About

Welcome to OZoneNYU – a blog composed by NYU environmental journalism students during their course in Sydney.

We are exploring the following questions:

• What are the ‘big issues’ in the environmental conversation in Australia?
• How do these issues translate to our students’ own regional experience in the USA?
• How do we engage in a new media environment as cultural producers?
• How does our ease of production / technical engagement affect mainstream news media?
• How can literary journalism help us to think about the environment in Australia and the world?

During our course, each student will write one blog post about their presentation during the session, another blog post about key topics that have come up during their week of media monitoring – and may add a third or fourth post with a news or feature story they have written.

Presentation topics include history of the Australian environment movement; feral invaders (cane toads, rabbits and lantana, among others); urban sprawl and the NIMBY factor; landclearing and forest protection; water, rivers and dryland salinity; mining, climate change and the big picture; oceasn, reefs – and rising sea levels; uncovering dodgy science; and global issues that result in local stories.

Our blog started in Sep 2012 in the Fall 2012 Session – the opening semester at NYU Sydney – and is now in its fourth semester, Fall 2014, with a new group of students.

We’ve got some exciting field trips planned, including a visit to Wolli Creek and the Sydney Institute of Marine Science.

Join us on our journey!