FELLOWSHIPS: Interview with Arul Louis, Knight fellow on climate change in India

SAJAer and New York Daily News editor Arul Louis was recently awarded a Knight International Journalism Fellowship. His fellowship will take him to India, where he intends to develop tools and resources related to development and climate change for TERI, The Energy and Resources Institute headed by Nobel laureate Dr. Rajendra Pachauri (see Arul's project description).

Louis (photographed here by Thomas Monaster/Daily News) has been at the Daily News for 14 years. Prior to that, he worked at papers in New Jersey, as well as India Abroad. He considers his coverage of India's Emergency the "story of a lifetime." He recently returned from Bali, where he attended the UN climate change conference, even blogging on it as one of 10,000 people "crammed into the conference."

We asked him a few questions about this next stage in his career.

So, can you tell me a little more about this fellowship?

The Knight International Journalism Fellowships are funded by the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation. The Fellows, who are experienced international media people, work with host organizations abroad on high-impact projects. Broadly, the goals are to help improve the standards of journalism and to innovate. In my case, the partner – or host organization – is TERI, The Energy Resources Institute.

The program has changed since it was started 22 years ago. Since 2006, the program has focused on specific issues or goals – like the environment, health, election coverage or ethics – and fellowships now are a year long. The program also emphasizes getting results that can be measured, and continuity, so that work done during the fellowship is sustained.

Incidentally, the program is launching a Fellowship on elections and political coverage in Pakistan and is looking for candidates.

Will you be working in some capacity with Dr. Rajinder Pachauri himself? Can you expand on the Project description, specifically the part that says "help journalists develop and utilize sophisticated tools, including online resources and media associations"?

I don't expect to be working directly on a day-to-day basis with Dr. Pachauri. TERI doesn't have a media program now and we have a plan to develop one. This will be an opportunity for us to come up with programs that are suitable for India and that utilize new technologies. For example, we can find new, interactive ways to present information. Here is an experiment (on Diwali/Deepavali's environmental impact) that can get timely information on the environment down to neighborhood levels (It's still at the alpha stage, so the stats are old; but it gives you a hint of what is possible.)

A rather ambitious idea is a virtual environmental newsroom. Here, we want to create a database of environmental resources --  there are lots of them and we don't want to duplicate them. It is envisioned as a gallery that showcases outstanding journalism coverage of the environment and climate change. It also would be an online facility where journalists can exchange ideas and be mentored by more experienced editors or reporters, and where journalists in different countries can exchange information to gain new perspectives on environment issues. Perhaps SAJA – as an organization or individual SAJA members – can contribute to this.

Another important part of the Fellowship is working directly in newsrooms with journalists. Indo-Asian News Service (IANS) has offered to host me in its newsroom. At IANS, we hope to develop an environmental beat and try to adopt new technologies. The wire service already produces news for delivery through SMS (or cell phone text messaging). We want to see how we can use that for environment reporting.

Environment – or specifically, climate change – is going to be a very important issue for India and the world. As a democracy, nothing can be done in India without the participation of the people. The media's role is to make the information they need accessible – and, most importantly, understandable – and to present all sides so they can make the choices.

Personally, I think the environment or climate change isn't a zero-sum game: Environment and development aren't mutually exclusive and real development, while attacking poverty, also takes into account the environmental factors. That's why this and other Fellowships the program is trying to create in this area are known as Climate Change and Development Journalism Fellowships.

On a more personal level, why do you want to do this fellowship? And what do you want it to translate to, in the long-run?

I've had a good run in the profession in the U.S. and I have gained a lot personally and professionally. I wanted to try something different, something with a social component, making some contribution somewhere. I mentioned it to Sree [Dean Sreenath Sreenivasan of Columbia’s J-School and SAJAforum] and he suggested this Fellowship. Although my preference was to work in the Middle East or Africa, the India fellowship had the best fit for me – and I'll be back working in India after 26 years.

One thing I want to emphasize is that I'm not pretending to be a know-it-all, and I don’t want to be there telling Indian journalists how to do things. Remember, you have the world's fastest growing media there. Compare that to the state of the media here, especially print. So it's an opportunity for me to step back and see what is happening there – both in the media and in the environment arena, and to see how together we can do things better and make use of the new opportunities. It's going to be a learning experience for me, as well, and a chance to develop myself.

I don't have any personal long-range plans. I've described this to friends as a leap of faith or a leap in the dark.

Comments

[Mayank Chhaya]

Hi Arul

Congratulations on your exciting new project. It is gratifying that environment is no longer a fad pursued by society's rejects. Tarun mentioned the project to me. Do let me know if you need any help.

Cheers

Mayank Chhaya