Green journalism
Green journalism
“Green Journalism” is a platform for media professionals who wish to report on environmental and sustainability issues. It offers specialist information, insights into research and teaching, as well as a space for new narrative forms, experiments with formats and practical ideas from editorial teams.
| Project lead: | Prof. Dr Torsten Schäfer |
| Project team: | Vanessa Kokoschka and others |
| Duration: | since January 2013 |
| Funding body: | Klaus Wiegandt, founder and chairman of the Forum for Responsibility Foundation |
The Grüner Journalismus media portal has been online since January 2014. It is aimed at journalists who wish to find out more about environmental and sustainability issues. The portal serves as a place of contact for specialist information, ideas, sources and expert contacts. In addition to its own articles, Grüner Journalismus also publishes guest contributions and work by emerging journalists, particularly those from the journalism degree programmes at Darmstadt University of Applied Sciences.
Project background
The project has been led by Prof. Dr Torsten Schäfer since 2013 and is a collaborative initiative involving various institutions, including Darmstadt University of Applied Sciences, Leuphana University of Lüneburg, Netzwerk Recherche and the ISOE – Institute for Social-Ecological Research. It is funded by the Forum für Verantwortung Foundation.
In 2015, the platform was expanded to include a blog where staff members publish short articles, ideas and media snippets relating to sustainability. Contributions from collaborative projects, such as the ‘grünzeug’ series in partnership with the ‘Sustainability and Journalism’ certificate programme at Leuphana University of Lüneburg, are also featured there. In 2016, the research project ‘Neues Erzählen’ (New Narratives) emerged from the portal. This project investigates new forms of presentation and storytelling in environmental journalism that are particularly well-suited to complex issues concerning the future.
Aim
Grüner Journalismus aims not only to provide journalistic content, but also to promote new narrative forms and thematic approaches to reporting on sustainability. The portal highlights creative potential and market gaps in the media industry and encourages media professionals to tackle environmental and future-oriented topics in innovative ways.