Great Lakes Echo recently received a Great Laker Award from the Healing Our Waters Coalition for their coverage of environmental issues around the region.
A special post by David Poulson outlines his idea to create a ‘newsshed’ as a social construct, opposed to the more traditional notion of a watershed in the environment. Both, he said, are natural resources.
“Newsshed is a word invented (OK, I invented it.) to evoke imagery of diverse streams of news contributing to a critical mass of understanding of complex environmental issues,” Poulson wrote in his post.
Great Lakes Echo took this strategy to bat during Great Lakes Week, where many environmental giants meet for several days in the region. According to Pouslon, the resource-strapped organization prepared by having their own reporters, Michigan State students and a hired freelancer produce nine comprehensive stories leading up to and throughout the conference.
The coverage paid off, and was picked up by Detroit Public Television as well as their Great Lakes Now website. Great Lakes Echo also facilitated a stream of tweets under the hashtag #GreatLakesWeek, highlighted even more insights surrounding the event.
