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Photo by Jeremy Lacey

From left, student Becki Schildhouse talked with Cara Beth Jones of Concerned Citizens of Crawford County. Students were in the area covering the conflict between a biomass developer and local residents.

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Approximately 60 miles south of Bloomington, concerned citizens of Crawford County, Ind., are protesting a proposed biomass operation, a facility that would burn wood waste to generate electricity.

With a small town pitted against a power company and the involvement of public officials at the city, county and state level, Professor Emerita Carol Polsgrove decided the situation was an ideal reporting opportunity for the professional master’s students in her J501 Public Affairs Reporting summer course.

“There was a story sitting here waiting,” said Polsgrove, explaining that rural or small town stories are often overlooked and underreported. “People had organized to stop the biomass operation from coming in. I wanted students to go down there and talk to people about why they’re opposed to the biomass plant and look at the community organization effort.”

Then students posed questions to Liberty Green Renewables, an Indiana-based company that wants to build the plant, and Liberty Green responded with both general information and answers to specific questions.

Polsgrove first incorporated a travel component in the course in 2005 when she led students to cover the effects of Hurricane Katrina in Mississippi and Louisiana.

“That was such an intense reporting experience,” Polsgrove recalled. “It was also an intense human experience.”

From then on, Polsgrove has ensured that the course includes a project that “gets students out of the class and into the real world.”
“I like education that’s embedded in experience,” she said.

Photo by Jeremy Lacey

Polsgrove thought covering the biomass debate would give students a real-world taste of public affairs reporting.

So in May, Polsgrove, who has been reporting on energy issues since the 1970s, took the course’s four students to Milltown, Ind., where they talked with townspeople in their own setting. They talked to state senator and Milltown resident Richard Young, a couple who live next to the proposed plant site, and the woman organizing the resistance movement, among others. Those opposed to the biomass plant cite its potential to harm the Blue River, a popular recreation area that draws tourists to the area.

When planning the trip and the project, Polsgrove said she anticipated students creating print stories, but that shifted upon arrival.

“In the course of the day, I kept seeing students capturing photos, audio and video,” Polsgrove explained. “One townsperson even said, ‘Oh, those young people and their technology.’”

Courtesy photo

Student Jeremy Lacey interviewed people around Milltown about their thoughts on the biomass plant. The students have posted their multimedia projects to the class website.

Master’s student Jeremy Lacey was responsible for much of that multimedia footage, something that reflects his academic background and professional interests. He said the county’s scenic setting and natural resources, such as the Blue River, a popular canoeing destination, had a lot to do with people’s concerns over the plant, both in terms of its effects on tourism and its pollution. Using digital, video and audio recorders, Lacey hoped to capture some of that natural beauty.

“I wanted to show what it looks like now, what it is they’re fighting for,” said Lacey. “It was one thing to read in print that people are upset, but at some point, there are only so many words to describe it. I do believe that a picture is worth 1,000 words.”

Polsgrove said this was the first time students in one of her public affairs reporting courses have taken a multimedia approach to the public affairs reporting, but she says she was open to it.

“The course was small enough that I tried to make it conducive to what it was the students wanted to do,” said Polsgrove. “It’s not a writing course, it’s a reporting course.”

Not only did Lacey create a 90-second multimedia slideshow, he also designed a website to display students’ final projects in written and multimedia formats.

Polsgrove hopes the site will serve a larger purpose as well.

“I hope the website is a small contribution to the public’s awareness of what’s going on in southern Indiana,” she said.

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