Chris Clarke
As seen in:
90 Miles from Needles: the Desert Protection Podcast,
Medium,
The Guardian,
Memory Studies,
Business Wire,
Substack,
Taylor & Francis Online,
Lulu Press, Inc.,
Daily Mercury,
IrishCentral,
The Desert Sun (Palm Springs, CA)
and
Covers:
science, environment, sonoran desert, politics, endangered species, desert conservation, mojave desert, renewable energy, southern california, california
Doesn't Cover:
high-end tourism
The desert protection podcast, with Chris Clarke and Alicia Pike. Tweets signed CC=Chris, AP=Alicia. Unsigned tweets probably CC
Interview
What was your first job as a journalist?
I started out in 1989 as a volunteer writer for monthly newsletter of the Ecology Center in Berkeley, CA. Started as editor there in 1992.
Have you ever used a typewriter?
Yes, but I abandoned them for word processing in the early 1980s.
How is social media changing news?
Making it faster, more democratic, more prone to rumor
Who's your favorite fictional journalist?
Thomas Friedman.
What does it mean to be a journalist?
About what it means to be a dentist, only with words instead of teeth.
What's the funniest news-related #hashtag you've seen?
Don't recall.
How do you prefer to be pitched on stories?
Email is absolutely the only way I want pitches.
What tools and software do you use to do your job?
All of them. Social media, page layout, GIS, whatever the task calls for.
What's your favorite social network?
I don't really have favorites in most things. They each have advantages and flaws.
Who do you wish followed you?
More people I've never heard of. That long tail beats celebrity every time.
Why did you become a journalist?
I ask myself that every day.
Did you work for your high school newspaper? If so, what did you do there?
My high school didn't have a newspaper that I remember. Of course that was before you were born, so I may be forgetting.
What story are you most proud of writing or working on?
My ongoing work on the effects of renewable energy development on wildlife.
What advice can you offer to aspiring journalists?
Don't go to J school.
When's the best time to pitch you?
Any time by email.
Would you like to take the Muck Rack Interview?
Create a Muck Rack profile.