George Washington University’s School of Media and Public Affairs (SMPA) has announced that the new Ted Turner Assistant Professor of Environmental Media will be Eli Kintisch, a science journalist and video producer who has dedicated his career to telling stories about the climate crisis.
The endowed position was created to honor media pioneer, conservationist and philanthropist Ted Turner. The Ted Turner Endowment has raised $3.2 million, spurred by a $500,000 gift from CNN, to establish the professorship and support events and activities around environmental journalism.
The gift will ensure the next generation of leaders from SMPA can use storytelling to rise to the critical challenge of climate change.
Kintisch, who has covered climate change and policy for both digital and print publications, said he is thrilled to work in a role that will allow him to help train environmental storytellers early in their careers.
Kintisch started in journalism as a print reporter at newspapers and moved on to write for Science magazine and other publications, including the MIT Tech Review, The Washington Post and Slate. He started moving into video while working as a producer at PBS NewsHour and then at Scripps News.
“My career shifted to focus on video, largely because I wanted to reach broader audiences,” Kintisch said. “Also, I fell in love with video as a dynamic, changing tool for journalists. And I was able to take the expertise and knowledge that I'd built up as a print reporter and continue to cover our changing climate through that lens.”
A goal throughout his career has been a willingness to experiment with new technology, including augmented reality, to find innovative ways to tell stories about the climate crisis.
While working at Science magazine, Kintisch helped launch the news blog called Science Insider. During his time at MIT as a recipient of the Knight Fellowship, Kintisch created an app called Looking Glass that used augmented reality to visualize sea level rise in the future.
He hopes to inspire his students to be innovative in their storytelling and expand on existing platforms. One of the classes he’s teaching in the spring is called Mobile Video for the Planet. Kintisch believes there is an opportunity to use popular platforms including TikTok, Instagram and YouTube shorts to reach wider audiences.
“In this class, students will be making TikToks and Instagram Reels about climate change and doing video journalism with these platforms to reach lots of viewers,” Kintisch said. “And I'm excited because the journalism on these platforms is in its infancy. And mobile video is at the phase that television was in the 1950s. And so as mobile video evolves, these students will be shaping the future of this medium.”
In the fall Kintisch will be teaching Introduction to Sustainability Communications and Climate Politics, Policy and Media.
The latter course will serve as a survey of the last four decades of environmental policy viewed through the lens of the media. Students will learn how the media has interpreted and even shaped environmental policy and the impact of climate change.
“Students will get to understand the role of the media in telling the story of how, as a planet, we are meeting, or struggling to meet, the challenges of climate change,” Kintisch said.
He believes with the impacts of climate change that are already being felt worldwide, it is more important than ever to tell these stories.
“The goal with this position is to both train the next generation of environmental storytellers in the classroom and help GW be a leader on environmental communication outside of the classroom,” Kintisch said.
Peter Loge, the director of SMPA, said that he is eager to have Kintisch join the GW community as the new endowed Ted Turner Professor of Environmental Media.
“SMPA is excited to have Eli. Eli studied biology and built a career as a science video producer and journalist,” Loge said. “Thanks to the generosity of Ted Turner and everyone who has supported this endowed position in his name, we are able to bring Eli's experience and expertise to our students and the GW community."
