When I was doing research in a genetics lab during my undergrad I constantly heard about the benefits of doing science for the sake of science.  I believed in this principle and never questioned it.  Last week, after a Genome British Columbia forum in Vancouver, I began questioning this statement.

Dr. Carl Douglas answering questions at a Genome BC forum

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In 2007, nineteen environmentalist rode 1300 km to reach Alberta’s imfamous tar sands, stopping along the way to ask communities how the tar sands have affected them.

To The Tar Sands is a documentary of their journey that was directed and produced by UBC School of Journalism student Jodie Martinson. It highlights some of the inherent contradictions in this massive mining project while remaining fair and balanced in its coverage.

I was at the UBC screening of To The Tar Sands on January 20 and recorded a podcast for the Thunderbird.

My aim was to give listeners a sense of the breadth of the film, and to show how one of the film’s main characters feels about the implications the tar sands have for all Canadians.

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It’s because we have one Earth and it’s going down the drain, according to Richard Black, an environmental correspondent with the BBC news website who gave a talk called “News on the net: a green future?” at the UBC School of Journalism on Friday afternoon.

His presentation started with an animated graphic showing the Earth going into the drain of a kitchen sink. This brought chuckles from the audience and kept them interested in his talk because he asked the audience to make choices on what information would be displayed next. For example, he showed an endangered species website and asked someone to shout the name of an animal or plant species they would like to know if it was endangered. At another part of his talk he used an animated map and asked the audience to choose a city in Britain and we found out the exact number of votes cast for each political party during an election.

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The future of environmental journalism is interactive and online, according to Richard Black, environmental correspondent with the BBC News website. Media reports should offer audiences a variety of content options, Black told audience members at UBC School of Journalism Lunch Hour Lecture Friday afternoon.

Coverage can range from a staple article to videos and reports, all of which should allow online news audiences to expand their knowledge of a subject.

The trick is to keep these reports informative. It’s not worth it to include a picture slideshow of images of endangered monkeys in news coverage, Black cautions, unless there is also information attached on why people should care.

That, he said, will separate mainstream media reports from other sources of news.
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