Media Project Summary Raising awareness on sustainable development is not a one man job. This is why the Bellagio Forum has worked and continues to work with some of the leading media organizations throughout the world to spread the news of sustainable development to the public. The Forum’s Media Project was a big step towards increasing both the quantity and quality of reporting on the environment and sustainable development. The four parts of the project, journalist training courses, a fellowship program at Green College Oxford, the founding of an environmental communication award and the facilitation of media roundtables and dialogues focus on a variety of aspects of the media, and through their multiplied effects generate, for the present as well as the future, media focus on sustainable development. Journalist Training Courses In order to successfully report on environmental and sustainable development issues, journalists need many skills in addition to the ones necessary for reporting on the “normal news”. To help journalists develop these skills, the Forum joined forces with Reuters Foundation to run training courses specially focused on these skills. The courses were also tuned towards the geographic region of the journalists attending as well as their vocational background. For example, if most of the participants were economic journalists, then the course-contents were conceived accordingly and also arranged by economic journalists. But, regardless of the area of concentration, all classes were dedicated to emphasizing nature, the environment and sustainable development. Between 2001 and 2005 eight journalist training courses lasting three to five days each were held throughout the world. There were between six and fifteen journalists in each course. They came from Columbia, Costa Rica, Honduras, El Salvador, Peru, Yugoslavia, Croatia, Slovenia, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria, Lithuania, Switzerland, Estonia, Argentina, the Balkans, Chile, Portugal, Sri Lanka, Malaysia, India, Brazil, Dubai, Russia, Lebanon, Bosnia, Turkey, Germany, Canada, Trinidad and Tobago, Sierra Leone, Zambia and various other African countries. The exchange of knowledge was not only from instructor to students, but due to their varied background students were also able to learn from each other and make progress hardly believable for a class lasting so few days. For detailed individual course descriptions, click on the following links: Journalism Fellowship Another education-oriented part of the Media Project, the journalism fellowship at Green College, Oxford University allowed mid-career journalists to carry out in-depth research into environmental and sustainable development issues and ways of overcoming hindrances to implementing positive policies and good practices in these fields. The journalists chosen came from around the globe: India, Malaysia, China, Brazil, Zambia, and the Philippines. The eight recipients of the fellowship to Green College studied for three months each with the status of a visiting scholar. They attended seminars, special lectures and discussions led by distinguished journalists. By the end of their time there had written a substantial piece of writing on an issue concerning sustainable development. Paper topics range from urbanization and CO2 emissions in China to Indian water management. In addition, the fellows built up a valuable, broad range of contacts including speakers from the UK media, staff and students during their time at Oxford. In addition to the eight fellowships to Green College, one fellowship was awarded lasting twelve months at the University of Canterbury in New Zealand. There Komathi Kolandai researched the impact the Bellagio Forum Journalist Courses had on journalists’ abilities to effectively report and communicate sustainability issues. Journalism Fellows: - Lyla Bavadam, India (Read her comments about her time at Oxford here.)
- Hilary Cheng Geok Chiew, The Star Malaysia
- Xiaoni Chen, CNN China
- Gisele Teixeira, Gazeta Mercantil Brazil
- Yan Zhao, Science Times China
- Rainer Hoenig, German freelance writer, India
- Mr. Newton Sibanda, Zambia
- Yasmin Arquiza, Bandillo Ng Palawan, Philippines
- Komathi Kolandi, Malaysia
Environmental Communication Award (ECA)
This award, launched through the combined efforts of the Forum and Euronatur, and under the direction of the then Executive Director of the United Nations Environmental Programme (UNEP), Klaus Töpfer, recognizes efforts in the area of media that present the enlightened structural changes needed to achieve sustainability in an innovative, factually accurate and impeccable manner. All who work in the media are eligible to submit and suggest entries for consideration. Prize-worthy initiatives will enhance public knowledge and awareness about the interdependency of economics, social and ecologic issues. So far, the ECA has been awarded two times, in 2003 and 2005, with recipients in three categories each time. At the first prize-giving in 2003, the Daimler Chrysler Corporation won in the category of private companies for not only meeting its corporate environmental responsibilities, but communicating its actions to the public. In the category of initiative and organizations, Happy Earth – Philippines won for its work encouraging children to deal with environmental issues and to motivate them to take concrete action. The individual achievement category prize was taken by Dr. Luisa Schmidt for her outstanding commitment to environmental affairs in Portugal. Two years later, Initiative Pro Recyclingpapier won for their campaign to use recycled paper, Friends of the Earth Middle East won for its campaign to save the Dead Sea, and Professor Dennis Meadows won for his creation of resource-use role-playing games.
Media Roundtables/Policy Dialogues The goal of the six media roundtable events was to bring together top thinkers and decision-makers from various backgrounds including: the media, business, government, NGOs and CSOs to discuss sustainable development challenges that require cooperative action and an informed public. Through debate and discussion of different viewpoints, participants aided by top experts came to a better understanding about how to deal with these challenges. Journalists were also integrated into the events with the intent of furthering their skills on reporting sustainable development issues. In essence, the media roundtables allowed broadening of the issue “environment” by reaching larger targeted groups, especially journalists who play a key role in increasing the awareness of and influencing public opinions on sustainability. They covered topics such as: unsustainable consumerism, why environmental news isn’t mainstream news, environmental malpractice, how environmental hazards affect children’s health, issues with communicating conservation to the public, and standards of living in developing countries. Having started early in 2002, the series of events finally finished in 2005. Media Roundtables: |
