The Media Project is raising the quality and quantity of environmental reporting in Israel, through an integrated series of initiatives to engage key journalists in the sustainability agenda and issues.
For the fifth year, The Pratt Prize for Environmental Journalism was awarded in 2009, as we continue to encourage and award quality journalism which enlarges the public's understanding of sustainability issues, and the link between social, economic and ecological concerns.
This past year the Media Project undertook a new direction. We have begun composing a series of papers around which we will plan events to promote some chosen issues and their framing in the media and in wider public opinion. We have chosen two main issues to work on for the next few months. The first is sustainable food, which was combined with our Sustainable Food Tour (run in conjunction with Hazon), and our First Annual Israeli Conference on Sustainable Food, to form a broader initiative to take what has become one of the worlds newest cutting edge issues, and bring it to the Israeli press and public. The second is about the rise of the community as a social unit that can transform people's lives, socially, environmentally and economically, with particular reference to the issue of climate change
The Media Project also runs an annual senior journalist seminar on sustainability. This past year our workshop focused on Arab journalists, encouraging reporting on the link between environment and social justice issues. A bi-weekly electronic newsletter is also distributed summarizing in Hebrew key articles on sustainability from the world media.
Read more about the Pratt Prize and the winners for 2009. [1]
Nitzan Horowitz (journalist)
(see the video below to learn more about the Media Project)
Profile of a Media Project Participant
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Environmental Fellows Program [2]Leonardo Dicaprio [3] is at the forefront of the fight against global warming. Al Gore's film An Inconvenient Truth has transformed global environmental awareness, in particular to the climate crisis. Melissa Etheridge's theme song [4] for the movie won the 2007 Oscar for best song. Following the film, Al Gore initiated the worldwide Live Earth event [5] watched by Billions around the world.
In Israel, celebrity involvement in environmental issues is still in its infancy and based on artists' individual environmental interests. The Heschel Center's newly formed Artists Forum for Environment and Sustainability brings together performers from film, television, theater and popular music who are interested in creating environmental activism using the tools and language with which they are comfortable. The group is the main address for Israeli performers wishing to learn and act on issues of environment and sustainability.
Among the group's members: actors Shai Avivi, Yarden Bar Cochva, Leon Rozenberg, Amnon Woolf, Rikki Blich, Yuval Abramovitz; radio and TV presenters Avri Gilad, Meirav Michaeli, Dalik Volinitz, Noam Schneider; singer-songwriters Sharon Kantor, Muki, Dan Toren, Sha'anan Streett; writers Efrat Roman Asher, Shlomo Krauss and others.
The group meets monthly for discussion, decisions on activity and study with experts and public figures on various aspects of the social-environmental crisis, and also organizes different events to expand its membership base and to promote the social-environmental discourse among other artists. In April 2007, a weekend seminar took place to impact the incorporation of environmental and sustainability content into the media. As a consequence a large number of issues have been advanced in the media by the group's members, such as two permanent spots with Rikki Blich and Dalik Volinovitz [6] on Avri Gilad's breakfast television show. The group also works to influence decision-makers, approaching Knesset (parliament) members and decision-makers in order to influence the agenda.
The Media Project is generously funded by The Pratt Foundation [7].
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