|
Daniel Grossman
wbur.org
"Fantastic
Forests: The Balance Between Nature & People of
Madagascar" 3 June 2005
The judges were impressed by the lively quality of
Grossman's work, which looks at the struggle to preserve
biodiversity in Madagascar, an African island smaller
than Texas but home to a prodigious diversity of fauna
and flora more varied than that of all of North America.
Grossman introduces online visitors to a rich catalogue
of critters, including the fossa, a remarkable predator
that looks like a cross between a cat and a dog and
loves to snack on lemurs, the tree-dwelling primates
for which Madagascar is famous.
Diedtra Henderson of the Boston Globe said Grossman
gives "a clear sense of discovery, wonder and excitement"
in his reporting, including "captivating details
and a nice use of audio, visual and written story telling."
Grossman's reporting from the jungles of Madagascar
includes compelling video interviews with working scientists.
Jody Brannon, the executive producer for news at USA
Today.com, said Grossman's entry is "richly interactive,
with important research that makes learning fun."
Grossman, a AAAS prize winner for the second time,
said he chose Madagascar as a venue for his reporting
after previous trips to Antarctica and Greenland. "I
decided I wanted to go to a more tropical place,"
he said. Grossman, who has developed his multimedia
toolkit during his travels, did two video interviews
with each subject in Madagascar in addition to the interviews
for his online text stories.
|
