Here’s a list of current media and journalism fellowship programs, including the deadlines for applying. If we’re missing any major programs, or you would like your program to be in the featured fellowship slot, please contact Mark Glaser at mark [at] mediashift [dot] org to let us know, and we’ll add them to the list. All featured fellowships are paid promotional slots.
FEATURED FELLOWSHIP
John S. Knight Journalism Fellowships at Stanford
Stanford, CA
The Knight Journalism Fellowship is a 10-month-long residency at Stanford University aimed at implementing and improving on innovative ideas in collaboration with a group of journalists from around the world.
Deadline: Dec. 1, 2015
Apply now!
OCTOBER 2015 DEADLINES
Fulbright – National Geographic Digital Storytelling Fellowship
Various locations
Fellows participate in an academic year of overseas travel and digital storytelling in up to three countries on a globally significant social or environmental topic.
Deadline: Oct. 13, 2015
Editorial Position With GroundTruth’s Climate Change Fellowship
GroundTruth is also seeking experienced editors to lead the project. Editors must have at least three years experience reporting and editing, preferably with a focus on the environment.To apply as an editor, please send an updated resume and cover letter to [email protected] with the subject line “Climate Fellowship Editor Application.”
Deadline: Oct. 15, 2015
Tow-Knight Entrepreneurial Journalism Fellowship
Join the Tow-Knight Entrepreneurial Journalism Program at the CUNY Graduate School of Journalism and spend Spring 2016 launching a journalism startup and studying new business models for journalism. During their semester, fellows have conversations with media leaders and entrepreneurs in guest lectures, workshops and product sprints. Weekly startup visits have included Twitter, Facebook, Google, Kickstarter, BuzzFeed, IDEO, NYTimes, among others organizations in New York’s rich and diverse publishing and tech community.
Deadline: Oct. 15, 2015
Reynolds Business Journalism Week
Twenty-four participants will be competitively selected for four days of training on where to find economic angles in stories, how to cover money on any beat and the nuances of covering business and finance. This year’s conference will include sessions on incorporating economic and census data into stories, building business investigations and covering business in your community. Special topics are tentatively slated to include campaign finance, the money in sports, the economics of immigration and the business of marijuana.
Deadline: Oct. 18, 2015
HIV Prevention Reporting Fellowship
This opportunity is sponsored by ICFJ and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and is aimed at better equipping journalists with the knowledge and skills to report on Voluntary Medical Male Circumcision (VMMC), and its implementation as an HIV prevention method. Journalists from Botswana, Ethiopia, Kenya, Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, Rwanda, South Africa, Swaziland, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe are encouraged to apply for this fellowship. Applicants are asked to submit proposed story ideas/reporting projects related to VMMC, with the understanding that the fellowship will help prepare selected applicants for reporting on the topic.
Deadline: Oct. 19, 2015
Soros Justice Fellowship
The Soros Justice Fellowships fund outstanding individuals to undertake projects that advance reform, spur debate, and catalyze change on a range of issues facing the U.S. criminal justice system. The Fellowships Program is part of a larger effort within the Open Society Foundations’ Justice Fund to reduce the destructive impact of current criminal justice policies on the lives of individuals, families, and communities in the U.S. by challenging the overreliance on incarceration and extreme punishment, and ensuring a fair and accountable system of justice. Fellows receive funding ($58,700–$110,250) through the following two categories: Advocacy Fellowships or Media Fellowships.
Deadline: Oct. 21, 2015
Atlantic Media Editorial Fellowship
Washington, D.C.
The year-long Atlantic Media fellowships are for recent college graduates who want to work in a digital-first newsroom. The editorial fellowship will begin in January 2016 and run through December 2016. Editorial Fellowship responsibilities may include the following, blogging, copy editing, fact checking, manuscript review, multimedia editing, photo research, reporting, social media, video, writing.
Deadline: Oct. 23, 2015
Knight Visiting Nieman Fellowship
Cambridge
The Knight Visiting Nieman Fellowships at Harvard offer short-term research opportunities to individuals interested in working on special projects designed to advance journalism in some new way. In addition to working journalists, those who should consider applying include publishers, programmers, designers, media analysts, academics and others interested in enhancing quality, building new business models or designing programs to improve journalism. Project proposals may be completed during the time spent at Harvard or be part of a larger undertaking. All visiting fellows are expected to be in residence in Cambridge during their study and present their findings to the Nieman community at the end of their research period. There are no academic prerequisites, and a college degree is not required.
Deadline: Oct. 23, 2015
NOVEMBER 2015 DEADLINES
AHCJ Reporting Fellowship on Healthcare Performance
This fellowship sponsored by the Association of Health Care Journalists is a yearlong program allowing journalists to pursue a significant reporting project related to the U.S. health care system. It can be local or national in scope, or a little of both. Fellows pursue the projects with the support of their newsrooms or freelance outlets, which commit to publish or air the work.
Fall Deadline: Nov. 2, 2015
A Digital Path to Entrepreneurship and Innovation for Latin America
This 18-month, multi-phase program is for 28 Latin American professional fellows from Brazil, Colombia, Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua, and 10 of their U.S. counterparts. The International Center for Journalists (ICFJ) and its selected partner organizations in each country will recruit professional and citizen journalists, media business managers, digital entrepreneurs and technologists to create media business models that harness the power of digital tools to generate sustainable new revenue. Applicants must be fluent in English.
Fall Deadline: Nov. 15, 2015
Fund For Environmental Journalism
The Society of Environmental Journalist’s Fund for Environmental Journalism welcomes applications for grants of up to $5,000 to underwrite story projects. In 2015 grant cycles, funding is available for story projects in three categories: 1) open topic, including international; 2) coverage of land-use issues of North America; and 3) coverage of biodiversity conservation and climate-change impacts in North America. For the first time, applicants may also include a stipend in the proposed budget.
Fall Deadline: Nov. 15, 2015
The McGraw Fellowship for Business Journalism
This non-residency fellowship provides experienced journalists with grants of up to $15,000 to produce deeply reported investigative or enterprise stories on critical topics related to U.S. business and the economy.
Fall Deadline: Nov. 15, 2015
IN PROGRESS OR FUTURE FELLOWSHIPS
Alexia Foundation Grant Program
Various locations
The Alexia Foundation provides grants of $25,000 to students, professionals and women for a serious documentary photographic projects. Deadlines for this year are closed.
Associated Press Global News Internship Program
Various locations
This paid internship program is for students who are aspiring cross-format journalists and will contribute to AP’s text, video, photo and interactive reporting. The application period for the 2015 internship is closed. Questions may be emailed to [email protected].
Bay Area Video Coalition Mediamaker Fellowship
San Francisco, CA
The fellowship selects fellows for a 10-month program that supports project development with professional mentorship in multiplatform and transmedia storytelling through emerging technologies and strategic marketing.
Data & Society Fellow
New York City
The fellowship brings together researchers, entrepreneurs, activists, policy creators, journalists and public intellectuals who are interested in engaging one another on the key issues introduced by the increasing availability of data in society.
Donald W. Reynolds Fellowships
Columbia, MO or remote
The fellowship offers an annual program for individuals to develop innovative ideas within journalism and to help build the public’s knowledge in these areas.
Edward R. Murrow Press Fellowship
New York City
The fellowship offers one fellow a nine-month period of writing, reporting and providing analysis on newsworthy international events at the Council on Foreign Relations headquarters. Interested candidates who meet the program’s eligibility requirements can apply online between January 1 and March 1 on an annual basis.
FASPE Summer Ethics Fellowship in Journalism
Europe
FASPE Journalism uses the conduct of reporters and other media professionals during the Holocaust and in Nazi Germany as a launching point for an intensive course of study on contemporary journalism ethics. FASPE is predicated upon the power of place. Fellows visit Auschwitz and other sites in Germany and Poland where they consider how to apply the lessons of history to the ethical challenges of their profession today.
Deadline: Jan. 5, 2016
Fellowship in Professional Journalism for Morning News Journalists
Dallas, TX
The fellow will contribute to the student-generated news website at the University of Texas at Austin Moody College of Communication as well as teach a course in her own expertise.
Google Journalism Fellowships
Various locations
The fellowship is for undergraduate, graduate and journalism students interested in using technology to tell stories in new and dynamic ways at various organizations.
Innovation in Development Reporting Grant Programme (IDR)
The Innovation in Development Reporting Grant Programme (IDR) is a media-funding project operated by the European Journalism Centre (EJC). The grant programme aims to advance creative reporting approaches, thus enabling a better coverage of international development issues. The grant intends to raise awareness about these issues by enabling the production of stories that have a strong impact on media audiences in the following nine European countries: Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Spain, Sweden, and the United Kingdom.
Deadline: Mar. 2, 2016
International Reporting Fellowship for Minority Journalists
Various locations
This short-term program allows journalists of color the chance to travel overseas to report on and publish stories about underreported issues of interest to their communities.
Joan Shorenstein Fellowship
Cambridge, MA
The fellowship brings journalists, policymakers and scholars together to the Harvard Kennedy School to advance research in media, politics and public policy.
Deadline: Feb. 1, 2016
Knight-Mozilla Fellowship
Various locations
Fellows spend 10 months embedded with partner newsrooms, such as the New York Times and ProPublica. Fellows are developers, technologists, civic hackers and data crunchers who work with the community inside and outside of their newsroom to develop open-source projects.
Knight Science Journalism Fellowship
Cambridge, MA
The nine-month Knight Science Journalism Fellowship at MIT aims to increase mid-career journalists’ understanding of science, technology, medicine and environment by working with scientists and policy makers.
Knight-Wallace Fellowship
Ann Arbor, MI
The Knight-Wallace Fellowship brings journalists to the University of Michigan to bridge academia together with journalism.
Kyoto Prize Journalism Fellowship
San Diego, CA
The Kyoto Prize Journalism Fellowship at Point Loma Nazarene University is an initiative to develop modern education in the sciences, philosophy, society and the arts.
Meredith-Cronkite Fellowship
Phoenix, AZ
The week-long multimedia fellowship program sponsored by the Meredith Corporation and its Phoenix television station, KPHO CBS 5, offers broadcast journalism students from underrepresented groups a week of hands-on experience.
Metpro Tribune
Los Angeles or Chicago
Metpro helps beginning journalists launch careers and boost diversity in Tribune newsrooms.
MJ Bear Fellowship
Through the Online News Association, the MJ Bear Fellowships identify and celebrate early-career digital journalists who have demonstrated that they deserve support for their efforts.
Munk School of Global Affairs Global Journalism Fellowship
Toronto, Canada
This fellowship awards 20 fellows the chance to work at the University of Toronto’s Munk School of Global Affairs for media around the world in various platforms from broadcast to online.
National Geographic Photography Fellowship
Various locations
The two-year fellowship allows photographers to share their visual expertise with diverse areas of the National Geographic Society and with the public, producing stories, sharing their storytelling knowledge with other explorers, and bringing the Society’s mission to illuminate, teach, and inspire the world at large.
Nieman Fellowships
Cambridge, MA
Nieman Fellowships are for experienced print, broadcast and online journalists to advance ideas that innovate in journalism.
Deadline: Jan. 2016
Nieman-Berkman Fellowship in Journalism Innovation
Cambridge, MA
The fellowship brings at least one individual to Harvard University for an academic year to work on a specific project relating to journalism innovation.
Reuters Journalism Fellowship Programme
Oxford, UK
This fellowship allows 25 mid-career journalists from around the world to conduct academic research in Oxford for various months in the academic year.
RJI Fellowships
Missouri School of Journalism and Elsewhere
The Donald W. Reynolds Journalism Institute invites proposals from people and institutions to collaborate with RJI on innovative ideas and projects to improve the practice or understanding of journalism. The fellows program gives people and institutions the time and space to create, test and measure strategies, products and services that will strengthen journalism in the 21st Century. There are three types of RJI fellowships: residential, non-residential and institutional.
Santa Fe Institute’s Journalism Fellowship In Complex Systems
Santa Fe, NM
The fellowship is for veteran journalists interested in exploring complex systems science more deeply and understanding the issues underlying current scientific debates in many scientific fields. The 2015 application period for this fellowship is postponed.
Scripps Howard Foundation Multimedia Fellowship
Washington DC
This year-long fellowship allows post-graduates to create multimedia projects for the Scripps Howard Foundation Wire’s website as well as mentor undergraduate students. Next year’s application deadline is in April.
The Rosalynn Carter Fellowships for Mental Health Journalism
Atlanta, GA
The one-year fellowship is offered to six journalists and is designed to enhance public understanding of mental health issues and combat stigma and discrimination against people with mental illness.
Deadline: Apr. 13, 2016
World Press Institute Fellowship
Various locations
The fellowship is offered to 10 journalists from around the world and provides immersion into governance, politics, business, media, journalistic ethics and culture of the United States.
UPDATE: This piece has been updated to include the Tow-Knight Fellowship at CUNY.
Sonia Paul is a freelance journalist based in India, and is the editorial assistant at MediaShift. Her work has appeared in a broad range of media, including the Al Jazeera Media Network, Caravan, Foreign Policy, Guardian, Mashable, New York Times, PRI’s The World, Roads & Kingdoms and VICE News. She previously produced the grant-funded podcast series Shizuoka Speaks, based in Japan. She is on Twitter @sonipaul (and Instagram, too).
