WUFT, public media for North Central Florida, publishes Project: Blue Ether, a multi-week series on water by University of Florida students. Led by award-winning environmental journalist and author, Cynthia Barnett, who is a visiting professor at the University of Florida College of Journalism and Communications (CJC), Project: Blue Ether is a reporting and engagement project exploring the stories and science of water in North Central Florida.
The name “Blue Ether” came from 18th century naturalist William Bartram, who described the springs around Gainesville as transparent and perfectly blue, bubbling up “from the blue ether of another world.” Today, those waters have lost flow and become murky due to pollution and groundwater over-pumping. Scientists and policymakers working to reverse the damage say their major challenge is that Floridians do not connect their above-ground actions to the water in the aquifer underfoot, which also supplies 90 percent of this state’s drinking water.
Project: Blue Ether set out to make those connections clear. Reported in a CJC's environmental journalism course and published over three months, the first stories introduced the audience to their water resources. The second month exposed systematic flaws, from the impact of private irrigation wells to that of industrial chicken farms. The final stories concentrated on solutions, even the role of churches in helping to build a new water ethic.
As an important aspect to this project, supported by the Online News Association, students in another course, Public Interest Communications, embarked on an extensive public-engagement campaign for Project: Blue Ether. This included in-person tabling in some of highest water-use communities and social-media marketing and analysis to push the content to new audiences. As Gainesville and the entire Alachua County in Florida gear up for a community wide water-awareness project, the professors hope to make Project: Blue Ether a centerpiece of the discussion.
Barnett hopes that this project showcases the potential for strengthening traditional public-service journalism with new forms of storytelling and audience engagement, helping to build community around solutions.
On July 22, Project: Blue Ether was awarded the James Batten Award for Public Service by the Society for Public Journalists (SPJ) Florida at the 23rd annual Sunshine State Awards.
For more information on Project: Blue Ether, visit the program website.