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2023 Theme: Achieving an equitable transition to clean energy
Though we may think about climate change on a global scale, environmental shifts are happening locally, and they affect our daily lives in countless ways. News audiences need to know about the local impacts that directly impact their health and safety, quality of life, and wallets. The 2023 Annual Workshop will explore the natural, social, and engineering research guiding an equitable transition to clean energy. Fellows will dive deep into issues such as the promise and challenge of using clean energy, the Inflation Reduction Act’s opportunities and impact, community and governmental response to the clean energy transition, and more.
As climate change has become a more frequent issue of concern, newsrooms have adjusted by incorporating more coverage of environmental change and its impacts. Unfortunately, many reporters and editors lack the background, sources, and confidence to cover these stories with the depth and nuance they require. Metcalf Institute’s Annual Science Immersion Workshop for Journalists is designed to address this gap, and to be a valuable resource for journalists working in a wide variety of beats. We welcome applicants who specialize in areas such as business, finance, technology, policy, politics, etc, as climate change shapes all of these fields with ever-increasing urgency.
The Annual Workshop is designed to help Fellows gain new insights, sources and resources to aid their reporting, expand peer networks with journalists from around the globe, and produce accurate and contextualized reporting on globally relevant environmental issues. Metcalf Fellows will gain a solid foundation in the fundamentals of research practice, climate science, and adaptation measures from leading researchers and policy makers.
The 2023 Workshop will be conducted both virtually and in person at the University of Rhode Island in Kingston, RI. We will meet in person June 11-16, 2023, and virtually on June 21, 23, 28, and 30 for a two-hour Zoom panel presentation each day between 12 and 2 p.m. ET.
The Fellows also:
- Gain a deeper understanding of how scientists conduct research and handle scientific uncertainty.
- Develop the skills and confidence to interpret and translate the language of scientific journals for news audiences
- Build confidence in their abilities to discern the credibility of scientific sources
- Discover new ways to write about energy and climate change to build audience understanding and engagement
- Cultivate new sources by interacting with leading researchers and policy experts in an informal, off-deadline atmosphere
- Network and developed lasting relationships with journalists from a wide range of media and backgrounds
As a result of participating in the Annual Science Immersion Workshop, Fellows will:
- Be able to identify important climate change and energy stories that are relevant to their news audiences.
- Understand how academic scientists plan, fund, conduct, and publish their research
- Be better prepared to understand and communicate scientific uncertainties
- Be better prepared to translate scientific findings for news audiences
- Recognize and understand the interactions between climate change, the environment, and society, and how climate change disproportionately affects communities of color and low-income communities.
Thanks to Metcalf Institute’s endowment and the generosity of private donors, the fellowships include full tuition.
Learn MoreView Recent Annual Science Immersion Workshops:
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