'Reporting Chile'  offers
a look at globalization

Chile

By Chelsea De Weese
J-School Web Reporter

This winter 18 University of Montana journalism students will travel to South America for two weeks to report on the environmental impact of the Free Trade Agreement between the United States and Chile.

A Wintersession course offered within UM’s School of Journalism, called Reporting Chile, will take students to the Santiago, Vina del Mar, Valparaiso, Puerto Montt, Coyhaique and Patagonia regions of Chile. Students will be there Jan. 3-15.

“Our goal is to allow students to travel to someplace they’ve never been, identify story ideas … and then publish work as a direct result of their insights and observations,” said Jeff Hull, a freelance writer who’s teaching the course.

Hull, who has published stories in magazines including Outside and National Geographic Traveler, has taught writing classes for the J-school and the English department. He will be co-teaching this class with David Aronofsky, UM’s legal counsel, and Ronni Flannery, a public interest environmental attorney.

The J-school students — from the print, photography and broadcast departments — will be joined by business and law students studying public policy in Chile. The students will hear guest lecturers from the Chilean government, universities, media outlets, international companies and a variety of non-government organizations. They will use these resources and other research to document Chilean issues with globalization resulting from free trade.

“Globalization is a powerful force in today’s world,” Hull said. “We (want) to lead students into an exploration of something that affects their lives and the lives of millions of people that they may not otherwise spend a lot of their time thinking about.”

The course is worth three credits. Tuition, boarding and travel expenses are approximately $3,500. Registration for the course is closed at this point.

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