Read All About It: What's the News of the Salish Sea?
Archived video recording of this talk.
The Salish Sea is one body of water demarcated by an international border where loonies and toonies and dollars and cents are the respective coins of the realm. A common language is shared across the border but news seldom is. Both sides of this border have suffered from what writer William Dietrich describes in “Erosion in local news threatens democracy” as "news deserts" and "ghost papers," a collapse of traditional news reporting resulting from the loss of local media ownership and decimation of newsrooms. How does the decline of news reporting and news readership affect the public's understanding of transboundary issues, policies and decisions? How has “news” and its delivery been redefined? Is there a future for the news? What is “news” anyway?
About the Speaker
Mike Sato is the managing editor of Salish Current, a nonprofit, open access, local news platform serving the communities of Whatcom, San Juan and Skagit counties. He is also the curator of the weekday news blog, Salish Sea News and Weather. He is a graduate of Reed College, Portland, Oregon, and was editor of the Island Record and editor/publisher of the Seattle Sun. He has served as community relations manager for Seattle City Light, information officer for the Puget Sound Water Quality Authority, corporate communications director for Hawaiian Electric Company, and communications director for the advocacy organization People For Puget Sound. He is the author of The Price of Taming a River: The Green-Duwamish Waterways in Decline (Mountaineers Books, 1997). He resides in Bellingham and on Lopez Island.
Environmental Speaker Series
The Environmental Speaker Series is hosted by the College of the Environment at Western Washington University.
The Series is free and open to the public. Talks are held each Thursday at 4:30 pm in Academic Instructional Center West room 204 - AW-204. Talks will also be streamed via zoom. Register with the Alumni Association for the zoom link. Paid parking is available in lot C.
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