by kookaburras and parrots and the odd wallaby. Our timing was a little out, we realized, when finding out that the cast of Modern Family had been at the same spot just a week earlier.
Though we stopped for lunch and potentially a swim at the beautiful Cronulla beach, this semester the weather turned cold, so no-one braved the water – though we did look at the million-dollar mansions being built just one sand-dune away from the open sea and mused on the impact that sea level rise might have on these homes.
Our other field trips included a visit to the $6 billion Barangaroo development, where we heard about their sustainability initiatives and challenges, and a walk up to NSW Parliament, where we met with Jeremy Buckingham, a Member of the Legislative Council – the equivalent of a US State Senator – who is part of the Greens Party. It was a favourite with our students and gave us all a real insight into the political process.
