Powering a Nation: Coal - A Love Story

"We're in a love affair with coal right now because of the way we live. It's a twisted love affair: we depend on it for everything that we do, but at the same time it's killing us." One of the interviewees expresses precisely the central point of the multimedia report , made as part of the "Powering a Nation" project at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Within the context of the Carnegie-Knight Initiative on the Future of Journalism Education, the students here are looking for a shift away from traditional journalism. is an extensively researched investigation of the ways in which coal, responsible for more than 45% of U.S. energy production, affects the daily lives of various people. A miner talks about the explosion that he narrowly escaped but that killed several of his co-workers. A young blond who won the "Miss Coal" pageant defends the energy source at all costs. And a teenager named Luis protests against the coal plant that borders his neighborhood: "If teens can do it, then the adults can do it." The collection of videos, infographics and interactive elements form a running story, but the various elements can also be watched separately.