Knight Fellowship Winners Take Innovation Projects to Stanford

Fellowship programs for journalists bring their recipients a certain amount of esteem. But the most obvious benefit of becoming a Fellow is getting the chance to explore ideas for a year outside the cubicle and inside the hallowed halls of a University with ample resources.

Twelve journalists and innovators will get that chance at Stanford University in the 2013-14 academic year, thanks to the John S. Knight Journalism Fellowships. The program announced the U.S. recipients this week.

meet the fellows

Umbreen Bhatti, co-founder, islawmix, Oakland, California.
Innovation proposal: A model for drawing on legal academic expertise to produce informed, relevant reporting.

Keli Dailey, staff writer, U-T San Diego, San Diego, California.
Innovation proposal: A platform to amplify the food beat using user-generated content.

Gus D’Angelo, game animator, TinyCo, San Francisco.
Innovation proposal: An open-source toolkit for producing and distributing interactive editorial cartoons for smartphones and tablets.

Tran Ha, editor, RedEye/MetroMix, Chicago Tribune Media Group, Chicago.
Innovation proposal: A digital pilot and toolkit to connect news organizations and millennials, the next generation of media consumers.

Andrew Losowsky, senior books editor, Huffington Post, New York.
Innovation proposal: A platform to create pop-up, need-based publications in crisis situations.

Shazna Nessa, former deputy managing editor, editorial products and innovations, Associated Press, New York.
Innovation proposal: Tools to help the public understand data visualizations and heighten visual literacy in news and media outlets.

Eric Ortiz, senior editor, new media, New England Sports Network, Cambridge, Massachusetts.
Innovation proposal: A free, live-blog platform optimized for smartphones and tablets.

Martin Quiroga, systems architect, Jana Inc., San Francisco.
Innovation proposal: A content-ranking platform that delivers highly relevant, personalized news content based on an algorithmic notion of authority.

Cindy Royal, associate professor, School of Journalism and Mass Communication, Texas State University, San Marcos, Texas.
Innovation proposal: An open-source, online training platform for teaching coding and data skills to journalists.

Alexa Schirtzinger, editor, Santa Fe Reporter, Santa Fe, New Mexico.
Innovation proposal: To use the innovative strengths and contemporary challenges of the modern alternative weekly newspaper as a platform for exploring new revenue models in local journalism.

Camille Seaman, photographer, Emeryville, California.
Innovation proposal: A website that applies indigenous perspectives and wisdom to current environmental stories and issues.

Danyel Smith, author and journalist, Brooklyn, New York.
Innovation proposal: A teaching platform that provides tools for journalists as they serve America’s new “normal” demographic.

the international fellows

They’ll be joining eight international journalists who were awarded John S. Knight Journalism Fellowships earlier this month.

Tayeb Afridi, radio development manager, Internews, Peshawar, Pakistan (Yahoo! International Fellow).
Innovation proposal: A radio news agency rooted in mobile technology to provide news to Pakistan’s tribal areas.

Aela Callan, freelance news correspondent, Yangon, Myanmar.
Innovation proposal: Developing an online platform for local and international media in Burma to strengthen press freedom.

Ana Maria Carrano, editorial projects chief, Cadena Capriles, Venezuela.
Innovation proposal: A audio-based collaborative website for Latin American topics.

Amie Ferris-Rotman, senior correspondent, Thomson Reuters, Kabul, Afghanistan (Lyle and Corrine Nelson International Fellow).
Innovation proposal: A sustainable platform of training, global networking and mentoring opportunities for female Afghan reporters.

Kennedy Jawoko, freelance journalist/adjunct lecturer, Toronto, Canada.
Innovation proposal: A portal that facilitates connections and helps incubate ideas among East African journalists.

Martin Kotynek, investigative editor, Die Zeit, Berlin, Germany.
Innovation proposal: Find new tools to make fact checking more open, collaborative, and credible.

Carlos Martinez de la Serna, health & data journalism/media consultant, CartoDB/Second Read, Madrid, Spain.
Innovation proposal: A platform to bring disruptive civic media tools and practices to Spanish-language health journalists.

Qian Kejin, editor/writer, Yangcheng Evening News, Guangzhou, China.
Innovation proposal: An online forum for journalists and academia to share ideas for improving journalism.

A number of former Knight fellows have gone on to create projects that have won grants from the Knight News Challenge. You can read about their projects here on Idea Lab. We also at times feature posts written by current Knight Fellows and originally posted to the blog for the Knight Fellowships at Stanford. You can read more of those here.

Desiree Everts is the associate editor for Idea Lab and PBS MediaShift. She’s dabbled in digital media for the past decade including stints at CNET News and Wired magazine.