Air pollution has a heavy impact on the Hispanic, Asian, African-American, and other minority communities in California. Our 2008 workshop, the third in a series, focused on pollution in the San Joaquin Valley. Coming in the wake of training workshops in Long Beach and Riverside, this program helped reporters and editors for ethnic media to bring their readers or audiences more information and a better understanding of the problem and potential solutions.

Curtis Moore, editor-publisher of Health & Clean Air Newsletter, Talli Nauman, diversity coordinator for the Society of Environmental Journalists, co-founder and co-director of the Mexico-based bilingual independent media project, “Journalism to Raise Environmental Awareness,” California air quality regulators, advocacy groups, industry and farm organization representatives, and veteran journalists spoke at the conference, led trainings and field trips on how to cover air quality.

From this program, journalists gained knowledge, information, contacts, and skills needed to cover air pollution stories professionally, including sources of pollutants, health risks posed by poor air quality, remedies proposed by activists and technocrats, and environmental justice issues.