Allen drew on his work at the Knight Center for Specialized Journalism at Maryland for inspiration. But he added a twist to the Knight Center model of a crash immersion course, where experts are brought to speak to journalists. Participants ride buses around various parts of the country for eight days at a time, sharing hotel rooms, camping out, immersing themselves in regional environmental issues, and meeting potential sources. IJNR currently operates six regional institutes. We outline the fundamentals and the dimensions of the issue and trot out an array of sources that may be useful for follow-ups.
Participants come from radio, television, magazine and newspaper newsrooms across the country.
Allen uses his extensive connections to recruit, and the program is highly competitive. We're moving up the ranks and bringing in more assignment editors and the occasional managing editor. Recently, IJNR has opened up its institutes to new reporters and journalism students. One measure of the program's success is the number of stories participants file when they return to work. As examples of success, Allen points to a Salem, Oregon, paper's coverage of the environmental impacts of agriculture in the Willamette Valley and a Baton Rouge paper's decision to tackle water-quality issues in southern Louisiana.