Journalism 784
Reynolds School of Journalism
University of Nevada, Reno
Summer 2007

Instructor: Jon Christensen

E-mail: jonchristensen@stanford.edu

Course Description:

Analysis of the most pressing environmental issues in the West, as seen through the expertise of scientists, policy makers, citizen advocates, scholars, and journalists, focusing on the Lake Tahoe basin in the Sierra Nevada. This course proceeds from the question: What do interactive journalists need to know about environmental science and policy at Lake Tahoe to be successful in a democratic society? Our assumption is that it is not possible to teach or learn everything you need to know about the environment, science and policy in one course. So this course seeks to introduce you to a set of useful tools and powerful, historically informed perspectives for thinking about and navigating the complexities of environmental science and policy, while beginning to immerse you in those complexities at Lake Tahoe. Our expectation is that you will be able to put these ideas to use in your work over the next 10 months, and take these intellectual tools and perspectives wherever you go from here.