Wednesday, November 18, 2009

Murdoch students take front row seat at Copenhagen


by Carmelo Amalfi
MURDOCH University journalism students will attend the 2009 UN climate change conference in Copenhagen next month.
Producing and publishing stories, images, blogs and vlogs from the Danish capital, the Murdoch team will be the eyes and ears for Western Australian readers via the PerthNow website at www.news.com.au/perthnow and Murdoch homepage at www.murdoch.edu.au.
Murdoch and Danish media staff and students will join up to 15,000 officials, world leaders and media from nearly 200 countries, including Australia, from December 7 to 18.
Described as the biggest environmental conference on the planet, the COP15, or Conference Of The Parties, is the 15th climate change conference held within the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change.
Students Katie Day, Matt Whitby and Ben O’Halloran will report from the conference under the supervision of journalism lecturer and WA science and environment writer Carmelo Amalfi.
Day and Whitby have spent the semester at the prestigious Danish School of Media as part of the Global Environmental Initiative between a number of Australian and European universities. Funded by the European Union and Australian Government, the three-year journalism initiative is designed to improve the reporting of complex issues such as climate change.
“This is a great opportunity for the journalism students and for Murdoch University,” journalism program chair Johan Lidberg said. “It will be a once in a lifetime experience.”
Dr Lidberg, who teaches investigative journalism at Murdoch, will blog during the conference.
“We’ve seen political leaders trying to lower expectations on the outcomes from the conference,” Dr Lidberg said. “It’s important that media coverage does not play along with this.
“Accountability for achieving concrete results at the conference is paramount. In a way you, could say that human kind’s common commitment to the environment is on trial in Copenhagen.”