2014 Atlantic Journalism Awards Finalists
Attachments
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Short explanation of the story and how it developed: Betting the Fish Farm By Chris Benjamin Within the past three years a storm of controversy (that has been raging in Europe for decades) erupted over the expansion of marine open marine pen aquaculture of Atlantic salmon into Nova Scotia without any buy-in from the communities to be impacted. The highly profitable salmon aquaculture industry unleashed its public relations juggernaut upon politicians and the general public while the major daily newspaper in Nova Scotia provided distressingly lop-sided coverage, siding very clearly with the industry. In the interests of journalistic balance and public edification, Saltscapes sought to even the playing field. While the open pen industry, heavily subsidized with public money, vigorously claimed ecologically sustainable land-based commercial salmon rearing facilities are not economically viable… The fact (virtually unreported by local media) is that land-based operations are opening up internationally, and one of the leaders in the field is operating right here in Nova Scotia. We assigned local writer Chris Benjamin to the job with only a smattering of general background information and some research suggestions. Within days, he was sold: the article was submitted—and only days later the story completely changed. Disaster struck the operation and 100 per cent of the fish were lost. Then followed a challenging salvage job whereby the article had to be almost completely rewritten for context, tone and the addition of a new chapter in the story. No mean feat on a very short deadline. The result was a detailed piece requiring many, many hours of online and live research before typing a single word. Our intent was simply to present, before the public, those facts and figures and science-based realities that were, in our observation, distressingly absent from daily coverage of the issue. With the luxury of long deadlines and time for review and reflection, restoring balance is an important journalistic function periodical magazines can perform well. |
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Resources of the newsroom (money and time) available to complete the story: |
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