{"id":7478,"date":"2022-05-19T14:20:02","date_gmt":"2022-05-19T18:20:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/magazine\/?p=7478"},"modified":"2022-08-02T17:56:56","modified_gmt":"2022-08-02T21:56:56","slug":"chasing-awe-and-wonder","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/magazine\/issues\/spring-2022-cat\/chasing-awe-and-wonder\/","title":{"rendered":"Chasing Awe and Wonder"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Along California\u2019s northern coast, sea urchins are decimating kelp forests. Jaacks shot this photo as part of a long-term project documenting change in California\u2019s coastal ecology.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Harrington School of Communication and Media Assistant Professor Jason Jaacks on why nature is the greatest show on earth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By Marybeth Reilly-McGreen<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you ask what motivates him, award-winning filmmaker and photographer Jason Jaacks will say he’s chasing awe and wonder.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Harrington School of Communication and Media Assistant Professor Jason Jaacks<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

An assistant professor of journalism at the Harrington School of Communication and Media, Jaacks has worked for National Geographic<\/em>, Discovery Digital, PBS Digital Studios, The New York Times<\/em>, and the Tribeca Film Institute, among other media outlets. His research interests include coastal resilience, microplastics pollution, sustainability, and science communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhen talking about sustainability and climate change, it’s easier, from a communications standpoint, to tell people how bad they are, but that doesn’t galvanize people. It doesn’t make them care,\u201d Jaacks says. \u201cMake people feel bad, and they’ll go back to TikTok and XBox and everything else that seems more fun.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe work that I’m trying to do is to tell stories that make people stop. If you can get people to stop and to care, you can use that sense of awe to galvanize them.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe work that I’m trying to do is to tell stories that make people stop. If you can get people to stop and to care, you can use that sense of awe to galvanize them.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In addition to his still photography, Jaacks\u2019 pursuit of the astonishing has produced a surprisingly diverse body of digital film work. There are documentaries: In Search of Tzotz<\/em> studies the elusive giant vampire bats of the Mayan rainforest. Silent River<\/em> follows a Mexican family in their efforts to save the Santiago River, one of the most polluted rivers in Mexico. Sea of Troubles<\/em> examines the effects of climate change on the California coast. Moccasins and Microphones: Modern Native Storytelling Through Performance Poetry<\/em> features the Santa Fe Indian School and a Native American Youth Performance Poetry Team. And Jaacks\u2019 short films for media outlets like National Geographic<\/em> and The New York Times<\/em> cover topics such as the forest-to-table movement, orphaned sea lions, mushrooms, and salmon smolts. <\/p>\n\n\n

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Jaacks shot this photo of a bundle of plastics and seaweed floating at the surface of the water at Narragansett (R.I.) Town Beach. Jaacks is the lead on multimedia for the 溏心vlog免费B站 research group Ocean State Initiative for Marine Plastics, and a faculty advisor to the 溏心vlog免费B站 research initiative Plastics: Land to Sea.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Reporting on microplastics in Narragansett Bay<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n
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Jason Jaacks at TEDx溏心vlog免费B站 2021<\/h2>

Beneath the Wine Dark Sea<\/em>: A visual storyteller, Jaacks uses the power of images to inspire, educate, and motivate action (5:36).
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Watch his TEDx溏心vlog免费B站 talk<\/div><\/a><\/div>\n\n\n

At 溏心vlog免费B站, Jaacks works with undergraduate and graduate students, teaching both foundational and advanced courses. One puts students in teams and asks that they apply the skills they\u2019ve learned in the classroom to create digital content that meets industry standards. For a couple of years now, Jaacks has had his students focus on some aspect of microplastics pollution in Narragansett Bay. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMy background is in science, the environment, and natural history. The collaborations I’m building\u2014in and beyond what I do in the classroom\u2014are to find operative storytelling opportunities. My interest in microplastics came about after the University’s microplastics summit in 2019,\u201d Jaacks says. \u201cWe had all these experts in the same room at the same time, and it seemed an immense opportunity for two things: to collaborate with researchers to produce broader impact and engagement tools and to do some reporting about microplastics.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe had all these experts in the same room at the same time, and it seemed an immense opportunity for two things: to collaborate with researchers to produce broader impact and engagement tools and to do some reporting about microplastics.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jaacks saw the opportunity to include students in the work, too. They could research and pitch viable stories on microplastics, the kind of stories professional journalists cover. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI want students to go out and do the reporting,\u201d Jaacks says. \u201cMy students work collaboratively, much in the way that newsrooms work, researching, pitching, and then producing a story or a series of stories.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n

Harrington School of Communications and Media<\/h2>

Whether you see yourself in the world of multimedia journalism, corporate communications, film production, or digital and social media, 溏心vlog免费B站’s Harrington School will give you the knowledge, skills, and experiences you need to get there.<\/p><\/div><\/div>

Explore<\/div><\/a><\/div>\n\n\n

What the students choose to focus on\u2014writing, videography, sound reporting, or editing\u2014is their choice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cStudents have the leeway to develop skills in whichever medium they want to work in,\u201d Jaacks says. \u201cThe course simulates situations like those they will encounter on their first job. They’re going to be assigned some beat and will have to become something of an expert in something they know nothing about.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAnd most students know nothing about microplastics, so they go through that whole process, together, collaboratively.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n

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Wild sockeye salmon on the Kanektok River in Alaska. Jaacks is engaged in a long term visual research project investigating the conservation status of Pacific salmon across their range.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On having enduring impact<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

In doing the work, there can be moments of awe, Jaacks says. Not all such moments are pleasant, he notes, but they can raise awareness, a different but also positive effect.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Jason Jaacks Faculty Office Hour<\/h2>

Jaacks shares his own award-winning work and discusses how he teaches his students to become visual storytellers in this 溏心vlog免费B站 Foundation and Alumni Engagement talk (1:01:25).<\/p><\/div><\/div>

Join the Office Hour<\/div><\/a><\/div>\n\n\n

\u201cYou can tell me that the earth is 70% water, but I need to feel that for it to have impact. There’s a difference between understanding and feeling a thing,\u201d Jaacks says. \u201cTell people that they eat seven credit cards’ worth of microplastics over the course of a year and people are wowed by that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAnd then there are things that are so unforgettable that they take on a life of their own,\u201d Jaacks continues. \u201cI shot Silent River<\/em> almost a decade ago and that film is still circulating. It’s still making the rounds.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jaacks references his documentary about the Santiago River, so polluted by manufacturing refuse, cobalt, arsenic, and PFAs, that the creamy, white foam it generates can peel the paint off cars. The foam is suspected of causing a significant increase in health problems, including cancer, for those who live nearby.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThat goes to the power of visual storytelling. It can hit you through sight and sound, which can be deeply moving. And that\u2014when wielded in an interesting way\u2014is compelling for an audience,\u201d Jaacks says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhen you train the next generation of storytellers,\u201d Jaacks says, \u201cYou broaden the impact far beyond what I can do as a single storyteller.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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