Our 2011 Fellows present a Powering A Nation special report, "Coal: A Love Story" (coalalovestory.com).

"Coal: A Love Story" explores our modern culture’s complicated relationship with coal. Almost half of the nation's electricity is generated from the burning of coal. Despite the fact that we rely on electricity for nearly everything we do, few of us are aware of how it is generated. Whether we like it or not, we are in a complicated relationship with coal for the foreseeable future.

The purpose of this project is to start a conversation about our multi-faceted relationship with coal through personalized video stories, written pieces and graphics.

"Coal: A Love Story" is a groundbreaking multimedia report that represents a shift away from traditional journalism. Utilizing an immersive online experience, the website challenges the viewer to engage with energy issues in a highly personalized way.

Powering a Nation is a multimedia news project at UNC-Chapel Hill that is part of News21, a national initiative sponsored by the Carnegie and Knight foundations to innovate the news business. The team is made up of 11 students who are attending or have just graduated from the School of Journalism and Mass Communication at UNC.