Society of Environmental Journalists
Environmental journalism is a component of environmental communication that allows for debate on environmental issues in the public sphere. The Society of Environmental Journalists (SEJ) plays an important role in this regard by expanding the societal relevance of environmental issues through its journalist training services and its advocacy for press freedom and access to information. Its mission is to āstrengthen the quality, reach and viability of journalism across all media to advance public understanding of environmental issues.ā SEJ is a nonprofit, nonpartisan educational organization and is thus exempt from taxes and able to receive contributions from individuals, foundations, and other supporting organizations. Its headquarters are in Washington, D.C.
Historically, the appearance of the environmental journalism specialty within newsrooms is connected with the rise of the environmental movement and a new social consciousness of a global environmental crisis. Although pioneering environmental reporting dates back to the 1960s, environmental journalism per se developed alongside the mediatization, during the 1980s, of ecologically devastating events such as the Chernobyl nuclear disaster in 1986 and the Exxon Valdez oil spill in 1989. During this same period, the thinning of the ozone layer of the Earthās atmosphere became a subject of focus for scientists.
The idea that the environment is an ordinary theme that can be covered by any journalist was the dominant perspective in the American media until the end of the 1980s. According to James Detjen, a pioneer of environmental journalism who was the first president of SEJ, editors at the time believed that the environment was not a popular enough subject for the American public. However, in September 1989, 17 recipients of the Edward J. Meeman and Thomas Stokes Awards, who were working for media organizations such as The Philadelphia Inquirer, USA Today, and National Geographic, signed a letter sent to journalists throughout the United States inviting them to establish a new association that would serve as a forum for environmental subjects. The SEJ was officially established on February 14, 1990, with close to 100 members.
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With time, the membership of the organization grew considerably, both internationally and internally with the integration of other categories of members such as university researchers and activists/educators. In the 2020s, SEJ boasted more than 1,400 members (journalists and academics) in the United States, Canada, and Mexico, as well as in more than 40 other countries.
The organization has gradually diversified its programs and initiatives. In addition to providing journalist training, it offers grants and fellowships, notably through its Fund for Environmental Journalism, to support in-depth reporting. It hosts an annual conference and presents annual awards for outstanding environmental journalism. SEJ also hosts numerous email lists and publishes a digital news digest each weekday (EJToday) and a digital news magazine weekly (SEJournal), along with various special reports. A Diversity Task Force was created in 2010 to analyze the negative consequences of environmental problems on marginalized groups, and the organization has since expanded its commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion across its programs. SEJ also provides resources and guidance related to transparency, data access, and ethical reporting.
SEJ is dedicated to finding resources to allow its members to have access to the information they need to carry out their work. The organization files formal complaints and engages in advocacy efforts related to journalist access to information, particularly against government agencies such as the Environmental Protection Agency and the Food and Drug Administration. The organization created a Freedom of Information Task Force in 2002. SEJās work in defending journalistsā rights to access scientific and governmental information, particularly in cases involving restrictions on communication by public agencies, has allowed it to develop strong ties with other groups working on environmental issues, such as the Union of Concerned Scientists and the Society of Professional Journalists.
All media, traditional (print and broadcast) and new (online), are represented at SEJ. This poses a challenge when it comes to the definition of journalist in the era of the Internet and social media with the emergence of practices that did not exist at the time of SEJās founding, such as freelance journalism, blogging, digital-first reporting, multimedia storytelling, and social mediaādriven journalism. Apart from this membership issue, SEJ has been criticized for its close relationship with the business sector. In an effort to restore its credibility, it excluded public relations professionals from membership in the organization. The organization also has been accused of having a left-wing bias and at times confusing reporting with advocacy. Faced with these criticisms, SEJ affirmed its commitment to ethical journalism centered on objectivity and balanced news reporting.
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In recent years, the centrality of climate change and broader environmental issues in the public sphere with a diversity of actors (e.g., states, private organizations, civil society, laypersons) intervening at different levels (local, national, and international) has made more urgent a global dialogue to which SEJ can make an important contribution. Because of the specificity of its mission, SEJ can foster interdisciplinarity (i.e., contributions from different areas of knowledge) and intersectorality (i.e., intervention of different categories of actors: experts, policy makers, grassroots, citizens) within a broader public communication framework.
The support SEJ provides to journalists responsible for covering increasingly complex environmental issues still remains its chief concern. This is also its biggest challenge, since journalists face numerous internal and external challenges. The lack of scientific training and limited access to governmental data are limiting factors. The lack of support from news editors and the higher priority given to other topics (e.g., economy, terrorism) in the newsroom are equally important obstacles that environmental journalists face daily, even if there is a progressive mainstreaming of environmental coverage.
An unprecedented opportunity for SEJ is related to citizensā digital media practices, some of which are in line with the mission of the professional organization. Ordinary citizens documenting environmental hazards or scrutinizing environmental impacts through social media can be a very useful form of collaboration with professional journalistsā work. But this will only be beneficial provided that an expanded and intersectorial view of communication mediation is implemented. One of the main challenges faced by SEJ as a media development organization is to engage the public both as an audience and as an actor through its possible contribution to the global process of conferring to the environment a high-priority status.
The original version of this article was published by SAGE Publications in The SAGE International Encyclopedia of Mass Media and Society.