Meet the Fellows - Group 4

EarthFix

Visiting: Jordan

David Steves is editor of EarthFix, a multimedia project focused on environmental journalism with content contributed by public television and public radio stations throughout the United States’ Pacific Northwest region. EarthFix’s content is broadcast on the participating stations and is gathered online on the website www.EarthFix.info. The project has won many awards including from the Online News Association in 2012 and 2013 for best explanatory reporting and from the Society of Professional Journalists in 2013 for best website on a specialized subject, online video, video photography, enterprise reporting, and investigative radio reporting. Based at Oregon Public Broadcasting in Portland, Steves oversaw the website’s launch in 2011 and supervises a team of multimedia journalists based in seven participating stations in the states of Oregon, Washington, and Idaho. Previously Steves worked as a reporter at newspapers around the region, winning journalism awards for coverage including the murder of a high-ranking prison official, challenges faced by migrant farm workers, the rise in mentally ill prison inmates, and questionable fundraising by a lobbying group. Steves served as state capital bureau chief for The Eugene Register-Guard in Oregon, as a reporter, editor and columnist for the Salem Statesman-Journal in Oregon, and as a writer for The Seattle Times and other newspapers in Washington State. During his study tour in Jordan, Steves hopes to learn and share about operating a multimedia news outlet. “It would be fascinating to learn firsthand how media institutions in the Middle East meet their audiences’ needs for online and broadcast journalism in a political and cultural paradigm that differs so much from that of the West,” Steves said. “I think the lessons I've learned in developing and launching a multimedia news organization could be transferred to media organizations in the Middle East.” 

 

MIT Center for Civic Media and Media Lab

Visiting: Kuwait

Erhardt Graeff is a civic media researcher, technologist, and entrepreneur. He currently works and studies at the Massachusetts Institute for Technology’s Center for Civic Media and Media Lab. His recent projects involve building civic technologies that empower people to be greater agents of change. Graeff has developed new methods to analyze large volumes of digital media content from diverse sources to understand how the news media’s priorities, tone, and interpretation were being influenced not only by journalists but by bloggers, activists, and social media users. He has also documented how digital media has allowed new forms of civic participation. Graeff helped teach the university course “The Future of News and Participatory Media” on citizen journalism, social media, and user-centered design of technology to enhance journalism. Graeff previously served as a research assistant at Microsoft's Social Media Collective, studying social media apps distributing news. Graeff is active in nonprofit work. He is a founding trustee of The Awesome Foundation, which gives small grants to innovative and promising projects. He is the co-founder of BetterGrads, an online college mentoring program for high school students, and a founding member of the Web Ecology Project, a network of social media and Internet culture researchers. During his time in Kuwait, Graeff hopes to observe how digital media institutions engage with their users and audiences, while seeking to form ties with media organizations to begin an exchange of ideas about the role of digital media in connecting people with civic life. 

 

Detroit Free Press

Visiting: United Arab Emirates

Jim Schaefer, investigative journalist for the Detroit Free Press, is the winner of many awards including the Pulitzer Prize, the United States’ highest honor in journalism. Leading a yearlong investigation into the synthetic drug fentanyl that had caused hundreds of deaths, Schaefer traced the drug to a lab in Mexico and the chemist that made it. The resulting 12-page project won the Nancy Dickerson Whitehead Award for Excellence in Reporting on Drug and Alcohol Problems. Schaefer and a colleague exposed corruption in the administration of former Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick, proving the mayor had lied in court and improperly paid people with public funds to obscure his misdeeds; they won eight journalism awards including the Pulitzer for Local Reporting in 2009. His blogging about the former mayor’s trial helped the newspaper win the Edward R. Murrow Award for best website.

Schaefer has also worked for the Free Press as a night police reporter, page designer, copy editor and video game reviewer. As a television journalist, Schaefer worked for the TV station WXYZ as an investigative producer with the station’s special projects unit, reporting, writing and directing in-depth video stories. Schaefer teaches investigative reporting and copy editing as an adjunct professor at the University of Michigan-Dearborn and the University of Detroit Mercy.

During his visit to the UAE, Schaefer plans to study how digital media companies promote their content. “I want to learn more about balancing a web site's need for traffic with the real responsibility to produce quality journalism,” Schaefer said. “I would like to explore and learn strategies for newspapers and other content producers to wring more value out of our original content.” 

 

Miami Herald

Visiting: Morocco

Nancy San Martin is Interactive Editor for the award-winning Miami Herald newspaper. A longtime journalist experienced in covering international news, San Martin won an Emmy award in 2011 as executive producer of a documentary about Haiti, "Nou Bouke." For the Miami Herald, she has been responsible for overseeing digital presence, community outreach and audience engagement for 2009. Previously she was a World Reporter and Assistant World Editor for the Herald, traveling to cover stories across North and South America and conflict in Afghanistan and Pakistan. She recently traveled to Greenland to document the effects of climate change.

Twin Cities Public Television

Visiting: Jordan

Rita Karl is the Director of STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) Outreach & Education, National Productions for Twin Cities Public Television (www.TPT.org), a nonprofit media organization that operates digital television channels and websites and produces national programs. Karl leads the development and management of STEM outreach initiatives for the Emmy award-winning television program "SciGirls." Karl builds partnerships with national and international STEM experts and institutions and seeks funding for media, web and outreach educational initiatives. Karl is helping expand SciGirls via new partnerships, interactive media and in face-to-face outreach and training. "We have added a strong transmedia connection where we connect almost seamlessly from media to interactive online gaming," Karl said.

Karl served as Director of Education for the Challenger Center for Space Science Education in Washington, D.C. from 2006 to 2012, directing the design of space-exploration simulations and educational outreach programs to inspire youth to pursue studies and careers in STEM. She served as producer for live conferences from the U.S. space shuttle and the International Space Station and produced over 100 weekly space and science podcasts and a suite of educational media with millions of online views. Karl previously served as Education Manager for the Universities Space Research Association on a variety of digital and media education and outreach projects for the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) including the long-standing Aerospace Scholars.

From 2002 to 2005 Karl worked in Egypt as Director and Senior Education Adviser for the project "Educational Technology in Schools" funded by the U.S. Agency for International Development training thousands of teachers to use Internet-based technology in kindergarten through high school. Among many activities, she was the keynote speaker at the "Embracing Diversity Education" conference of the Egyptian Society for Developing Skills of Children with Special Needs in 2005.

"As a former educator who has a strong belief in the power of narrative and educational media, I believe that the sharing and telling of our own professional stories, through exchange programs like this one, can help us contribute more to our organizations and partner with other like-minded institutions." During her visit to Jordan, Karl hopes to learn how digital media institutions in the Middle East "use transmedia efforts to connect their broadcast or online media with social media, education and outreach programs."