Cameron Peak Fire, 2020. Photo by Jennifer Clary.
The field of journalism and media communication covers a broad swath of subjects and often includes community members in research. In these podcasts, Professor Ashley Anderson shares how she and her team worked to boost community engagement and improve access to air quality information given Colorado’s wildfires, and instructor Jenny Fischer works with the Deliberative Journalism Project whose aim is to improve ‘news deserts’ and facilitate local discussion on shared issues, amplify diverse voices, and boost civic engagement.
Today’s Air Check
In the summer of 2020, Colorado was shrouded in a haze; days filled with orange skies, itchy eyes, and scratchy throats that many residents still remember.
The Cameron Peak wildfire went down as the largest wildfire in state history, and it motivated researchers Professor Ashley Anderson and Professor Katie Abrams to better understand how to support people in protecting their health from the risks of wildfire smoke.
This episode covers how a team of interdisciplinary scientists worked to boost community engagement and improve access to air quality information, including ways to encourage daily air quality checks and motivate protective actions on poor air quality days.
Throughout this process, Anderson relied on social science perspectives, using strategic communication to help communities make sense of complex topics like air quality.
The State of Local News
How many of us rely on a Facebook group for local news? For the town of Wellington just north of Fort Collins, it’s the norm. With no local media outlet, the growing, comparatively affluent and well-educated town is considered a news desert.
News deserts can create problems when there’s little to no reporting: less accountability from local government, increased reliance on unverified social media posts, and information gaps in town happenings.
That’s why journalism instructor Jenny Fischer and her Deliberative Journalism Project team set out to meet Wellington residents and learn about their news habits to help develop an official media outlet.
This episode explores how deliberative journalism goes beyond traditional reporting by facilitating local discussion on shared issues, amplifying diverse voices, and boosting civic engagement.
Liberal Arts Impact
Colorado State University’s College of Liberal Arts is a vibrant community of artists, thinkers, storytellers, and scientists who examine the human experience. In these podcasts, our faculty share their areas of expertise and talk about why their work matters in our world today.
Faculty and staff recorded their podcasts with CSU's Center for Science Communication through the leadership of Associate Professor Jaime Jacobsen and her graduate students in the Department of Journalism and Media Communication.