Drilling for methane (hyped as “natural”) gas via high-volume slickwater hydraulic fracturing (“fracking”) in the Marcellus, Utica, and other shale formations is a dire threat to the water, air, soil, property values, infrastructure, and communities of our beautiful region, and to the short- and long-term health of our people, animals, and environment.

Yet the Big Gas/Big Oil industry is spending tens of millions of dollars to convince Congress, the executive branch, and the public that methane gas is a “safe, clean, homegrown bridge fuel to help take the country from dependence on foreign oil” and that fracking “poses no threat to our water supply.” They’ve got some very slick PR folks — and they’ve been pretty successful in perpetrating these falsehoods.

That’s partly because mainstream media, and even many self-proclaimed “progressive” media outlets and journalists, have bought their story hook, line, and sinker. Populist, popular alternative music shows accept sponsorship from the gas megacompanies that have been fined for contaminating Pennyslvania’s water, air, and soil.

To help fight these rich corporate propagandists, we need well-trained, ethical, responsible citizen journalists who will tell the true story and educate the public and representatives about the dangers of fracking. Citizen journalists know the audience — their friends, families, colleagues, neighbors, and local elected officials — in a way no mainstream media outlet can.

We have designed an intensive, eight-session course citizen journalism course specifically for antifracking activists working in our region — central, western, and northern New York and northern Pennsylvania.

Read more about the class to see if you’d like to participate. The first course, in Ithaca, runs Thursday evenings, September 23 to November 18. Subsequent classes are planned for Susquehanna County, Pennsylvania, and Cortland, Schuyler/Chemung, and Yates Counties, New York, and other counties as need and demand dictate.