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Chris Papa, Amol Pavangadkar, James Semivan (First place, short length videos) and Carl Kondrat (Second place, long length video) in Bay City.
Three student-produced videos win awards at the first Great Lakes Environmental Film Festival
Three video projects, produced by the Knight Center for Environmental Journalism and the College of Communication Arts and Sciences (CAS) at Michigan State University, won honors at the first annual Great Lakes Environmental Film Festival in Bay City, Michigan in early January.
The Knight Center's documentary production, “Dying to be Heard,” won first place in the college-level long-length video category. Ben Phillips, the program’s co-producer, and Kevin Wilt, a graduate student in the College of Music, received a $1,000 scholarship. The documentary was produced by instructor Lou D’Aria with assistance from Knight Center faculty, staff and students. The documentary was broadcast on WKAR-TV and other Public Broadcasting Service stations in Michigan in May 2007. The documentary is based on an article by Jim Detjen, Knight Center Director, which appeared in EJ Magazine. The program describes the role that George Wallace, a MSU zoology professor, played in research showing how the pesticide DDT affected robins and other birds. This research was cited by Rachel Carson in her pioneering environmental book, “Silent Spring.”
A mini documentary on the history of the Great Lakes region and how to sustain the regional environment, produced by a TISM student Carl Kondrat, won second place in the same category. He was awarded a $100 scholarship. This video was produced as an independent study project under the faculty mentorship of Amol Pavangadkar, who teaches at the Knight Center and in the college.
First place in the college-level short-length video category and a $1,000 scholarship was won by a group of seven students: James Semivan, John Ostler, Michael Kohon, Chelsey Susin, Kyle Haan, Andrew Smith and Chelsea Yosin. They created a series of five 30-second public service announcements to show students how they can alter their habits to help the environment. These videos were produced as a part of a CAS special topics class taught by Pavangadkar in Fall 2006. The local PBS station, WKAR, has been broadcasting these videos since October 2007.
The awards were announced on Jan. 12 during ceremonies at the historic State Theatre in Bay City. Thirty-five videos were entered into the competition.
The Knight Center for Environmental Journalism houses the Meeman Archive, the nation's finest collection of environmental newspaper reporting.
Established by the Scripps-Howard News Service in 1982, the archive preserves outstanding journalism about conservation, natural resources and the environment.
The archive originally consisted of entries and winners of the Edward J. Meeman Award, sponsored by the Scripps Howard Foundation. In recent years it has been expanded with entries from the annual awards sponsored by the Society of Environmental Journalists, Thomas L. Stokes Award, John Oakes Award and the Waldo Proffitt Award.
The archive contains thousands of articles dating from 1980 to the present. They cover hundreds of environmental topics. About 6,000 articles have been entered into a database that can be searched with the sub-navigation links to the left. The File Identifier code locates paper copies of stories within the archive.
In addition, a limited number of entries have been scanned. Such entries are noted with a link on an entry called "view." A username and password to access these scans is provided to a limited number of qualified researchers. Contact ej@msu.edu for information.
Entering articles into the database and attaching scans to them is an ongoing process the Knight Center works on as funding is available. The archive is part of Michigan State University's growing collection of environmental journalism resources that include books and videotapes and audiotapes of interviews with key environmental figures.
To contribute tax-deductible materials to the archive, contact Jim Detjen or 517/353-9479. We safeguard valuable artifacts of environmental reporting for the benefit of students, scholars, historians and journalists.
