Jamie Morton, a specialist in science and environmental reporting for New Zealand's Herald, has spent the last decade writing about everything from conservation and cosmology to climate change and COVID-19.
Jamie Morton, a specialist in science and environmental reporting for New Zealand's Herald, has spent the last decade writing about everything from conservation and cosmology to climate change and COVID-19. He pursued a career in journalism from a young age, first studying media, then training under renowned tutor and journalist Jim Tucker in New Plymouth in 2004. After spending a year as a freelance writer for various Wellington newspapers, he joined the company in 2005, reporting on community newspapers in Hawke’s Bay. Following two years at the Wairarapa Times-Age, he had a year-long stint at the Bay of Plenty Times, covering health and local news. Jamie arrived at the New Zealand Herald in 2011, first working as a Tauranga-based branch reporter who covered breaking news and major stories from Coromandel to Taupo. His introduction to science and environment reporting was covering the Rena disaster in 2011: hearing experts calmly communicate science to a public furiously demanding answers left a deep impression. He took over the science and environment round soon after: and has spent the last decade writing about everything from conservation and cosmology to climate change and Covid-19. Highlights have included covering two major volcanic eruptions (2012 and 2019); the Kaikoura Earthquake (2018); travelling to disaster zones in the US, China and Japan (2013); the UN climate conference in Paris (2015); the Square Kilometre Array telescope in Western Australia (2014); and reporting from Antarctica (2016 and 2019). He's also contributed to two books and a UN desk guide for reporting on climate change, and won several major awards for his reporting: including science reporter of the year in 2013, 2016, 2022 and 2023. Over the past few years, he's been heavily focused on the Covid-19 pandemic, while raising a young family in his native Taranaki. Jamie can be contacted at jamie.morton@nzherald.co.nz.
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