7 Journalism Opportunities to Look Out For In May

Journalists and media professionals have the chance to apply to join a number Journalism training, Awards and Fellowship opportunities opened across the globe in various areas of interest with many more spread across the year 2015. We bring you highlight of 7 opportunities you can apply for in the month of May.
 

1. Getty Images Grants for Editorial Photography (GEP)

With the belief that photojournalism is an effective tool for telling compelling stories. Getty Images is to offering an opportunity to photojournalists pursuing projects of personal and journalistic significance through the GEP, which will provide five total grants of $10,000 each in 2015 to photojournalists. This will be awarded through Getty Image's annual application proposal process, with applications being accepted beginning April 1, 2015 and will require a 500 word summary of the project proposal, a short bio, and 20-25 images. Application deadline is May 13, 2015 at 11:59 p.m. GMT and here is how to apply.
Grants will be announced in September 2015.
Contact Getty Images with questions about the Grants for Editorial Photography and the application process at grants@gettyimages.com.

2. Earth Journalism Grants Fund

The Earth Journalism Network is making funds available to support the creation, growth, and capacity of journalism organizations focused on reporting the human dimensions of climate change. This intervention recognizes that those most vulnerable to climate impacts - often women, youth, and indigenous communities - typically have the least influence on how climate risks are responded to. Despite bearing the least responsibility for the conditions accelerating climate change, vulnerable and under-represented populations are often the people with the most at stake.

This grant opportunity therefore represents a challenge to journalists throughout the world to facilitate a responsive information ecosystem that more accurately and holistically reflects environmental challenges facing people across the planet.

This grant fund contains $50,000 USD and ideally will be allocated to 5 projects. While the average for each grant is approximately $10,000 USD, funding over the average will be made available to projects that demonstrates a critical need. The deadline for applications is May 15, 2015. Find more on application procedure here.

3. The McGraw Fellowship for Business Journalism

Typically, award grants of $5,000 a month for one to three months is provided; however in exceptional cases, longer grants based upon specific proposals are considered as well. The scheme is in search for applicants with a proven ability to report and execute a complex project in their proposed medium. 

The McGraw Fellowship for Business Journalism is open to anyone with at least five years professional experience in journalism. Freelance journalists, as well as reporters and editors currently working at a news organization, may apply. It is an initiative of the City University of New York Graduate School of Journalism to offer Fellowships to accomplished business journalists with an aim to support in-depth, ambitious coverage of critical issues related to the global economy and business.

Applications will be generally be accepted twice a year — in the spring and again in the fall.  The spring deadline for applications is May 15, 2015; the fall deadline is November 13, 2015. However, we will consider time-sensitive projects on a case-by-case basis outside of the deadline periods. Applicants should submit a well-focused story proposal of no more than three pages through the accompanying online form. If you have a project that you think might qualify, please contact: mcgrawcenter@journalism.cuny.edu or 646-758-7781.

4. Reuters Institute call for papers for journalism conference

The Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism at the University of Oxford is seeking abstracts of papers for possible presentation at its conference, ‘Negotiating Culture: integrating legacy and digital cultures in news media,’ October 28-30, 2015 in Oxford. The best papers will be considered for inclusion in a special issue of Digital Journalism (Taylor & Francis).

With the increasing importance of the Internet, social media, and mobile media for the distribution of news and information, news production practices has altered and is creating conflicts among journalistic values and norms, digital media values and norms, and various commercial and organizational imperatives. This conference explores the nature of those encounters and how newsrooms and news organizations are negotiating cultural differences and creating new hybrid cultures involving legacy and digital elements.

Abstracts of papers are sought on topics such as:

• value conflicts and creative tensions within digital newsrooms
• newsroom interactions with commercial and technology departments
• determining platform priorities for products and services
• managing differing cultures in the organisation

300-500 word abstracts outlining the topic, methodological and theoretical approach and empirical basis should be submitted by May 15 to Rasmus Kleis Nielsen, RISJ Director of Research, at rasmus.nielsen@politics.ox.ac.uk. Notification of selected abstracts will be made by June 26. Visit https://reutersinstitute.politics.ox.ac.uk/news/call-papers-conference-news-production-cultures for further details.

5. 2015 Global Health Reporting Contest

Journalists in Brazil, China, India, Russia and Sub-Saharan Africa have a chance to win a trip to the United States and cash prizes as part of regional competitions to recognize the best media coverage of maternal and child health and other urgent health matters such as Ebola and vaccination.

Stories focusing on these topics published, broadcast or posted online in Brazil, China, India, Russia and Africa between Dec. 1, 2014, and May 24, 2015, qualify for the contest. The deadline for submitting stories is May 24, 2015.

Six winners will receive a cash prize and a 10-day study tour to the United States. Contest topics may include:

• Reducing maternal, infant and child mortality.
• Reducing disease transmission from mother to child.
• Preventing malnutrition.
• Improving delivery of care and infrastructure for maternal and child health.
• Responses to the Ebola epidemic.
• Innovative approaches to delivery of vaccines.

Journalists employed by print, broadcast or online media in each country qualify. The contest is also open to affiliated freelance journalists. Submitted work must have appeared in a media outlet based in each region or distributed mainly in the region. Submissions may be made in English, French (Africa), Hindi (India), Mandarin/Cantonese (China), Portuguese (Brazil), Russian (Russia). Submissions in other languages must include an English translation. Applicants may submit more than one entry.

To apply for this program in English, click here.

6. Bloomberg Media Initiative Africa 

Bloomberg has collaborated with a consortium of pre-eminent journalism schools and top business schools across three key African markets to deliver a highly innovative, integrated and practical world-class executive training program that is firmly rooted in the African market realities. The program modules include The Media Landscape, Economics, finance and Accounting, Financial Journalism, Public Policy, Capital Markets and the practicalities of Data Analysis, Interpretation and Presentation.

This interactive and hands-on program aims to enhance the skills and knowledge of media professionals to better serve the public interest as a critical part of continental development and progress.

The Executive Training is being offered in South Africa, Nigeria and Kenya. Participating universities are:

South Africa	Gordon Institute of Business Science, GIBS
	Rhodes University School of Journalism
Nigeria	Pan Atlantic University, Lagos Business School
	University of Lagos, Department of Journalism and Mass Communication
Kenya	Strathmore Business School
	University of Nairobi, School of Journalism

The program and curriculum has been developed primarily for mid-career journalists, journalists with an interest in moving into financial journalism, financial professionals with an interest in financial journalism, government professionals responsible for public policy, communications and banking / financial portfolios, civil society and NGO professionals with a stake in communication of economic and financial data to the public.

Application deadline is May 29^th, 2015. Interested applicants, please apply here: http://www.gibs.co.za/bmia/.

7. Kurt Schork Memorial Fund

The Kurt Schork Memorial Fund exists to keep the world aware of the debt we owe to brave journalists who bring us news from dangerous places. Our annual Kurt Schork Awards in International Journalism uniquely honor the work of freelance journalists and of local reporters in developing countries or nations in transition who often otherwise receive little recognition. Entrants have until midnight (GMT) on May 31 to submit three separate stories.

Local reporters and freelance journalists working anywhere in the world may enter, provided their entries meet the submission criteria set out below. You can use an online form to send your article(s) or download a .pdf form for printing, completing and posting with your entry.

2015 Submission criteria:

• Submitted articles must have been published between June 1, 2014 and May 31, 2015.
• Accepted media: any print-based medium, such as newspapers and magazines, or established online publications. Blogs, personal websites and social media pages or channels are not accepted.
• Articles can encompass war reporting, human rights issues, cross-border troubles, corruption or other controversial matters impacting on people’s lives. Judges will be looking for professionalism, high journalistic standards, and evidence of dedication and courage in obtaining the story.
• Three separate articles must be submitted
• Because of problems with scanned entries and failed links in previous years, we require that each article must be provided as a text file – MS Word (.doc or .docx) or similar text format (.rtf), or a PDF of a text file.
• You may supply a URL link to your article(s), or a scan (as a PDF or JPG file) as supporting evidence of the publication context, but your entry will be automatically disqualified if you do not also submit the required text files.

Additional material you must provide:

• a CV or resumé about your education and journalism career.
• a passport-type photo (JPEG, GIF or PNG file, size no larger than 250Kb).
• a high standard English translation if your original article is in another language.
• a short statement explaining what you had to do to get the story.

The maximum file size for text submissions or scans is 5Mb.

Download the .pdf form for postal submissions. Please print and fill out the form clearly and post it with required enclosures to:

2015 Kurt Schork Awards
c/o Context Graphics Limited
1 Savernake Court, Old Church Lane
Stanmore
Middlesex HA7 2RJ
United Kingdom

Visit http://penplusbytes.net/scholarships-fellowships-awards/ for more Opportunities and follow Penplusbytes via our website www.penplusbytes.org; social media platforms on Facebook, Twitter and Google+ and stay abreast with news and current developments in Journalism trends and opportunities.