A conversation with Derrick Z. Jackson, Joan Shorenstein Fellow (fall 2016), Boston Globe essayist, and a climate and energy writer for the Union of Concerned Scientists, about his new research paper examining the failure of national media outlets to respond to the Flint water crisis in an urgent manner, as well as biases in coverage. 

Jackson asks what catastrophes might have been averted had national media outlets stepped in sooner—and why it took so long for the Flint water crisis to become a story worthy of national attention. He points to a lack of newsroom diversity, a history of national media paying little attention to environmental justice in communities of color, and the tendency to act only after harm has been verified by doctors and scientists—rather than in response to widespread citizen concern.

 

Full paper: https://shorensteincenter.org/environmental-justice-unjust-coverage-of-the-flint-water-crisis/