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EQC award offers opportunity for indepth natural hazards resilience journalism

An Earthquake Commission (EQC) award giving journalists a chance to do indepth investigation on New Zealand’s natural hazards, and how we can build resilience, features in the latest round of Aotearoa New Zealand Science Journalism Fund awards.

With natural hazards like earthquakes, volcanoes, floods, tsunami and land slips being part of life in Aotearoa/New Zealand, journalists can play a key role in giving communities and homeowners the understanding they need to make decisions about how to manage their risks, says Dr Jo Horrocks, EQC’s Head of Resilience and Research.

“We often see news that an earthquake or flood has happened, but almost nothing about the natural hazard science behind it, or how New Zealanders can limit the effects on people and property. That’s because natural hazards resilience is a complex field involving science, economics and an understanding of how people and communities make decisions about risk. However, we know through EQC’s resilience and research work that there is a lot homeowners and communities can do to manage natural hazard risk.

“Media reporting is an important way to pass information on, but there is huge time pressure on journalists nowadays. We know it’s very hard for them to be able do indepth reporting, particularly in the natural hazards area.

“Through our journalism award, we’re offering journalists an opportunity to have the time it takes to do an indepth piece on a really important subject for New Zealand,” she says.

EQC’s award offers $5000 for projects focused on any aspect of natural hazard risk and resilience, including consumer, economic and science research areas. Applications close on 10 November. 

The Aotearoa Science Journalism Fund was established in 2017 to support coverage of science-related issues that impact New Zealanders.

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