Metcalf Institute fellowships awarded

NARRAGANSETT, R.I. – May 16, 2008 – The Metcalf Institute for Marine and Environmental Reporting has awarded Annual Workshop for Journalists Fellowships to ten reporters. The reporters will attend Metcalf’s week-long marine and environmental science immersion program at the University of Rhode Island Graduate School of Oceanography from June 8 to June 15, 2008.

The 2008 Metcalf Fellows are: Michael P. Burnham, senior reporter for the online newswire Greenwire, Washington D.C.; Michael Cohea, staff multimedia photojournalist for Community Newspaper Company, Raynham, MA; Kelly Cuculiansky, staff writer for the Daytona Beach News-Journal, New Smyrna Beach, FL; Diego Cupolo, staff writer for the Star-Ledger, Newark, NJ; Christine Cyr, senior associate editor at Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia, New York, NY; Ian Fein, environmental reporter for the West Marin Citizen, Point Reyes Station, CA; Liam Moriarty, environmental reporter for NPR-member station KPLU, Seattle, WA; Myron B. Pitts, metro columnist for The Fayetteville Observer, Fayetteville, NC; Jacob Resneck, host and reporter, Mountain Communications Radio, Saranac Lake, NY; and Rick Smith, freelance documentary filmmaker and cinematographer, Bozeman, MT.

The fellowship program, Coastal Impacts: Marine and Environmental Science for Journalists, gives reporters and editors exposure to the basic science underlying environmental news to help them improve the accuracy and clarity of science-based news reporting. The workshop includes research in the field and lab with scientists and graduate students and a public lecture and debate series that will focus on offshore aquaculture, shrinking freshwater resources, and climate change science and policy.

The Metcalf Institute for Marine and Environmental Reporting was established in 1997 with funding from Belo Corp., The Providence Journal Foundation, the Washington Post’s Philip L. Graham Fund, and the Telaka Foundation. The Metcalf Institute was named for the late publisher of The Providence Journal, Michael P. Metcalf.